I always find these articles amusing....

No terror tie seen in Picatinny incident

The two men who prompted a security alert at Picatinny Arsenal had no connection with terrorism, and only one was charged with unlawfully photographing the military base, authorities said on Monday.

The security scare had prompted the closure of Route 15 for several hours on Sunday while authorities detained the men and investigated the scene.

Denis S. Ayzenberg, 26, of Lawrenceville, Ga., was charged with violating a federal statute that deems it illegal for anyone to possess a "photograph, sketch, picture, drawing, map, or graphical representation of such vital military and naval installations or equipment without first obtaining permission of the commanding officer of the military post."

Ayzenberg and another man, who was not charged and was not identified by authorities, were seen taking photographs of Picatinny from the inside of their tan Nissan Pathfinder on Sunday afternoon, after base police had asked them to leave about 30 minutes earlier, said Picatinny Garrison Commander Lt. Col. John Stack.

The SUV was stopped on Route 15 South, alongside a grassy divide that separates southbound Route 15 from a small side street, West Union Turnpike.

Picatinny police saw that Ayzenberg was concealing a digital camera under a jacket on his lap. Other items that could be used for surveillance, including a laptop, were on the floor of the vehicle. Officers also found a notebook written in a foreign language, along with a sentence in English that read, "Picatinny Arsenal: Take a picture of the red building." There also were several bags authorities on the scene could not open, Stack said.

The men told authorities that a girlfriend who grew up in the area had asked them to take pictures to see how it had changed.

"Their story didn't seem to pan out," Stack said. "These devices could have been used for potential surveillance, and it was unclear whether this was related to terrorism, so we called in experts."

The foreign language turned out to be Hebrew, and the two men, described by authorities as Russian and Belarusian Orthodox Jews, were deemed by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force to have no terrorist connections, authorities said. They were held overnight while a more in-depth investigation was conducted by the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and Rockaway Township Police, Stack said.

The Prosecutor's Office had no information to release on the case, a spokeswoman said Monday evening.

"The end result was that there was no evidence of wrongdoing other than that they were on the installation, taking pictures," Stack said. "The important thing is that we did our due diligence to ensure no criminality before the suspects were released."

Ayzenberg is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony Mautone on April 29. If found guilty, he could face maximum statutory penalties of up to one year in prison and/or unspecified fines.

Stack said authorities at Picatinny base employ "adaptive security measures" and have taken "precautions and are making adjustments so there are no patterns in the way we react to incidents."

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, who periodically visits the base, applauded the way the investigation was handled by Picatinny and law enforcement officials.

"Senior leaders at the arsenal report that they have established a top-flight security system," Frelinghuysen said in an e-mailed statement. "The people of Picatinny and residents of the surrounding communities deserve no less."

During the incident on Sunday, Route 15 South was closed between Route 80 and Berkshire Valley Road for several hours, and was reopened around 7:30 p.m., after the SUV was towed from the scene.

Picatinny Arsenal spokeswoman Tonya Townsell said the base regretted closing down Route 15, which delayed traffic and caused backups on Berkshire Valley Road.

Did you get the part about foreign handwriting found in the van along with a laptop computer, instructions to photograph a particular building and several bags the authorities couldn't open? This observer wonders why the two different languages, English and Hebrew....unless the Hebrew writing was a religious scripture. Foreign religious texts are a sure sign of suicide bombers, or so we've been led to believe, as it applies to members of the Islamic faith. Both of the men in the above article were identified as orthodox Jews so that means we have nothing to fear. Hiding a digital camera....and secured bags the authorities couldn't open, beg the question what pictures were taken and what was in the bags? We'll never find out, but it is interesting to see the presumption of innocence so quickly given to some while laboriously denied to others.