Comments on: Close, But No Terrorist

By: jc

jc — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 03:09:30 +0000

What is really scary about this report is the complaceny of the police officer. It is clear that the TSA screeners were doing their job. A middle eastern male, traveling alone, with a jury-rigged electronic device with wires and stuff protruding should set off all kinds of alarms. The police officer obviously believes that his “airport” detail is keeping him from really important work, catching hookers and pulling over old ladies for speeding.

By: Ima Observer

Ima Observer — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 02:36:08 +0000

Quote: The man has been here LEGALLY for 12 years. The man had an alarm clock. A battery was taped to it. The man had worn out shoes (imagine that — a poor immigrant who doesn’t have brand new Nike Airs or Allen Richmond dress shoes). The man of foreign tongue wrongly answered the question, possibly out of fear or misunderstanding or language difficulties,about whether he had a common consumer item — a laptop. NO explosives were found on his person. there is NO way to piece together the items in his possession to create a bomb. Quote
With the timing mechanism at hand all he needed was a simple ignitor and the truck he would be driving at his new job to create a big hole where thousands had lived.
12 years in the country doesnt make him a loyal citizen, some of the terrorists and potential terrorists are native born citizens. Some are just idiotic radicals like some others that respond to threads like this.

By: AB

AB — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 02:46:23 +0000

I think our reaction to this non-story is a frightening indication of just how parnoid we have become. I completely understand taking every precaution and pulling anyone aside for questioning who acts at all quirky. I understand and agree with terrorist profiling, including country of origin, etc. But what I do NOT approve is how all of us are capable of CONVICTING and CONDEMNING a guy based on WHAT? A BATTERY. TAPED TO AN ALARM CLOCK. AND SOME WORN OUT SHOES. SO-THE-HECK-WHAT?? It has already been reported that his shoes were not hollowed out, but rather worn out and had insoles removed. This is like…I don’t know…Animal Farm…or that book where the village stones people to death at random. Pure hysteria. Everyone keeps pointing out the alarm clock and battery…alarm clock and battery…for crying out loud, people..can somebody PLEASE explain to me — WHAT IS SO SIGNIFICANT ABOUT AN ALARM CLOCK AND A BATTERY!? I will give 100 bucks to the first person whose name is not McGyver and who can coherently explain HOW it is even POSSIBLE to construct a bomb with an alarm clock and a battery??? Hmmmm??? People are going absolutely insane — alarm clocks and batteries are cheap props used on bad television shows…AND NOTHING MORE. You people are so mindnumbed by watching your 5 hours a day of crappy television programs that you have lost your objectivity. A laptop has a battery — if the guy was going to construct a bomb with a battery, why wouldn’t he use THAT battery? And what is the significance of taping it to the clock? Can someone please explain how taping a battery to a clock poses an explosive threat?? At least if it were IN the clock it could complete a circuit.
Just stop for one moment to get your head on straight and consider the facts — not your paranoid and elaborate, fanciful imaginations constructed from years of mind-numbing television plots. The man has been here LEGALLY for 12 years. The man had an alarm clock. A battery was taped to it. The man had worn out shoes (imagine that — a poor immigrant who doesn’t have brand new Nike Airs or Allen Richmond dress shoes). The man of foreign tongue wrongly answered the question, possibly out of fear or misunderstanding or language difficulties,about whether he had a common consumer item — a laptop. NO explosives were found on his person. there is NO way to piece together the items in his possession to create a bomb. Further stop to consider how this might have impacted the man. I know all of you here are convinced this man was a terrorist, but stop to consider that he was one of the MANY, MANY legal immigrants who come to this great land for all its opportunity, and the man works hard for his family and his livelihood, the man is going to work a job where he can earn money to pay his bills, feed his wife and kid, and yes, perhaps, even buy himself a new pair of shoes eventually. And now he is stuck in a land where everyone automatically assumes he is guilty, and everyone has already condemned him….how would you cope in that situation?

By: Lachlan

Lachlan — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 08:23:49 +0000

Been in te country 12 years and
cant afford a pair of shoes ?
Flea market Laptop alarm clock ?
Get real, this guy is either
fishing for attention or is not
playing with a full deck.

By: Hmmm

Hmmm — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 14:33:51 +0000

The TSA doesn’t know what they’re doing. Do you see the screener’s in the airport, they are not highly trained federal specialists. These are the same people who were confused by a test pattern on an x-ray machine (at least the test pattern worked).

By: Brian Christopher

Brian Christopher — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 13:38:13 +0000

I do not buy into the reasoning that this man’s curious mind and inventive nature led him to develop an alarm clock out of a lap top computer. By that logic one could also walk into a bank with a ski mask and when people begin to react one can simply pass it off as having eclectic fashion taste. There are some things you DON’T do: Entering an airport with an instrument that could be construed as an explosive device is one of them.
Secondly, if one is intelligent enough to make an alarm clock from batteries and an old lap top, one is also intelligent enough to not bring it to the airport.
What this guy did was wrong. He knew when he woke up that morning that bringing a device as such would cause pandimonium at the airport. Ladies and Gentlemen this is how one gets their 15 minutes of fame. He made it to the pages of the Houston Chronicle, ABCNEWS, ABCNEWS.COM and now has received over 66 blogged entries. He knew that since it wasn’t an actual bomb that nothing could be done. What he probably didn’t think about was the possible loss of his job. We forget that a job is a privilege, not a right. When the FBI snoopes around your place of employment and begins asking questions about you, you can bet your last paycheck that your relationship with your employer is now over. Most companies would rather pay severance or unemployment than deal with a person that is perceived to be a security risk and therefor a threat to the company, its employees, its customers, its vendors, and its property.

By: DEEDEE

DEEDEE — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:44:40 +0000

#1, I understand THERE IS A PROFILE THAT FITS THE 9/11 ATTACK PERSONNEL. Arabic. So,people will be cautious of Arabic people in airports. But, lest you all forget. 9/11 WAS AN ACT OF WAR, and it was a long time coming. Had Bush not been elected, it may have never happened. But, now we have a terrorist in our White House, according to the rest of the world, and all Americans are under suspicion outside of America.

By: Scott MacKenzie

Scott MacKenzie — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 02:28:53 +0000

As G. Gordon Liddy said – This used to be a free country when I was a boy….
I have had my run-ins with TSA (Twits Standing Around or They Steal Anything). I am on 4-10 flights a week. Once I missed a flight because some genius at TSA would not take my passport – they wanted to see REAL identification – like a driver’s license. All I had on me was my Passport (US)…I had to go thru 2 levels of mismanagement to finally be allowed on a plane. Missed the flight and most of my connections. So I had to go though the whole thing all over – and the same thing occurred. After being severely gate groped and interrogated I finally made it to my flight….BTW – the airport was DSM (DeMoine IA)….
There is a reason our forefathers created the second amendment – to guard against a tyrannical government. I fear the current government far more than any terrorist. I find it appalling that the sheep-people allow this to continue.
“Those who give up necessary liberty for security deserve neither” paraphrased from Ben Franklin….

By: GearHead

GearHead — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:24:52 +0000

As a past Nerd who would take my old Radio Shack computer and do stupid things with it to see if it can be done, I can relate to this guy.
And for you people who are judging what he did with his laptop and why would he do something so stupid to connect it to a alarm clock (or what ever) doesn’t understand the curious mind. It’s this type of curiosity which have the potential of becoming the “Bill Gates” or “Steve Wozniak” or whoever.

By: Louie Cornwall

Louie Cornwall — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 23:14:14 +0000

Yeah the trucking company should rehire him and let him haul a trailer with a huge LNG tank