In August 1998, U.S. intelligence learned that a "group of unidentified Arabs planned to fly an explosive-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center," says the report. The report was given to the Federal Aviation Administration and FBI, which took little action on it. The group may now be linked to bin Laden, the report says.

AN AMERICAN CITIZEN overheard three Muslims at a Shoney's restaurant laughing about Sept. 11 over breakfast.
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Despite the racist hysteria sweeping the nation, the police did not rush out and start rounding up Arabs. They interviewed Stone in person to evaluate her credibility and corroborate her story.
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That night, a little after midnight, one of the two cars being driven by the Muslims ran a toll booth -- at least according to everyone but these beacons of truth. Law enforcement officials soon descended on the cars. According to accounts in The New York Times, the men were uncooperative, refused to answer basic questions, gave false information and told contradictory stories.
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Naturally, therefore, the men and their families accused Americans, especially Southerners, of being ignorant racists. "Just because of the way we look or the way we choose to live our lives, we're persecuted," said the sister of one. Demonstrating her own open-mindedness, she explained the entire incident by saying, "Unfortunately, they stopped in a restaurant in Georgia." No prejudice in that.
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By my count, the Muslims have given at least five versions of what happened. Eunice Stone has given one consistent story. She has been interrogated by law enforcement officials and is corroborated by another witness.

According to the Boston Globe, the Three Stooges first told law enforcement officers they did it on purpose. Stone, they said, was watching them too closely and this got the poor little darlings' undies in a bundle. So they decided to scare her. One year after Muslims murdered thousands of people on American soil, evidently it's rude to look at three Muslim men decked out in Arabic garb.
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Third, they tried out the hysterical-woman defense -- used to great effect by Democrats in the Clinton era. One of the Muslims tauntingly demanded to know "how many other people witnessed this event that supposedly took place, first of all?" Well, at least one other person. Stone's son was there and he heard the conversation exactly the same way. He just thought the men were playing his mother and him for suckers.
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While I could be jumping the gun -- the night is still young -- it now appears that their final answer is: They were talking about a car. They didn't say anything about 9/11 or 9/13, but the "bring it down" bon mot referred to bringing a car down to Florida. This occurred to them only after meeting with their lawyers. Oh, OK.

No one in the press has bothered to investigate the "car" story further. No one believes them, so what's the point? It would be like chasing down Gennifer Flowers to ask her if it really happened only "once."
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Instead of preying on America's hatred of prejudice, these aspiring Scottsboro Boys should capitalize on America's capacity for forgiveness, admit they did something really stupid, and stop lying.