When did “taking photographs” become “suspicious behavior” on a plane? Because that’s exactly what caused an entire United flight to return to its gate, be evacuated and inspected, leave 2.5 hours late and forced to make an additional stop because of the delay.
According to Denver’s Channel 7, the United flight to Santa Ana, CA, had left the gate and preparing to take off, when a passenger reported suspicious activity — that is, taking photos — by a trio of passengers.
The plane returned to the gate, where it was met by police and the TSA. The obviously dangerous trio, along with their accuser, were questioned by authorities while the entire plane was evacuated and swept for terrorist-type stuff… like credit card readers, we guess.
With just about every Tom, Dick and Harry having a cellphone with a camera in it, someone is bound to take a picture of something, somewhere, sometime.
The original story link lacks any detail as to what was the “suspicious” behavior, other than taking pictures.
Not sure if this is another case of overreaction or what, but it looks like it.
Taking pictures while brown skinned ?
@#2: “According to the TSA, the four suspects were questioned in the terminal and were released. Witnesses described the suspects as middle aged. Two are Caucasian and two are of Middle-Eastern descent.” http://www.nationalterroralert.com/2011/04/22/suspicious-passengers-taken-off-united-flight/
Taking pictures while middle aged male. One of rare groups still fully allowed to be discriminated against.
Man, we’d never get to Montréal if that shit went on the train.
Everybody is out there in the dining car taking pictures while the guide points out attraction after feature after nuclear power plant after military institute after… You get the idea…
Guy in grey military fatigues: Who ist your travel agent?
Guy in old, dirty civilian threads: Das Reich Zug.
Guy in black uniform with close cropped blond hair and a Heidelburg dueling scar: Zey are zee ones with das great motto: Ve take you there … und forget about you.
#Winning
DuH!
The passengers should have all taking turns giving the passenger that reported the “suspicious” activity a fat nookie on the head so he’d think twice about reporting someone taking pics as suspicious.
He must have been a walmart shopper that was hypnotized by “see something say something” carpet bombing on the overhead LCD’s..
oivay..
-s
Makes a change for diverting planes because of Jews praying I suppose
http://www.onlinetravelreview.com/2011/03/13/religious-jews-tefillin-once-again-causes-flight-to-be-met-by-fbi-agents/
The US is stuck with this nonsense permanently now. I was talking with a high tech company that has offices all over the world and their number 1 reason for choosing to open a Vancouver office over a Seattle office was the TSA and general travel goofiness in the US.
It’s a drain on the US economy with zero benefit.
In # 12 foobar said:drain on the US economy with zero benefit.
I wouldn’t say so…
Its a race to the bottom and Americans want to win.
#12 “The US is stuck with this nonsense permanently now.”
We are as long as Janet Napolitano is around. She will not say anything bad about TSA or admit it made an error.
#14 Attention deficit syndrome
Denver Story
http://thedenverchannel.com/news/27636584/detail.html
i haven’t flown united since the age of ten i hate them they left me at the gate when i was flying alone when i was ten.
The seige mentality must be maintained, as it is integral to the empire.
The citizens would never submit to the state’s criminal behaviors, were the perpetual wars to end, for the perpetual war fosters the perpetual fear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_war
If I were the airline the passenger that made the report would go on my no fly list.
A relative of mine got a commendation for reporting a suspicious looking person who was taking photographs of a place that some fear will be the target of a terrorist attack..
The guy was arrested but ended up just being a tourist guilty of being brown. My relative got the award anyway!
I asked him if he ever _really_ thought the photographer was a terrorist and, after a lot of waffling, he admitted, “no.”
That’s just wrong, in a bunch of different ways.
Inform on your friends and family – win valuable prizes!
When you are flying, report every activity that can possible be construed as suspicious. If every flight had at least a couple of reports of suspicious activity, the airlines and TSA would be forced to find better and more efficient ways of handling these reports.
The TSA is not going to improve on its own. Responsible citizens must take action.
The TSA were correct to investigate. What I read is that terrorists plan and recon. The London bombers posed as tourists to photograph the underground stations months ahead of the bombings. I know it is uncomfortable and inconvenient, but security is everyones responsibility, not just the men and women in uniform.
sargasso_c:
What’s there to recon about the interior of a plane? It’s pretty much a tube with seats in it, and a few doors. And like someone else else in a previous post, anybody with a camera phone could surreptitiously acquire photos without being obvious (aka: every single passenger). So they should just ban all passengers from boarding. Problem solved!
They really should posts signs saying: “WARNING: People who look Arab (ie: Hispanic, Asian, Black, Jewish, Native, or Oriental) Shouldn’t Take Photos As It Will Scare The Non-Arab Looking People”
The good news is that they detained the guy who reported the activity. So, chicken little paid the price along with his innocent victims.
>> sargasso_c said, on April 25th, 2011 at 11:30 pm
>> The TSA were correct to investigate. What I read is that terrorists plan and recon. The London bombers posed as tourists to photograph the underground stations months ahead of the bombings. I know it is uncomfortable and inconvenient, but security is everyones responsibility, not just the men and women in uniform.
Terrorists also sneeze. Should we also report everyone who sneezes?
Seriously, it’s crazy to report everyone who does a routine activity, so only the suspicious-looking people get reported. (aka brown people) The story doesn’t report on the ethnicity of the “perps” but you know that brown “Araby-looking” guys are going to get reported more than white people.
>> rr said, on April 26th, 2011 at 3:34 am
>> The good news is that they detained the guy who reported the activity. So, chicken little paid the price along with his innocent victims.
My thoughts exactly! If people know that _they_ will also get retained, it will make them less likely to glibly give in to their own prejudices and to seriously consider whether someone might be a terrorist.
Why weren’t these people arrested at the camera store? Terrorists recon with cameras, right? Just arrest everybody who buys a camera and we’ll all be safe. Think of the children!
No, wait! What about the people who SELL them the cameras? Obviously aiding and abetting!
No, wait! Why don’t we just arrest everybody who MAKES cameras. THEN we’ll be safe!
No, wait! Cameras have to be made from raw materials, right? Why don’t we just arrest the MINERS?
No, wait!……
Terrorists were also reported to have been studying the timetables for the tube trains.
In response to this the timetables have been classified top secret and the arrival times of all buses and trains have been randomized to prevent terrorists planning their attacks
Also beware of anyone wearing a Casio watch
http://guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-interrogators-al-qaida-taliban#the-sign-of-al-qaida
Wenn Sie etwas sehen, etwas sagen.
If you see something…
GOOD little slaves.