Posted on 09/12/2009 2:51:37 PM PDT by Cindy
Note: Photo included.
SNIPPET: "That's the way Nick George, a senior at Pomona College, in California, sees what happened to him at the Philadelphia airport two Saturdays ago.
George, of Wyncote, Montgomery County, was about to catch a Southwest flight back to school when stereo speakers in his backpack caught the eye of screeners at the metal detector.
When they looked though his bag, George said, they found his Arabic/English flash cards, and escorted him to a side screening area.
He figures it didn't help that his passport had stamps from Jordan, where he'd studied a semester, and Egypt and Sudan, where he'd gone backpacking.
And among his 200 flash cards were words like "terrorist" and "explosion." He was learning to translate the Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera."
SNIPPET: "Lt. Louis Liberati said, just as Davis did, that TSA personnel initially selected George because of something in his behavior.
But Liberati said that it was the stuff that the TSA found in George's backpack and wallet that really aroused their suspicion: the Arabic flash cards with troubling words, a card that had George's name and Arabic script, and the longer hair in George's driver's license and passport photos than his current clean-cut appearance.
That's "an indicator sometimes that somebody may have gone through a radicalization," Liberati explained.
Liberati said nothing about "escalating behavior." Liberati said police checked with the FBI, and the feds decided that they wanted to come and interview George."
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Thanks to Velveeta at The Threat Matrix.com for the ping and pointing to this incident.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549564,00.html
“TSA Defends Holding Student With Arabic Flash Cards at Philadelphia Airport”
Saturday, September 12, 2009
SNIPPET: “The Transportation Security Administration is defending its treatment of a California college student who was detained at the Philadelphia airport after Arabic flash cards were found in his backpack.
Nick George, a senior at Pomona College, told a Philadelphia Daily News columnist that the stereo speakers he was carrying in his bag on Aug. 29 led TSA workers to pull him out of the metal detector line and search him.
When they found 200 Arabic/English flash cards in his carry-on, they escorted him to another screening area and questioned him for about 45 minutes, he said.
Suspicions may have been raised because his passport had stamps from Jordan, where he’d studied abroad, and from his trips to Egypt and the Sudan, the News reported. It didn’t help that “terrorist” and “explosion” were among the words on his flash cards — which George says he was using to help him understand Al Jazeera TV.”
That's "an indicator sometimes that somebody may have gone through a radicalization," Liberati explained.
Probably true -- many lefties have "cleaned-up" externally in the last couple years, hoping to appear more acceptable.
Or are you leading the charge downhill to the DU/KOS level?
Take your foul mouth and attitude elsewhere.
Yep. Looks like a nice kid and of course noting he’s white.
#
Off [Thread] Topic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/whitealqaeda/index?tab=articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/whitejihadis/index?tab=articles
Obama’s fault.
Not for nothing. But I don’t think the TSA over reacted at all.
For what it’s worth, Adam Gadahn didn’t always look like a jihadi freak. Especially considering he’s half-Jewish.
It all sounds reasonable to me. Good for the TSA.
I agree.
He looked a mixed geek, nerd, and hippie.
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Here’s more photos of Gadahn:
http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/index.cfm?page=gadahn&language=english
“Wanted
Adam Yahiye Gadahn
Up to $1 Million Reward”
I agree - he had enough flags not only to be detained but to be watched in the future. This would not be the first time that someone was testing the ATF.
I was once detained at Lod airport in Israel on very circumstantial eveidence. Each time I detected that a part of my story/account was setting off alarms in the heads of those questioning I made the mistake of saying how I understood something looked bad. My familiarity with their concerns only warranted more questioning. At the last minute - I was allowed to board the plane and was seated in the section among others being watched. The interrogation was fine - but my new seat companions made the 9 hour flight a sleepless one.
bump
(Imagine how terrorists could take advantage of this security failure--send a few low-level know-nothings through the checkpoint with with Arabic-English dictionaries and large bottles of Gatorade to distract the screeners while the real fighters go through unimpeded.)
I think someone once said something derisive about people who give up liberty in exchange for the illusion of security. Unfortunately, there are always those eager to participate in security theater, and they force the rest of the audience to participate, too.
I don’t like him. Too handsome for a young man.
Guilty. /s
As much heat as TSA gets for shaking down granmas, in this case they had more than enough probable cause to detain this young man-—innocent or not. Good job TSA!
Every time we think we have the system fine tuned enough to keep out of most passengers’ hair, some bastard comes up with a new plot like mixing small amounts of liquid to cause an explosion that might take a craft down, and upsets the applecart for everybody. That’s the point of the terrorism.
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