FBI Seeks 2 Men in N.C. Truck Incident
By Cheryl W. Thompson Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 14, 2002
The FBI's Raleigh field office issued an alert in three states yesterday after the driver of a fuel truck reported that two men who may be Middle Eastern tried to force him off a highway in North Carolina.
The alert was issued at 11 a.m., after the truck driver called 911 to report that the men, who were driving a bronze-colored Dodge Neon with New Jersey license plates, tried to force him off the road, according to Sgt. Everett Clendenin, a spokesman for the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
"We don't know if it was a case of international terrorism . . . or road rage," said Frank Perry, the agent in charge of the FBI's Raleigh office. "But their conduct got our attention."
Since the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, law enforcement and intelligence officials have viewed truck bombs as a way that terrorists could strike again.
Perry said the FBI wants to question the men about the incident and whether they may have connections to international terrorism.
"I don't know what we have . . . but given these times, it got our attention," Perry said. "Had we done nothing we would have been accused of not being responsible."
The incident occurred at 6:40 a.m. on U.S. 264 in Nash County, N.C., about 40 miles east of Raleigh. The driver, whose truck was empty, told authorities he was headed east when the car pulled up behind him and then alongside him. The car also pulled in front of him, prompting the truck driver to pull off the road and call police, Clendenin said.
"He was shaken and bothered enough that he called us and we immediately notified the FBI," Clendenin said.
The driver told police that the men were either Middle Eastern or Hispanic, Clendenin said. They did not display weapons, Perry said.
The FBI issued an all-points bulletin in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, Perry said. The truck is owned by a North Carolina company that he declined to identify.
The three-state alert came a day after FBI officials in Washington issued a warning that a Yemeni man and at least a dozen of his associates may be planning terrorist attacks in the United States or against U.S. targets in Yemen. It was the fourth nationwide alert since the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings that left more than 3,100 people dead.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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