Posted on 12/09/2006 6:20:07 AM PST by got_moab?
Federal terrorism officials and Rhode Island authorities converged this week to arrest an Indian citizen enrolled in a Smithfield tractor-trailer training school who was trying to obtain a commercial driver’s license and permit to haul hazardous materials.
The man, Mohammed Yusef Mullawala, of Jamaica, N.Y., is being held in federal custody for overstaying his student visa. State police Maj. Steven O’Donnell said that after two days of truck-driving classes, Mullawala’s behavior was suspicious enough to prompt school officials to contact the Department of Homeland Security late last month.
“His behavior was consistent with terrorist-type activity,” O’Donnell said. “He showed no interest in learning the fine art of driving a tractor-trailer. He had no interest in learning how to back up.”
Using protocol established after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials from Nationwide Tractor Trailer Driving School, of 125 Washington Highway in Smithfield, contacted the federal Highway Information Sharing and Analysis Center with concerns about Mullawala. The center relayed the concerns to the Department of Homeland Security, which then contacted the Rhode Island State Police, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Authorities soon discovered that Mullawala was in the United States illegally , according to the state police. They also learned that he had driver’s licenses in three states, including Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey.
O’Donnell said that Mullawala falsified documents when applying for a driver’s license at the Registry of Motor Vehicles by saying he was a Rhode Island resident. State authorities intend to charge him with identity theft for allegedly lying on the forms, O’Donnell said.
“If it was just three licenses, that wouldn’t raise too many red flags. But all the other stuff really raised some eyebrows,” O’Donnell said. “Maybe he’s not a terrorist. But there’s every indication that he’s hiding something.”
Mullawala told authorities that he was commuting to the Smithfield school from New York. He indicated that he was in a hurry to obtain a commercial driver’s license and a permit to haul hazardous cargo. And Mullawala indicated to the truck driving school that he wasn’t interested in learning how to back up a tractor-trailer, according to O’Donnell.
“There may be some legitimate reason he doesn’t want to learn to back up or drive [the truck] properly…He gave an explanation,” O’Donnell said, declining to detail the explanation.
The state police lured Mullawala to state police headquarters on Tuesday “on an unrelated matter that we created for him,” O’Donnell said. “He was not aware he was coming here to be arrested.”
He has since been turned over to immigration officials and is being held in federal custody pending the results of an immigration hearing in Boston. Mullawala faces deportation.
“There’s no nexus to terrorism we can prove,” O’Donnell said. “Sometimes there’s no way of telling and we don’t want to wait to find out.”
Your moniker made me chuckle.
quote 'being held in federal custody for overstaying his student visa. " endQuote
There probally is more out there 'overstaying visa's', every one of them needs to be lead out of the country,
and barred from ever returning for cheating our system.
It's tough here in Lil' Rhody, you can't throw a rock without hitting an illegal!!
" “He showed no interest in learning the fine art of driving a tractor-trailer. He had no interest in learning how to back up.” "
Sounds like he would be a good candidate for Congress.
If it was just three licenses, that wouldn’t raise too many red flags. "
Thank you. My thought exactly....
I want to know what part of the LEO community wouldn't think that 3 licenses wasn't a red flag?????
“There’s no nexus to terrorism we can prove,” O’Donnell said. “Sometimes there’s no way of telling and we don’t want to wait to find out.”
Another reason we need a declaration of war. This guy should not be deported. He should be imprisoned as a suspected terrorist. Lawyers win cases, not wars.
Yes, all the Hindus are named Mohammed.
There are plenty of Muslims in India. They all didn't go to Pakistan in 1948. Although I bet the Hindus wish they had.
Let's deport him so he can try again, instead of chaining him up and beating information out of him. By the way, what kind of dumbass criminal believes any story that the police tell that requires him to come into the police station? LOL
I say just get him the hell back to India. We don't have to prove terrorist connections to deport him. He is here illegally. He is suspiscous. Why waste court and prision time and money on this...git rid of him.
“If it was just three licenses, that wouldn’t raise too many red flags......."
Oh, boy.
One doesn't need an exit visa to leave India for Iraq, Afghanistan, Canada, Mexico ... or the USA.
I drove a deuce and a half semi in the Army regularly, with absolutely no formal training. Other than learning what the johnny bar does, there's not much to driving a semi other than learning to back up (and watching your off track.)
Someone has to show you one time, how to hook up the air lines and drop the landing gear. I'm not dismissing the "art of driving a semi", but almost all of it is acquired by practice, not formal instruction.
Yeah, doesn't that just make you feel safe?
Obviously you are not a professional truck driver.
I had to get a dommercial truck driving course for my employees. The video tapes alone were 10 tapes that totaled about 22 hours of classroom instruction. And that was for the CDL. If they passed the CDL test, then they got a beginners liscense to practice driving the trucks. The CDL inspector recommended 40 hours of behind the wheel driving before taking his test drive, but admitted that he had passed a lot of people with less than that.
Hazardous material was another 3 tapes plus individual instruction on the material being transported. In addition, most reputable trucking companies have ongoing training required by law for truckers.
Of course, the problem with declaring war is that it would take Congress another 10 years to decide whom we should declare war against.
I hope someone is keeping track of all these "suspicious activities." The left needs to start connecting these dots. Most freepers already have.
Let me stress that that is absolutely true. I don't mean to dismiss professional truck drivers, I just think the really important stuff is hands on, not class room. My point was, if you don't want to learn to back up, what's the point of going to truck driving school? It's really not that hard to put a semi in gear and drive straight ahead. (I remember a number pilots, after 9/11, saying that flying straight ahead isn't really hard, it's landing and taking off that's difficult. Same thing basically.)
With the release of that information, I suspect "student drivers" will now show heightened interest in how to back up!
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