(Author's note: With any of my random, abstract thoughts, you can't just "browse". You have to read all of it. They may appear to be rambling at first, but all of my postings are intended to take a person from point "a" to point "b".)
Nuradin Abdi was arrested this past week under allegations that he was planning to detonate an explosive device at an Ohio shopping mall. Abidi is a Somali National with ties to al Qaeda.
During a press conference to announce Abidi's capture, Attorney General John Ashcroft yet again announced that "Current credible intelligence indicates that al Qaeda wants to hit the United States, to hit the United States hard," Ashcroft said. "We know our enemies will go to great lengths to lie in wait and to achieve the death and destruction they desire if at all possible."
So the question that begs to asked, when does an individual stop being "vigilant yet prudent", and become a member of the "tinfoil cap" conspiracy theorist league?
Back in May, I had stumbled on two stories regarding Israeli nationals caught driving moving vans. In the first story, the nationals were caught attempting to enter a Naval base. During a routine search of the vehicle, the guard dogs had a "hit" for explosive material in the van. No explosive device was found. The two men were detained by the FBI and allegedly deported.
In the second instance, another moving van was detained after a high speed chase on Tennessee back roads, near a nuclear power plant. It wasn't until a "Learn To Fly In Florida" business card was discovered on one of the individuals, that a red flag went up. Once again, the occupants were detained by the FBI and allegedly deported.
http://www.madcowprod.com/index54.html (Article on the left)
http://www.nationalvanguard.org/printer.php?id=2913
(Bear with me. I'm still working towards my initial question.)
At work this morning, I was outside on break. A "moving van" (2 axle) had pulled up onto the side of the road, with...how to put this politely and not sound like I am profiling...a "dark skinned" individual was driving. He was looking at a map as though he was lost. The logo on the side of the truck said "Cheetah Delivery Service".
So on a whim, when I got back to the office, I did an internet search on Cheetah Delivery Service. There were no local (immediate vicinity) delivery services named "Cheetah". Actually, there isn't ANY COMPANY locally, named "Cheetah". I expanded my search and came up with 2 hits: A delivery company in Austin, Texas and another one in Ontario, Canada, both named "Cheetah Delivery Service". The interesting piece of information regarding both of these companies is that they are LOCAL delivery services, catering to both Austin TX and Hamilton, Ontario Canada, exclusively. There should have been no reason for them to be in the Richmond, Virginia area.
Next I lowered my search criteria. I searched for "Cheetah Delivery".
There are a fair amount of companies in the U.S. and abroad that have this exact phrase, among which is a software company in California that writes software for inventory; a delivery service in Italy, a delivery service in Venezuela; and then I saw this......
http://www.chitadelivery.co.il/ A delivery service in Jerusalem. (Patiently waiting for the "Ooo's" and "Ahhhh's")
And now, back to my original question.
It was fun going through this exercise. As for the delivery van on the side of the road, no - I didn't call any authorities. This is the first instance of my mentioning "the van" to anyone. Like I mentioned before, my research was "on a whim". I never said that the Israeli-moving-van stories inspired me to write this; those were an after thought to come up with this article. Should I start measuring my cranium for a nice, shiny cap?
I can see now, how the "tinfoil cap" community can come to outrageous suppositions.
The real question is, how far is "too far"? How long will it be before the current media pablum whips everyone into such a furor that the general population's mentality becomes "vigilante" as opposed to just "vigilant"?
LLS