A plot to obtain commercial licenses to haul hazardous materials. Hmmm.
“15 charged in driver’s license conspiracy,” from The Kansas City Star, with thanks to DL:
Operators of truck driving schools in Kansas City and southern Missouri conspired to help more than 70 Somali and Bosnian nationals illegally obtain commercial licenses, federal prosecutors alleged Thursday.
Many of those students went on to obtain certification to haul hazardous materials on the nation’s highways, authorities said in announcing the 62-count grand jury indictment. Fifteen defendants face charges of mail fraud, making a false writing and illegally causing identification documents to be produced….
Then comes the by-now pro-forma assurance that, although this involves Muslims plotting to do something with potentially catastrophic results, this has nothing to do with terrorism. The possibility — and it is just that and only that, a possibility — that this was part of a freelance jihad, a la Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, is not even on their radar screen — although this time a U. S. attorney does make a partial acknowledgment:
Although the Heart of America Joint Terrorism Task Force handled the investigation, Bradley Schlozman, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, emphasized that the indictment did not allege that any of the defendants were involved in terrorism.
“That having been said, I would think it obvious that commercial driver’s licenses are an extraordinarily powerful tool, and a potential weapon, in the hands of someone seeking to do large-scale harm,” Schlozman said at a news conference Thursday.
Schlozman said the key defendants in the case showed a “flagrant and reckless disregard for our national security.”
Although the indictment referred to dozens of test applicants by name, investigators think between 200 and 300 students got their licenses through the conspiracy.
Of those, 150 to 200 later obtained certification to haul hazardous materials.
“I”m not saying we stopped a terrorist act from occurring,” Debby Stafford, an FBI official, said at the news conference. “But this is a clear example of our preventive efforts and of what we do to make our territory safer.”…
The defendants included Ernest A. “Mustafa” White, 49, of Kansas City, who owned the Muslim Brothers and Sisters trucking company in Kansas City, Kan., and Howard E. Schneider, 39, of Overland Park, owner of H.E. Schneider Trucking Co. and co-operator of Muslim Brothers, officials said….
Also charged were Dean P. Proffitt, 71, superintendent of the South Central Career Center Truck Driver Training School in West Plains, Mo., and Orbin Dale May, 63, a truck-driving tester from West Plains….
After a search warrant was served in February, West Plains School District Superintendent Karla Eslinger said that Proffitt had contacted troopers in 2003 to report that a large number of people taking the test had names that sounded Middle Eastern in origin….
Information obtained by The Associated Press under Missouri’s open records law indicated that more than 300 of about 520 people who took the test at the school between May 2004 and December 2005 but did not train there had names that might be Middle Eastern in origin.
FBI agent Mark Wagoner said White converted to Islam while in prison.
“Many of the people he came in contact with were Somali nationals,” he said.
Schlozman said that the awarding of licenses to individuals “from an area as dangerous as Somalia was a matter of particular concern to the community.”
Prosecutors said the others who were indicted generally helped in the conspiracy by driving students to West Plains for testing or helping to arrange the fake tests.
Those other defendants are:
Hiram C. Oliver, 33, Raytown; Osman Abdullahi, 30, a Somali citizen living in San Diego; Elias Mohamed, 25, Ahmed Muhidin Sharif, 27, Abdulfatah Osman Farah, 24, Abdirizak Abdi Mohamed, age unknown, and Yusuf Kalmole, 34, all citizens of Somalia living in Kansas City; Abdiwahab Mohamud Mohamed, 37, a Somali citizen living in Minneapolis; Adil Majlovic, 19, and Mersud Kajtazovic, 31, both citizens of Bosnia living in Kansas City; and Samir Hasanovic, 22, of Arnold, Mo.