I’ve never watched Beck. Looks like a good time to start doing so.
Note: 17 schoobuses are missing in Houston, and foreign nationals are trying to buy schoolbuses.
Two Saudi men arrested for boarding school bus to Wharton High School
"The two men "initially told deputies they were from Morocco, but later admitted to being from Saudi Arabia," the sheriff's office said.
"They told authorities they are enrolled at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. The defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school, among those being they wanted to enroll in easier English language classes."
Investigators say the two arrived in the United States about six months ago and are required to be enrolled at the English Language Institute.
A sheriff's spokesman say they are registered students at the university."
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Unbelievably, I believe charges were dismissed. More al-Arian cell trainees.
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Sale of Surplus School Buses (North Carolina)
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Foreign nationals are also applying for jobs as school bus drivers.
School Bus Terrorism - A Practical Analysis
Excerpt:
Mohamad El Zahabhi
The clearest direct threat to the nation’s school transportation system is the case of Mohamad Kamal El Zahabhi, a Lebanese national who has worked at various times as a Boston cab driver, a New York City auto mechanic, and a Minnesota school bus driver for First Student, a private contracting firm that provides bus service to schools across the country.
While it is not clear whether his service as a bus driver was just one of many jobs that he held while in the U.S. or if it was part of an attempt to gain access to a school bus, his history gives us concern.
He first came to the U.S. in 1984, and paid a Texas woman to marry him so he could obtain his green card. After divorcing and admitting to fraud in 1988, he traveled to Afghanistan where he attended a terrorist training camp and later served as a sniper in combat in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
He also told FBI agents that he had served as an instructor at a jihadist school. During this time he allegedly met with a few notable individuals, including Khalid Sheikh Muhammed, one of the originators of the 9/11 plot, and Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
After being injured in combat, el Zahabhi returned to New York City, where he worked with a relative at Drive Axle Rebuilders, a business that he used to order and ship to Afghanistan large quantities of heavy-duty field radios.
While radios of the same type have been found by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, he denies knowledge of the shipments, saying that he never opened the packages that he was transferring. After serving as a cab driver in Boston from 1997 to 1998, he traveled again to Chechnya to serve in combat.
Returning to the U.S. in 2000, he moved to Minneapolis and on September 11, 2001 applied for a job as a bus driver with First Student.
He had previously obtained his CDL and a HazMat certification under his Massachusetts driver’s license, and passed an FBI background check. The FBI declines to comment as to why he was cleared, since the case is under investigation.
After starting as a driver in late 2001, el Zahabhi failed to report to work after the winter break and was fired in January 2002. He returned in February 2002 and asked for his job back, but was denied.
While his intentions are not clear, his ties to al Qaeda members and activities gives rise to concern – for example the assistance he gave to Raed Hijazi, the man convicted of the failed millennium bombing plot in Jordan, when he allowed Hijazi to use his address in Massachusetts to receive mail and obtain a drivers license.
He is currently being charged with lying to the FBI about this incident, along with other details.
Even if el Zahabhi did not intend to assist with or carry out a school attack, the fact that a jihadist combat veteran was able to become a bus driver in the U.S. is a sign of severe security gaps."