Troopers in 11 counties weren't notified of terror threat

TAMPA, FLORIDA - The Florida Highway Patrol says dispatchers failed to alert troopers in eleven counties along the Interstate 75 corridor that three suspected terrorists could be driving through on their way to Miami. <br> <br> FHP spokesman Ken Howes in Tallahassee said officials are trying to find out why the alert wasn&#39;t broadcast September 12 to troopers in all seven counties in the Tampa region and four of the ten counties in the Fort Myers region. <br> <br> Howes said, ``There are just a lot of questions we have that we&#39;re trying to find answers to. The bottom line is basically that it was a human mistake.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Howes said the alert was issued about 5 p.m. September 12 by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to every police agency in the state. <br> <br> Howes said civilian dispatchers in the Tampa and Fort Myers regional headquarters, working under supervisory FHP officers, would have received the alert via computer and been responsible for passing it on to road officers. <br> <br> The threat turned out to be a false alarm. <br> <br> Ayman Gheith, Kambiz Butt and Omar Choudhary, medical students on their way to a Miami hospital, were pulled over September 12 on Alligator Alley in southwest Florida after they allegedly drove through a toll booth without paying. <br> <br> They were detained for 17 hours and their vehicles searched after bomb-sniffing dogs detected explosives, but were released after no evidence was found. They have denied any wrongdoing, including running the toll booth. <br> <br> The Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued the alert for the three men traveling in two vehicles after a woman said she overheard the students making references to and laughing about the September eleventh attacks while eating at Shoney&#39;s restaurant in Calhoun, Georgia. The woman, Eunice Stone, said she heard the students saying that a terrorist event was looming on September 13.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/9/201906