Man Caught Photographing Refinery in Texas

Fox News Channel ^ | 12/30/01 | Self

[The_Media_never_lie]

This morning on Fox News there was a report of a middle eastern man being noticed by an off duty policeman photographing a Diamond Shamrock oil refinery in Texas. The man was apprehended by law enforcement. When questioned, he did not come up with any logical explanation for his photographing the refinery. The Fox video report showed the man in custody. The report also showed his late model car which was found to contain only maps of undisclosed locations.

[SwatTeam]

I read in the San Antonio paper yesterday about this happening in
Corpus. Don't know if it is the same incident or not.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Stop the racial profiling!!!

Just thought I'd beat the liberals to the punch. Actually, espionage by foreigners should be closely watched. There has been credible intelligence that there will be furthur attacks. Asking him why he is photographing a likely target is not without merit.

[No Left Turn]

You can repair major damage on a pipeline a lot quicker than you can rebuild a refinery. And you won't kill people knocking out a remote oil line. You could kill thousands blowing up a refinery near residential areas. I live in NJ. If you took out the big Tosco Bayway refinery next to the Turnpike, you'd kill thousands driving by on the NJ Turnpike, as well as thousands more in Linden. You'd also cause much more economic dislocation, like the shutting of the NJ Turnpike portion of I-95, cutting off access to Port Newark, and destroying the electrical feed provided by the co-generation plant located at the refinery site. As I stated in my last post: Refineries should have armed defense teams, like nuclear plants do.

[OWK]

Anyone photographing Oil Refineries, power plants, public buildings, landmarks, tourist attractions, or the Statue of Liberty, will be shot in the head by authorities.

By order of the king.

[tubebender]

I think the general fear was one of them driving a rig with a trailer full of explosives (Tim McVeigh x 5 ?) to blow up buildings, collapse buildings, etc.

What do you know about the inspections given to those Shipping Containers that come in from all over the world? I heard there are 3 million shipped here each year and very few are inspected at the dock but I don't about once they are trailer mounted and on the hiway.

[Roebucks]

The facilities provide storage services for mixed natural gas liquids, ethane, propane, butanes, natural gasoline and olefins, such as ethylene, polymer-grade propylene, chemical-grade propylene and refinery-grade propylene.

Nita, very informative post! Thanks for taking the time to research this and post it.

ChaseR, this reminds me of a conversation we had not so long ago. But, it speaks well to your point that security at our refineries must surely be excellent. We can only hope so.

Look at all of the diferent fuels and chemicals, as well as the number of western states served by this refinery. If they are looking to cause major disruption economically, then this guy may very well have been al Queda or a sympathizer.

[Nita Nupress]

Any idea if it's possible to blow up an underground cavern? If I were a terrorist, a nation's emergency oil reserves would be what I'd call a target-rich environment.

Tapping oil reserve causes stir on campaign trail

The oil must first be flushed from domed salt storage caverns on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas, taken to refineries, and processed into heating oil. The process could take 40 to 50 days, which means the heating oil won't be available -- and its impact on prices felt -- until early November.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/oil/0011.htm

The government reserve, created in 1973, has about 571 million barrels of oil in a series of salt domes near the Texas-Louisiana border.

[motorhead]

There are probably keeping 72 virgins at the refinery.

[monkeywrench]

"They were not just seeking rig driving licences. They were also seeking HAZMAT licences" And weren't interested in learning how to brake. ;)

[deport]

[3catsanadog]

I hope these links come out OK; I just can't seem to get the hang of posting a link. Anyways they deal with illegal sales of HAZMAT licences here in the Pittsburgh area.

[week 71]

When questioned, he did not come up with any logical explanation for his photographing the refinery.

By going just by this report it is transparent this guy is up to no good. He needs to be deported...like yesterday!

[3catsanadog]

http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20011214hazmat1214p6.asp

http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20011108ferrarireg3p3.asp

I hope these links come out OK; I just can't seem to get the hang of posting a link. Anyways they deal with illegal sales of HAZMAT licences here in the Pittsburgh area.

Ok gotta try again - I cannot post links correctly. My bad.

[Hit & Run Poster]

Hey, Americans take pictures of Egyptian pyramids all the time.

[Bobby777]

it's probably a foregone conclusion ... target identification, assessment, evaluation, and prioritization ... a refinery would be an obvious target for one of these clowns in a stolen semi tanker truck ... I hope all truckers across the USA are wide-awake these days ... of course a dozen Teamsters could handle 100 of these zealots ...

[Barry Goldwater]

Register all cameras!

[VOA]

They were also seeking HAZMAT licences.

Then I stand corrected. And thank you for saving me future embarassment on the issue.
But...if they were obtaining any sort of license that would allow them
to cruise the roads of the USA with large trucks (up to semis), then it doesn't take
too much thinking "outside the box" to see sleepers with a grin on their faces as they
roll a big truck bomb into a refinery.

[Humidston]

Hubby (who is retired from oil business) thinks it's in San Antonio.

[roachie]

Texans don't take crap from anyone. We don't put up with this kind of garbage.

I was driving around town and went to Beaumont yesterday and saw a couple cool billboards put up: "TERRORISTS-DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS" and under it, "Remember The Alamo." Flanked by Old Glory and the Texas State Flag. Moving. 'Specially with Alan Jackson singing "Where were you" on the radio.