British man Aditya Verma appears in Spanish court over plane-bomb hoax

BBC ^ | 01/22/2024 | Laura Gozzi

[verum ago]

A British man accused of public disorder after joking about blowing up a flight has gone on trial in Spain. Aditya Verma made the comment on Snapchat on his way to the island of Menorca with friends in July 2022. The message, sent before Mr Verma departed Gatwick airport, read: "On my way to blow up the plane (I'm a member of the Taliban)."

[verum ago]

An interesting case. He made a joke in a private Snapchat group (5 people total) which British intelligence intercepted in real time. They handed it over to the Spanish, who scrambled fighters to intercept the jetliner he was aboard.

The Spanish want him to pay for the cost of the intercept. (They're not charging him with terrorism or anything like that).

I guess I don't think he should be held responsible for British/Spanish intelligence's overreaction to his privately made statement. He cracked a tasteless joke that he didn't think anyone would 'overhear.' He wasn't actually making a threat.

I guess it boils down to: did Mr. Verma cause those jets to scramble, or was it the authorities? Who is actually responsible for the bill?

Also: if anyone here thinks Snapchat is secure, I guess you need to reevaluate that stance.

[Mount Athos]

He didn’t make this statement publicly at all, the government snooped on a private chat among 5 friends...

Hm. No way he could be validly charged

[NWFree]

They must have a lot of agents no wonder their taxes are so oppressive

[BenLurkin]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68056421?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

[nwrep]

He should pay and be deported back to Poonjab.

[Levy78]

“British man, Aditya Verma…”

What a joke… but then again, the UK LOVE their dots and Muslims so much they’ve decided to elect them as their leaders.

[EvilCapitalist]

British man? He doesn’t sound like a John Thomas.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“lot of agents” — hardly. There is lots of deep automation and deep AI looking for words and phrases like he used. Then the agents review and decide what to do.

It is revealing and instructive that they are watching every communication on virtually every platform. Including FR.

[takebackaustin]

If their concern were public safety, they should have shut up and eaten the costs, rather than revealing the extent and nature of the british monitoring and coordination with the Spanish military, and the speed and nature of their reaction. This could have been a test of the system.

The reaction such as this press release is some kind of amateurish virtue signaling or security theatre from Spain. I am not blaming the brits, the drama queen reaction came from Spain, which kind of blabbed on the brits’ sources and methods for no useful purpose.

[verum ago]

If their concern were public safety, they should have shut up and eaten the costs, rather than revealing the extent and nature of the british monitoring and coordination with the Spanish military, and the speed and nature of their reaction. This could have been a test of the system.

The reaction such as this press release is some kind of amateurish virtue signaling or security theatre from Spain. I am not blaming the brits, the drama queen reaction came from Spain, which kind of blabbed on the brits’ sources and methods for no useful purpose.

I failed to consider the "test" possibility of this all. Solid post.

(And based on my previous dealings with Spanish government employees, I can totally buy that their top two priorities are:
1) Don't interrupt my siesta
and
2) My life is so dramatic you cannot ignore me!
and
3) Don't interrupt my siesta*





*yes, that's 3 things, not two, congratulations: you're now part of my #2) DRAMA !!!