Suspicious Canadian big-rig (Remember this post-9/11 news story?)

[Poll_Blind]

I'm normally fairly adroit at finding things online but I'm having problems finding this old news story. It went something like the following:

2 middle-eastern men driving an 18-wheeler pull into a (Texas? Oklahoma?) gas station for a fill-up. Except they have no idea how to fill the tanks and require a good deal of assistance to refuel it. The attendant considers this highly suspicious and makes note of their license plate. The FBI releases a full account of the event along with the license plate number, identifying it as Canadian. They go so far as to indicate that the big-rig is from a specific Canadian territory like Manitoba or Ottawa- hell I'm bad with Canadian geography, those may not even be territories.

At the time I had all the information in front of me and I started researching the story only to find that the territory in question had never, ever, produced license plates with that syntactic style. Yes, there were actually websites about the history of Canadian license plates- God I love the web.

So I called the FBI at the branch that was investigating and told whomever the duty officer was the information.

Anyway, it was at least two years ago and I can't remember enough keywords on the story to find it.

Does anyone recall this?

When I am retired, if America still exists, I will go through all these weird news stories and attempt to make some sense of them with whatever information has come to light by then.

Thank you for any recollections. It was posted here at DU, if I recall.

PB

[SidDithers]

1. Manitoba is a province...

which is kind of like a state. Ottawa is a city, and is our Capital - kind of like Washington DC.

Sid

[salvorhardin]

3. I didn't know you were a Candian!

Howdy neighbor. Well, if you live in southern Ontario or Quebec provinces you're kind of my neighbor. Central NYS here.

[SidDithers]

7. 'burb of Toronto...

howdy neighbour! :)

We still manage to get down to Buffalo for a Bills game once a year.

Sid

[file83]

2. Why are you interested in this old story anyway?

I looked around, did several variations of searches but nothing similar to what you described turned up.

Why do you think it's even important? Just curious.

[Poll_Blind]

6. One of my biggest "pet" hobbies are studies of truth and information....

...systems- basically how information spreads from one person or group or intellectual sphere to another. For instance let's say there's some information which is important to BOTH NASCAR fans and microbiologists. But only the NASCAR fans and their existing information structures (web sites, word of mouth, word of mouth at races, what-have-you) know about it. I'm very interested, personally, in tracking how the information spreads from one intellectual sphere (which doesn't imply level of intelligence, necessarily) to another. If not, why not and what hindered the flow?

For instance, a few years ago during the standoff between India and Pakistan there was a report which I could only find in the Hindustan Times about a certain Indian general, IIRC, who'd positioned his tank battalion well-forward of all the others and whose posture with that armor was pre-strike attack posture. It appeared as though this general, reading between the lines, might have wanted to "start some shit" with the Pakistanis which could have touched off an actual nuclear exchange between the two groups. The Bush administration actually alerted the Indian government to this matter (including satellite photos) and the general was relieved of duty which implies that there was a good deal more to this rogue general's behavior than the article was aware of.

But this information never left India. Why not? Understanding the flow of information from one country to another, from one intellectual sphere to another interests me a great deal.

A more personally compelling example. There are news stories at a state or county level which never become national news. Let's say that an Alabama state trooper's car is hit by a high-powered .223 rifle round. Could be from a number of things or reasons. However, in four other states on the same day something similar happens. But outside of law enforcement aggregation, which I am not privy to, the information goes unrecognized nationally. However, only after aggregating this information could you say "Well, is there a pattern here? Who's taking shots at state troopers and why?"

This "arab truck driver" story piqued my interest and I wanted to do a life-cycle model of the story now that it's "dead". I'm interested in seeing where it moved from and where to in an attempt to understand why as opposed to another story with X or Y content.

Sorry for the long answer- it's Saturday and I'm caffeined-up.

PB

[mirandapriestly]

4. Here's an old DU thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=38796&forum=DCForumID60

[Poll_Blind]

5. Sir or Madam thank you -very- much!

I am something close to an ace when it comes to searching for material online. Then cross-referencing and searching again. It makes me feel inadequate when I cannot find what I'm looking for and I hate asking for "help" which I internally equate with asking someone to do my work for me.

I want to thank you again for pulling this one up for me... :toast:

PB