The Original Report on the Dancing Israelis, From the Bergen County Record, 9-12-2001

 


























Above: Original news report on the 9-11 Dancing Israelis from the Bergen County Record, dated 9-12-2001. Text below.


Five men detained as suspected conspirators

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

similar van was in Liberty Park -->

By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer

About eight hours after terrorists struck Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers, police in Bergen County detained five men who they said were found carrying maps linking them to the blasts.

The five men, who were in a van stopped on Route 3 in East Rutherford around 4:30 p.m., were being questioned by police but had not been charged with any crime late Tuesday. The Bergen County Police bomb squad X-rayed packages found inside the van but did not find any explosives, authorities said.

However, sources close to the investigation said they found other evidence linking the men to the bombing plot.

"There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted," the source said. "It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park."

Sources also said that bomb-sniffing dogs reacted as if they had detected explosives, although officers were unable to find anything. The FBI seized the van for further testing, authorities said.

Sources said the van was stopped as it headed east on Route 3, between the Hackensack River bridge and the Sheraton hotel. As a precaution, police shut down Route 3 traffic in both directions after the stop and evacuated a small roadside motel near the Sheraton.

Sources close to the investigation said the men said they were Israeli tourists, but police had not been able to confirm their identities. Authorities would not release their names.

East Rutherford officers stopped the van after the FBI's Newark Field Office broadcast an alert asking surrounding police departments to look for a white Chevrolet van, police said.

"We got an alert to be on the lookout for a white Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration and writing on the side," said Bergen County Police Chief John Schmidig. "Three individuals were seen celebrating in Liberty State Park after the impact. They said three people were jumping up and down."

The East Rutherford officers summoned the county police bomb squad, New Jersey state troopers, and FBI agents, who waited alongside the van as prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office tried to obtain a warrant to search the van late Tuesday, Schmidig said.

By 10 p.m., members of the bomb squad were picking through the van and X-raying packages found inside, Schmidig said.

Sources said the FBI alert, known as a BOLO or "Be On Lookout," was sent out at 3:31 p.m.

It read:

"Vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack. White, 2000 Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration with 'Urban Moving Systems' sign on back seen at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, at the time of first impact of jetliner into World Trade Center.

"Three individuals with van were seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion. FBI Newark Field Office requests that, if the van is located, hold for prints and detain individuals."

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll declined to comment on the incident late Tuesday.

State police Lt. Col. Barry W. Roberson confirmed the traffic stop at a late night news briefing at state police headquarters in Trenton. He would not elaborate, however.

Business records show an Urban Moving Systems with offices on West 50th Street in Manhattan and on West 18th Street in Weehawken. Telephone messages left at the businesses Tuesday evening were not immediately returned.

Business records show the owner as Dominik Suter of Fair Lawn. A woman answering the telephone at Suter's home acknowledged he owned the company but refused to comment further. She also declined to identify herself.

It was not clear Tuesday whether the van stopped by police is related to Suter's company.

A business traveler staying at the Homestead Studio Suites Hotel said she watched state troopers drive the suspects away in a procession of state police cars about 5 p.m.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the people detained appeared to be white men, but she could not give more details. About 5:30 p.m., police evacuated the hotel without offering guests an explanation.

"First, they told us we could hang out in the lobby, but then they told us we had to leave," the traveler said.

At 10 p.m., the hotel guest said she could see at least two police officers searching through the van while a crowd of other officers kept their distance. Except for police vehicles and a tow truck, the service road beside Route 3 was empty, she said.

Staff Writer Wendy Ruderman contributed to this report. Staff Writer Paulo Lima's e-mail address is lima@northjersey.com

The 9-11 George Washington Bridge Van - Further Details

Corroborating Orwell & a van full of explosives at the G.W. Bridge

 Souce:  Crimes of the State

[Some editors find that two mainstream sources (CBS News and Jerusalem Post) are not enough documentation of the George Washington Bridge truck bomb incident. So, here's more.]

A wonderful corroboration comes from the Deputy Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal, Barney Calame, writing for the American Society of Newspaper Editors:

"A delivery truck carrying about 60,000 papers bound for Manhattan from the South Brunswick printing plant got caught in a roadblock at the George Washington Bridge.

A van suspected of carrying explosives had been stopped — and the entire inbound bridge lanes were closed, trapping the Journal delivery truck for several hours. " --Scattered WSJ staff use e-mail, phones, N.J. office to publish, Barney Calame, Published: May 31, 2002

Well now, I guess that really happened, huh? A van was stopped at the bridge. Traffic was stopped at the bridge. Reports went out to the world about the van.

The Wall Street Journal report comes from personal knowledge of events involving the Wall Street Journal truck.

TWO -- DIFFERENT -- VANS
It should be clarified now that there were at least two vans stopped that day, which has led to some confusion.

One van was stopped at the "approach ramp" to the "George Washington Bridge," with either two suspects (CBS/Jerusalem Post) or three suspects (CNN).

A second van was stopped on a "service road off Route 3 near New Jersey's Giant Stadium" in "East Rutherford" (ABC/Bergen Record), with five suspects. This van was stopped "around 4pm" (ABC).
The latter van was stopped 12 miles away (MAPQUEST) at the George Washington Bridge, after 10pm on 9/11.

CNN also reported the arrests in question:

DEBORAH FEVERICK, [correction: "Feyerick"] CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I can. That is the information that I am getting from two sources, that there was a van either on the New Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway, and that it was near the George Washington Bridge.

There were two or three men who were in the van that was pulled over. It is not clear why the van was pulled over, but when it was, law enforcers found tons of explosives inside of the van.
That is, right now, all I am hearing. But again, two to three people in custody, and we are trying to get more information on that right now.

HEMMER: Deborah, I don't mean to put you on the spot here. Do you know where on the Jersey Turnpike this was? How far from New York City?

FEVERICK: We do not know that. We are looking into that. There is one report that it was on the New Jersey Turnpike. There is another report that it was very close to the bridge, if not on the bridge. So again, these details are emerging. We're trying to piece them together. But that's what we have so far, two to three people in custody, found with a van filled with explosives.
--CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL, A Number Of Men Arrested With Explosives On Jersey Turnpike, Aired September 11, 2001 - 23:28 ET

We can be pretty damned certain that:

1) There was a van very near the George Washington Bridge.
2) It was stopped at the approach to the George Washington Bridge by police.
3) The traffic across the bridge was closed for several hours.
4) News reporters were informed of a large amount of explosives in the van.
5) Two or three people were in the van, and were arrested.
6) No mention at all of these facts (or of "Urban Moving Systems") was presented at the 9/11 Commission, and it was never acknowledged by their (phony) report or by the Congressional Joint Inquiry Report.

And, you know what? That's enough. Just the fact that we were told about a truck bomb on the evening of 9/11 needed to be clarified and explained by the U.S. federal government in significant detail.

The fact that they have buried this and pretended it never happened is damning in and of itself.
At this point, one may say yes, a van was stopped, but it didn't actually have explosives in it.

Okay, but why would someone assume that CNN, CBS, Jerusalem Post and others are wrong about the presence of the explosives? And why is that assumption good enough?

How did all of their sources provide them with the explosives information in the first place?

The van had to contain something that led police to conclude it was "tons" of explosives (CNN), and "enough explosives ... to do great damage to the George Washington Bridge." (CBS)

If so, what was in the van? Let us see this evidence for ourselves.

More importantly: were the two or three suspects arrested at the bridge just ghosts? Didn't they exist? What are their names?

Minutes after the arrests, the Police Commissioner of New York City, Bernard Kerik, confirmed (on CNN) from his own sources the arrest of "three men in a van," and he had been told specifically that there were "no explosives in the van." Kerik also evaded the question of where exactly this van was located:

QUESTION: Where in New Jersey, do you know?
KERIK: I can't say yet.

Does he mean he "can't say?" He's not allowed to say? Or that he doesn't know? This is a very odd response to a pretty straightforward question about the location where an arrest has just taken place. How is Kerik so sure about the lack of explosives, if he can't even be sure where the van was?

Remember, there were two vans. That much is proven beyond any reasonable doubt. The first van -- stopped near Giants Stadium -- did not contain explosives. That much is true, although bomb sniffing dogs reacted to this van as if it did, as reported in the Bergen Record story (FIVE MEN DETAINED AS SUSPECTED CONSPIRATORS, BERGEN RECORD (New Jersey) Wednesday, September 12, 2001).

The second van, stopped at the George Washington Bridge, is in question.

Kerik's confirmation of "three men" correlates to the George Washington Bridge van, as opposed to the five suspects in the other van who were stopped seven hours previously near Giants Stadium, and driven away "in a procession of state police cars around 5pm." (Bergen Record)

The timing of Kerik's announcement, 11:30pm, correlates to the later arrests. Kerik makes no mention of multiple vans.

Here's the quote:

BERNARD KERIK, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: I just got a confirmation from the Chief of Detectives, he's reach out to the FBI. They have confirmed that someone has been stopped in New Jersey, three men in a van. However, there was no explosives in the van. All right. They're being held for questioning.

Kerik really stresses the talking point. No one had mentioned "explosives" at the press conference up until that moment. The questioner did ask about "resources," a vague term that Kerik apparently interpreted as "explosives." (CNN, New York City Officials Address Day's Devastation, Aired September 11, 2001 - 23:30 ET)

I would implore local 9/11 Truthers to get the Port Authority Police Department records about these arrests at the bridge, and to interview all the involved officers they can locate. This assumes the police records still exist and haven't been purged like other important bits of history related to "Urban Moving Systems" and the 9/11 attacks.

The Jerusalem Post article has been removed from their website. Coincidentally, it has also been removed from the Internet Archive The Wayback Machine, exactly as the Fox "News" report was removed:

"Robots.txt Query Exclusion.
We're sorry, access to http://cgis.jpost.com/cgi-bin/General/printarticle.cgi?article=/Editions/2001/09/12/LatestNews/LatestNews.34658.html has been blocked by the site owner via robots.txt."

So the reader will need to head to a library that carries the Jerusalem Post if they doubt the veracity of the WhatReallyHappened website, where that article is currently mirrored.

The FBI "Be On Look Out" or BOLO alert sent out to local police stations at 3:31pm on September 11th:

"Vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack. White, 2000 Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration with 'Urban Moving Systems' sign on back seen at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, at the time of first impact of jetliner into World Trade Center.

"Three individuals with van were seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion. FBI Newark Field Office requests that, if the van is located, hold for prints and detain individuals." (Bergen Record)

Original article:
Orwell's Triumph - There is no van full of explosives reported at the George Washington Bridge.
posted by John Doraemi