Pentagon scare suspect found with terror phrases
FBI Special Agent Brenda Heck, who heads the counterterrorism division of the FBI's Washington field office, center, speaks at a news conference with U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser and Arlington Police spokeswoman Cpl. Crystal Nosal after a man was taken into custody and his car, found near the Pentagon, forced multiple road closures June 17, 2011, in Arlington, Va. / AP Photo
Updated at 11:37 a.m. ET
A law enforcement source told CBS News that the man detained in the discovery of a suspicious car found outside the Pentagon Friday morning was carrying a notebook that contained the phrases, "al Qaeda," "Taliban rules" and "Mujahid defeated croatian forces."
Despite the references to the terror organization that organized the 9/11 attacks, the group fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan and the Arabic word for "holy warrior," the source said the man is not thought to have been involved in a terrorist act or plot, CBS News investigative producer Pat Milton reports.
"It seems to be washing out at this point, but it is still being drilled down on," the source told Milton.
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The source said the man's backpack also contained 20 spent 9 mm shell casings and three cans of black spray paint.
FBI Special Agent Brenda Heck, who heads the bureau's counterterrorism division in its Washington field office, told reporters that a non-explosive material was also found in the backpack.
A law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity said officials found what appeared to be an unknown quantity of ammonium nitrate. The official, who was not authorized to release the information, said nothing else was found that would have enabled an explosion. The official said tests were being done to determine the substance and the exact concentration.
Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound that is widely used in fertilizers and can be used in explosives with the correct concentration.
The man, who the FBI only described as being approximately in his 20s, was being held by the U.S. Park Police. No charges have been filed against him.
"This is all very unfolding and a continuing investigation," Heck told reporters.
The man was detained after the U.S. Park Police came across him in early Friday morning in Arlington National Cemetery, when it is closed, triggering an investigation. The Park Police then launched a search for the man's vehicle, which was found near the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C., Park Police spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser said.
The 2011 red Nissan prompted the Arlington County Fire Department's bomb disposal unit to follow protocols, including the use of a water cannon, to render the vehicle safe, Arlington Police spokeswoman Cpl. Crystal Nosal told reporters.
Heck said no suspicious items were found in the vehicle.
Pentagon police spokesman Chris Layman said the car was in bushes near the Pentagon's north parking lot.
Previously, the man in custody was reported to have been suspected of planting suspicious devices in the Arlington area, at the national cemetery, the Pentagon and the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial. Schlosser did not confirm that report.
CBS News reports that the Marine Corps Memorial is open to the public. Arlington National Cemetery was briefly closed but has since reopened.
Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, told CBS News that federal agencies were involved with the investigation.
"DHS is monitoring a suspicious vehicle incident causing road closures around the Pentagon," Chandler said. "This is a law enforcement matter at this time, with the U.S. Park Police and the Arlington County Police Department as leads and other federal agencies on the scene."
In another incident earlier this week, a motorist found with a gun and what appeared to be a suspicious package near the Pentagon was taken into custody.
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If he is an Ethiopian, I strongly urge the US government to look very closely at an Ethipian Extremnist group which goes by G7(Ginbot 7). This extremist group dessiminates Alqaida type message daily with impunity!!
This is reminiscent of the "terror threat level" under the Bush administration.
This is coming from your government. There is some big-time scare mongering going on these days. Fear makes people apathetic. It's an election year. Think critically. Be aware of what's going on.
And do these suspects really have nothing better to do than doodle down phrases in a notepad that serve no other purpose than to automatically incriminate them?
There is a large community of Ethiopians in the Washington DC area, most of them Orthodox Christians. I feel confident that they would be extremely ashamed of this guy, assuming he really is Ethiopian.
Yes, this man was evidently trespassing... but since when does that garner the right to literally destroy his car with a water cannon? What evidence existed before this act to indicate that such an extreme measure was warranted? As I read the story, there was NOTHING to justify this act.