In A Hurry To Make Rockets
Blotter:
Two Egyptian nationals stopped for speeding in South Carolina Saturday evening were carrying precursor chemicals, used in improvised bomb-making as well in as model rocketry, lengths of plastic pipe and twists of hobby fuse, and model rocket launchers, according to investigators.
The speeding stop resulted in a complete shutdown of the highway for about 10 hours and the arrest of the two men on … local charges of possession of a destructive device. No link to terrororism has been found.
When stopped along I-76 at 6 p.m., about seven miles from a U.S. Navy weapons station, the driver, who said he was a hydro-engineering major at South Florida University, told a deputy he was carrying explosives. When a bomb technician and additional officers arrived, the driver stated he and his passenger were using the materials to make homemade rockets.
The highway was shut down for a large portion of the evening, as bomb robots, bomb technicians and federal investigators began a careful examination of the vehicle’s contents and continued questioning the two men at the scene through 2 a.m. The military facility houses the U.S. Consolidated Naval Brig, where enemy combatants have been held.
The two men have been held since their arrest in the Berkeley County Jail on charges of “possession of a destructive device,” however neither local officials nor the FBI had indicated any link to terrorism.
In the vehicle, investigators say they found potassium chlorate and sugar, which when combined with a catalyst create what has been dubbed “instant fire” releasing heat, flames and smoke in a spectacular fashion. As a result, they are used in making fireworks and as a fuel for model rockets.
In addition a can of gasoline, PVC pipe, four hobby store brand rocket launchers and hobby store brand fuses were found, investigators said. The four PVC pipes contained an unknown substance. Also taken into evidence was a laptop computer, a GPS unit and Trac cellular telephones. The laptop computer was sent to the FBI lab at Quantico for analysis.
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“Why, officer, we’re just some wild and crazy guys”. “Yea, but, you’re not from Czechoslovakia.” “Up against the car.”
August 6th, 2007 at 10:10 amCrazy story, seems like we are very quick to rule out terrorism these days. all of those devices being together was either part of a sinister plan or was the biggest damn coincidence on planet earth
August 6th, 2007 at 10:32 amHmmm…two middle eastern illegals arrested for carrying explosives in their vehicle. And yet they weren’t linked to any terrorist group? Yeah sure…
August 6th, 2007 at 10:32 amPat -
Can I work the water board? Huh? Please??!!?? Pretty please??!!??
August 6th, 2007 at 10:35 ama guy named mohammed has explosives on him and we instantly state that there is no link to terrorism
bullshit
next hit, we round em up, wonder if the camps we kept the japs in are still available?
or we could use old stadiums to house them, like shove dearbornistan michigan into the abandoned Pontiac Silverdome
August 6th, 2007 at 10:51 am..either that or lets sit down over spam sandwiches and talk about it…
August 6th, 2007 at 10:54 amSteve, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam. All right, I’ll stop.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:33 ami’ve built model rockets before, and i’d hate to have been arab and pulled over with all that shit in my trunk. however, pvc pipe is a little too heavy for a model rocket, and any rocket made of pvc would be too big for one of those pos hobby shop rocket stands.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:54 amwonderful spam lovely spam spam spam spam spam
August 6th, 2007 at 12:08 pmSheesh stop spanning guys
On topic, the fact that these guys were driving around with explosives creeps me out. It may not be terrorism-they may not belong to a cell, but we can’t rule it out 100% can we? 
August 6th, 2007 at 1:02 pmThat should have said stop SPAMMING
August 6th, 2007 at 1:03 pmJury’s still out on this one. We’ll have to see if anything else is uncovered (like on their laptop).
The mistake was saying “hi officer, i’m carrying explosives!”
August 6th, 2007 at 1:19 pmAre you sure this is spam? Tastes more like a dead parrot.
No. He’s just restin’ then.
This parrot is deceased. He has expired. He is no longer alive. He is asleep forever, deceased, defunct, departed, extinct, gone, late, lifeless, inanimate, insensate, insentient, defunct, extinct, lost or to put it bluntly this is A DEAD PARROT!!
Look, ‘e moved.
August 6th, 2007 at 1:22 pmOh come on now, they’re smiling in their picture! They must have been interrupted on their way to go fly kites. You like kites, don’t you?
August 6th, 2007 at 2:05 pmThose are two creepy looking dudes. Sounds to me like they were planning on making some homemade katyushas. They were found near a naval base, weren’t they?
As for any claims of profiling, quit blowing us up and slashing our throats and we’ll talk.
August 6th, 2007 at 2:27 pmCan’t these people go to engineering colleges in … oh, I dunno … FRANCE? After all, they would have been called “youths” in the French media covering this story.
Hey, maybe it was just a little frat hazing prank. The poor fellas were victims of some bastard rich white kids who said (in 1971 John Kerry voice), “You want to join our fraternity, do you? Well, now, you two must prove your worthiness. We’re having a bit of a get together tonight. It would be lovely if we could end the evening fare with a nice fireworks display. Habib, think you and Aladdan can handle that for us? If you pull it off just right, we might just forego tying you two up and forcing pig intestines down your throats.”
So, when Habib and Aladdan left the frat house the president of the fraternity called the police and said he saw two Arab guys buying supplies to make explosives and what road they were traveling on.
Hey, sounds like a good John Edwards type defense to me …
August 6th, 2007 at 2:44 pmI’ve made model rockets before as well. We used aluminum and those engines you buy at the hobby shop. PVC is only good for two things: plumbing and pipe bombs.
Take these two motherfuckers to a “black interrogation site”
August 6th, 2007 at 4:02 pmand let a “third party” take them for a ride on the waterboard express.
Thanks to the ACLU-types, the guy on the left will probably get some nice dental work in prison, courtesy of the American taxpayers of course.
Those are some big $hit-eatin’ grins for some guys who should probably be on their way to Club Gitmo for some questioning.
August 6th, 2007 at 4:39 pmyoung bearded muzz men from South Florida University (aka jihad University) with explosives in South Carolina close to a military brig holding prisoner aq mofos, and now CAIR is making press releases saying it is not terrorist related….this stinks like a muslim foot bath.
August 6th, 2007 at 5:08 pmYeah. I’d hate to be Arab under any circumstance. Let’s send the entire herd home until the end of Jihad. What’s with this self destructive compulsion to invite every type of primative on Earth to come here to play grinnin’ apejeehaddy.
August 6th, 2007 at 5:30 pmI’m into model rocketry, and I recognize the fine line between freedom and complacency during a time of war with an enemy that will try just about anything to make headlines. Model rocketry associations go to great lengths to keep the hobby legitimate and above the table. Yes, I’d be pissed at being hasseled about terrorism if it was me. But then again, if it was me, I’d probably be a little more above the table about my stuff. I’m saying let the materials and quantities and personal histories speak louder than nationality alone. Let’s not get too witch-hunty. Finally, good work, better safe than sorry. It’s a thin line and a tough call to make. Hindsight will help to clarify and wisen.
August 6th, 2007 at 5:34 pmmaybe these guys should have played “how not to be seen”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1111770357062149413
August 6th, 2007 at 5:49 pmBond was set at 800K (combined). Facing felony explosives charges. What started out as fireworks became rockets and is now being called ’several’ pipe bombs by the online Charleston newspaper.
Found potassium chlorate and sugar in the trunk which is used by rocketers to make liquid fire, but those pvc tubes with the ‘unknown’ substances in them are what I believe turned out to be the pipe bombs.
Checking around the web to see if I can find the police paperwork….the laptop, from what I hear, has been shipped to Quantico.
August 6th, 2007 at 7:05 pmK perchlorate and sugar makes a rocket fuel called caramel candy, fair lift to weight. The story said “k chlorate” this is very unstable and more explosive, goes off if you drop it.
August 6th, 2007 at 9:37 pmWhen I was in college the found an “old” bottle of K perchlorate in the basement of the Chem building U of F. Closed the whole place down when they removed it, said it was a really big deal…imagine if it was chlorate. Either they are really stupid, dont think so, or they were looking to light something up. Use the store bought rocket motor to launch your K chlorate/sugar into something flammable.Fuel truck, tank farm ect
Dan;
August 6th, 2007 at 11:17 pmbeat me to it. Pipe bombs, no question. That stuff won’t fly.
I just heard on the radio that CAIR is saying that they “were left over from a 4th of July celebration”. Yea, right. Like they’d be (celebrating) America’s birthday.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:19 amUSF? USF?! ALERT ! Terrorist U
They were students at USF in Tampa.
Home of The Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as Professor Sami Al-Arian !
Not terrorist, my ass.
August 7th, 2007 at 5:04 amgeez..speeding, like a drug smuggler with no brake lights..im sure glad these morons are stupid..cant wait to hear whats on the cpu
August 7th, 2007 at 5:13 amI can’t understand why they could get out on bail (at any amount) until AT LEAST that laptop gets checked out. Can anyone help me here?
August 7th, 2007 at 5:15 amIn some countries, these bastards wouldn’t even make it to jail. I would never make it as a cop. These two would be meeting Allah at the bottom of a river.
August 7th, 2007 at 7:30 am