Um…laugh everyone? Ha ha? No? Guess not.
I can kinda understand the pressures young men of Arab descent might be under in this post-9/11 fear factory. I might even be able to picture them sitting in a restaurant next to a busybody white lady, saying “Hey, let’s get a rise outta this broad. (louder) DID YOU BRING DE BOMB, ACHMED? IS EET EEN DE CAR?” But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that crying “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater (or “Bomb!” on a loaded airplane) is A REALLY DUMB THING TO DO.
Apparently, it takes someone smarter than a medical student, however: The Miami Herald | 09/13/2002 | Feds: Three suspects played stupid joke.
Oh, and don’t think I’m blaming the “busybody white lady” either. I’m actually comforted by the fact that someone can report something like this and the authorities will really do something about it. The idiots in the car are the bad guys, not her….as long as Ashcroft and Company don’t turn this into an advertisement for Project TIPS…
UPDATE: Well, there I go again…falling hook-line-and-sinker for a media story, instead of waiting for Larry King… I saw the three students interviewed on both Larry King Live and on FoxNews (might as well get spun from both angles). Not only did they seem like rational, intelligent young men–and not the sort that would pull a stupid stunt like this–but it turns out that security cameras even put lie to the claim that they ran the toll booth! I’m so ashamed of myself.
Unfortunately, Jeb made comments about her doing the “right thing” that really made me think about TIPS.
I felt it was a hoax this morning when I wrote about it — nice to see my instincts are right.
And what the heck would anybody want with Alligator Alley, anyways? 🙂
I don’t know, I never really was a conspiracy theorist BEFORE.
But here’s the facts: A woman says she heard three middle-eastern-ish men talking threateningly. I’ve dealt with liars before, and the sentences she quotes do not sound made up; if she was making up something to get them in trouble, it would probably be much more provocative, and she probably would have come up with more each time the police questioned her.
Then they don’t pay a toll. Okay, no big deal by itself.
But then the dogs react to the cars as if explosive material were inside. Then a package with wires hanging out was found (but only had medical equipment inside). Why didn’t they just label the package ‘bomb’ and make it obvious?
I think these guys set out to discredit anyone who would react to their statements. This was a sting operation designed to make our TIPS system cry wolf. 2 or 3 incidents like this, and no one will listen to a TIPS whistleblower ever again, once again giving terrorists an excellent opportunity to exploit the freedoms of our civil rights.
The suspects’ story changed at least once from “we were only joking” to “she was making it all up”. And if you can get arrested and fined for asking an airport employee if he is looking for an assault rifle among the slips of paper in your wallet, then you certainly should be able to arrest someone for joking about a terrorist action.
I have no qualms about arresting these morons, but to imagine it was some crusade to discredit TIPS is a bit of a stretch. If anything, this makes it more likely that people will come forth with information, since they know the authorities will actually do something!