By GRETCHEN PARKER The Tampa Tribune
MONCKS CORNER, S.C. - It all started with a Toyota Camry cruising 15 mph over the speed limit, past newly developed strip malls on a Saturday evening.
A traffic stop followed. Standing on the side of U.S. 176, questioning two young Florida college students from Egypt, was Berkeley County Sheriff's deputy Lamar Blakely.
You never know what's going to happen when you pull over a car, Blakely says. On this night, however, as he talked to Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, he had a hunch. Something, he thought, wasn't right.
"It's all instinctive. You get a gut feeling," Blakely said in an interview with The Tampa Tribune. "You start getting into inconsistent stories, mixed with other things that don't add up to the original story, and everything begins to put up a red flag."
Within 35 minutes, homeland security flags were raised. The FBI was summoned and immigration authorities - along with bomb technicians - were on the way. A half-mile of the four-lane highway was sealed off, from Wal-Mart down to the Kingdom Hall, until about 7 a.m.
A traffic stop followed. Standing on the side of U.S. 176, questioning two young Florida college students from Egypt, was Berkeley County Sheriff's deputy Lamar Blakely.
You never know what's going to happen when you pull over a car, Blakely says. On this night, however, as he talked to Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, he had a hunch. Something, he thought, wasn't right.
"It's all instinctive. You get a gut feeling," Blakely said in an interview with The Tampa Tribune. "You start getting into inconsistent stories, mixed with other things that don't add up to the original story, and everything begins to put up a red flag."
Within 35 minutes, homeland security flags were raised. The FBI was summoned and immigration authorities - along with bomb technicians - were on the way. A half-mile of the four-lane highway was sealed off, from Wal-Mart down to the Kingdom Hall, until about 7 a.m.
Situation Raised Suspicions
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