This might not be oily rags at all. We all know how badly the media screws things up. This could be a shipment of OIL rags or some other kind of rag.
Rags are an industrial item. I can see the possibility of a container of them coming from Asia.
Could be that "oily rags" is just a misunderstanding.
Agreed. All we know is that there's a story, and a media who value being first much more than they value being accurate.
In checking, Pakistan is one of the countries that manufactures rags for industrial and other uses. They ship them all over the world.