Posted on 10/01/2007 9:07:46 AM PDT by Weight of Glory
The Transportation Security Administration announced Monday that it has stepped up screenings of remote-control toys in carry-on luggage.
Though the increased screenings are not tied to a specific terrorist threat, "TSA is aware that remote control toys can be used to initiate devices used in terrorist attacks," the agency said Monday in a press statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
best to connect the html, too!
So can cell phones if TSA has been keeping up.
Thanks for Michelle’s link. Knew this morning when FNC announced there was nothing more to the banning of RC toys that there was much, much more to the story. This will only end when the ME is blown off the face of the earth or we all fly “au natural” on planes.
Thanks! And contrary to your screen-name, you did add value to my post, thanks!
Here’s the story that triggered this, I believe (no pun intended).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001648.html?nav=rss_nation
There was a movie where an RC car was used as an assassination device. I think it was Clint Eastwood’s “Dead Pool.”
Fercryingoutloud!
Here is the original "harmless (FBI), overreaction (FBI) story"...
Here is a follow up:
Somewhere along the line, the way to find the story changed from "Egyptian-students-Pipe-Bombs" to "The Goose Creek Incident"; innocuous? misleading? Meant-to-imply a disconnect? make it as vague as possible so most readers can't connect the dots?
The MSM breeds a smarter type of propagandist when they must report the news, without actually saying anything of value to the reader!
Here, from the Michelle Malkin link is the meat of the story: yes, they were terrorist sympathizers, doing a little explosives research to aid their "palestinian" friends and those in Iraq...
…Mohamed’s laptop also contained a 12-minute video on transforming a toy remote-controlled car into a detonator. The face of the man narrating the video wasn’t seen, but FBI investigators said Mohamed admitted it was him.
“He explained that he made the tape to assist those persons in Arabic countries to defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries,” McTavish said in his statement.
And Mohamed “added that the technology which he demonstrated in the tape was to be used against those who fought for the United States,” he said.
Hello?
FBI?
Anybody conscious there?
And at least one episode of The Unit.
All of these “investigators” just got a clue after watching the video on youtube. A statement was issued today by the TSA, (I think) that these types of “toys” should not be carried in carryon luggage any longer. Duh!!
Thanks for the link on the “youts”.
Are these people really that stupid?
OMG. We've become a nation of complete idiots.
Perhaps it would be better if they just eliminate carry on luggage and require everyone to put on hospital gowns prior to boarding the aircraft.
wrong information is being posted: Fact: ‘you may notice additional screening’.
Read this for accurate information:
http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/remote_control_vehicles.shtm
A “more intense search”. I feel better already.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/us/nationalspecial3/02tsa.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — Citing “credible specific information” about terror tactics, Transportation Security Administration officers nationwide on Monday stepped up their scrutiny of passengers carrying remote-control toys aboard airplanes.
The move was not motivated by a specific terror plot, said Kip Hawley, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security in charge of aviation security. But there is concern both in the United States and internationally that common remote-control toys could be used to detonate a bomb as part of a terror plot.
The aviation authorities decided against banning the devices in carry-on bags. But people carrying remote-control toys — including children — could be subject to a more intense search, in which the passenger is patted down and the baggage is checked by hand, officials said.
The new policy comes just days after the federal authorities in South Carolina disclosed that a Florida college student arrested in August on explosive-related charges had made a video that he posted on YouTube showing how to use such a remote-control toy as a detonator.
Mr. Hawley acknowledged in an interview Monday that this video played a role in the new policy. But it was just one piece of intelligence that led to the change. Remote-control toys might have been used already by terrorists in Sri Lanka and India, one federal official noted.
“A lot of that work is sorting through dots,” Mr. Hawley said of the different intelligence leads that produced the heightened scrutiny. “This is a dot that just came up with enough granularity that it seemed we should take direct action on it.”
The federal authorities considered simply making the change at airports in the United States without announcing it. But instead they decided to disclose the new policy, while encouraging passengers to put remote-control toys in checked luggage to avoid the additional scrutiny at the checkpoint, Mr. Hawley said.
“Everybody knows there is an intelligence and law enforcement community out there, that there are people seeking to do us harm,” he said. “This is just the tangible manifestation of that.”
The new scrutiny for remote-control toys will not extend to devices that automatically open car doors or to television remote controls, a T.S.A. spokeswoman said.
In the South Carolina case, the authorities found a 12-minute Arabic language video on the computer of Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, an Egyptian student at University of South Florida. A narrator in the video explains how to convert a toy car into a detonator for a bomb, a search warrant affidavit filed in federal court in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday says.
my point exactly, it is more accurate to read TSA’s information than the media’s interpretation. As you can see, this article has conflicting information from what TSA is saying. We should all know by now that the media loves to confuse people and twist the truth. Keep it simple and go straight to the source, I posted the link.
Sometimes the media has it wrong, sometimes they get it right. I would venture to say that government agencies work the same way - sometimes they get it right, but sometimes they get it wrong.
Most people understand that when these agencies make mistakes, the consequences can be devastating.
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