WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday Americans should keep telling authorities of suspicious behavior that could indicate a terrorist threat, despite a recent false alarm involving three Muslim medical students.
“People across the country should continue to report anything that they believe is unusual behavior and let the law enforcement authorities make the proper judgements,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
“We wish all the information could be unfaultingly wrong -- that’s not always the case. But does that mean that people should just look the other way when they think that something may be amiss? Of course not,” he said.
The Bush administration has urged citizens to be on alert for potential threats in the wake of last year’s Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
But that effort was questioned in the wake of the incident earlier this month in which three Muslim medical students were stopped on the Florida highway after a woman told police she overheard them talking about what she thought was a plot against Miami.
Florida police stopped the men near the toll plaza and closed the highway for more than 14 hours while questioning them and searching their cars for explosives. They found nothing suspicious and released the three -- all U.S. citizens -- and called the incident a false alarm.
“These incidents are some of the sad reminders of what terrorism can do to the fabric of a country,” Fleischer said.