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.

[Disgusted in Texas]

Not to make light of it by any means ,but prices wouldn't be the only thing skyrocketing..We live on the door steps of these refineries.When the WTC disaster occured ,both ends of the ship channel were immediatly closed.Let's hope they find out right away what the fellow was up to.

[Right_in_Virginia]

"Maybe he's a Secret Service agent on his way to the ranch and got lost?"

Lol!! But, let's be careful not to make the president mad as "heck".

[gg188]

Actually, when it comes to killing the economy, they had the right idea with Manhattan. Within Manhattan a HUGE chunk of the nation's and the world's commerce resides. If they bring a suitcase or dirty nuke next time, and make the city uninhabitable for a few hundred millenia, killing a few tens of thousands of people, the world can be plunged into depression and chaos.

I guess you could say, we---the USA---are target rich for the ragheads.

The economy took quite a hit on 9/11, and that was a relatively small incident compared to what we know these morons are capable of.

[Windy-Dave]

Keep this in mind, the Texas City Explosion was caused by a super fertilizer bomb when a ship blew up. Unfortunately for those working at the refinery itself they became engulfed in the conflgration from that ship explosion loaded with Ammonium Nitrate Fertilizer. A second ship also exploded creating an equally devastating circumstance to deal with, hundreds of people were killed outright and injured. Another thing to consider is that these ships were being loaded and did not have a full to capacity cargo onboard. If it happened when fully loaded there was every chance nothing would have been left of the ship channel in Houston! The refinery was apparently on-line and operating normally until the ships exploded, then as a result the refinery became totally engulfed as a result!

Any refinery that goes critical for any reason creates catastrophic destruction unlike anything you can imagine. LPG rail cars or ship tankers add a dimension of unbeliveable magnatitude!

Petro chemical refineries are particularly worrysome because of the "light Ends" refined there. Budadiene and Ethylene plus styrene products are different from Oil Refineries that produce Gasoline, Kerosene and light heating oils. One thing that they all have in common however is that they all are explosive in nature and burn fiercely. This is a industry I have worked in for several years and make no mistake, the critical pressures and temperatures involved leave margin for error.

As noted earlier these facilities are a prime target for terrorism because in fact they are not many of them scattered about. Because of their extreme volitility and the products they are concerned with, many are located in remote regions away from concentrated populations. This is not always the case however because urban sprall has encroached on many of these facilities.

Our large and diverse nation has many loopholes that need to be closed. Large storage facilities are not to be left out and if I saw anyone no matter what nationality seeking to or actually involved in taking pictures of our stragetic national resources they would be immediately reported on and removed from the location.

[Disgusted in Texas]

Sir ,no saracasm intended ,but I can see from your profile that you do not live here on the Texas coast within spittin' distance of the refineries.If it is a Police State that is needed until the terrorist threat is eliminated ,wonderful!

[deport]

Blow the underground storage?

I'm not sure how deep these sites are but blowing them as in making them explode, I don't think so, at least not like bombs. You may could manage to get a large fire and lots of black smoke if you could get enough oxygen to them to keep them burning. The most damage prolly would be to the pumping facilities/pipes etc. topside, thus making it impossible or very hard to retrieve the crude without some delay.

[VMI70]

Hey everyone-Read this sentence to yourself 3 or 4 times.

"For some reason, I don't know why, but the last couple days we've had an inordinate number of people taking pictures of refineries," said Cmdr. Brian Uhler of the Corpus Christi Police Department.

Stay awake, be alert; especially you good folks in southeast Texas.

FReegards,

[Roebucks]

From what you've seen, how would you describe the security at these various sights? Are you a security guard? If so, why do you think it would take an off duty cop to notice these potential thugs in TX? Are we talking private security firms only, or is there coordination with local, state and feds?

[EggsAckley]

You're a brave man, Rayzuk. I've seen mega flaming when the topic of internment has come up. Just want to let you know that, for the most part, I agree with you. I don't know the numbers of how many Muslims we have here now, and how many Japanese we had here then. I would suspect the Muslim numbers to be considerably higher, and this could present a problem as to enough housing for the internees.

To those who will call us racist for feeling this way, I say this; if the Muslims in America had spoken out against terrorism en masse` I would feel a lot better about them being here. They didn't, and still haven't. Even if they did today, it's almost too late. Their silence implies their approval of terrorism.

[ValerieUSA]

How do you have a map of an undisclosed location? Why? Treasure maps? X marks the undisclosed spot?

I take pictures of everything. I love industrial plants and factories - they are so graphic. Old silos, bridges, building details, churches, crumbling brick, fire escapes, courthouses - photographers do that.

[VOA]

The economy took quite a hit on 9/11, and that was a relatively small incident
compared to what we know these morons are capable of.

I grieve for all the loss of life and suffering families from 9-11...but just after
that I hate Osama and his minions because they just won't rest until we all
live in mud huts.
Our economic engine throws off so much "excess heat"...that's why we can run a huge military
that protects us and liberates suffering civilians (even in Afghanistan), as well as producing lots
of humanitarian aid (which made the USA the biggest contributor of aid to
Afghanistan in 2001...even before 9-11).

I understand all the concerns about individual rights and civil liberty, but at this
point we're at war with some truly dangerous radicals.
A few extra police checks and some "whatcha' doin' there, fella?" won't
really harm anyone. Unless they get an inquiry while parked in a dark alley
with someone...not their spouse!

Maybe Middle Easterners are always taking photos of refineries in Texas to show folks
back home.
But there's just something about Middle Eastern type (considering how many
different nationalities of visitors there are to Texas) to be the ones snapping photos of big
refineries...
I hope that the citizens, if they see people of other nationalities doing similar
suspicious-looking reconnaisance, will call the police.
I've been waiting for the first Al-Quida-trained Muslim terrorist from Bosnia, Kosovo,
or The Phillipines to be unleased on us. And the ones from Bosnia or Kosovo could pass
for Mr. Average White Male in most of the USA...

[Tailback]

But about 1 hour away from Portland along I-84 is the Bonneville Dam which supplies a magority of Electricity to Oregon, Southern Washington, and Northern California.

[jrewingjr]

how would you describe the security

At the time of the incident, it was almost non-existant. Since the infiltration attempt, peoples' eyes were opened, however. They realized then that you can kill more people blowing up the right kind of plant than you can can flying into buildings.

The Army now has a WMD team stationed here, and Feds are also now watching the facilities (and the foreigners) nearby.

No, I'm not in the security business, but I have a real bad attitude about people that put me in harm's way. I promise right here that I will ruin the day of anyone that I catch - I'll let them live though; we need them alive for questioning.

[Roebucks]

I have a real bad attitude about people that put me in harm's way.

And that's a great and patriotic attitude. Nice to know the troops are there too. If they ever catch those jerks in the coast guard boat, put up a thread, will ya? Thanks.

Time to go to work. Later...

[Endeavor]

While your tale is certainly plausible, I think the fear of swarthy men getting big rig licenses centered around terrorists driving chemical carrying rigs and blowing them up in major metropolitan centers - like Manhattan, inside the Chicago loop, etc.

[willyone]

Why would he need a picture? Most refineries are very similiar and you could go get a picture anywhere. just roll up, jump out with a LAW of some such device,take your shots and haul ass. The one refinery that is really close to a road is in Long Beach. You can hit it with a rock and a major road runs right through it.

[willyone]

Police state? Not if you are from a mideast country where most of these terrorist clowns come from. Last I heard they were still being issued visas andadmitted in record numbers. Must not offend anyone. It makes more sense to the idiots running security to hassle children and old ladies at the airport security checks. The inmates have definitely taken over.

[crystalk]

For a Muslim, it ought to be illegal even to photograph a Western toilet! After all, that is one more thing they could never build, and which they might blow up!

[StolarStorm]

Perhaps this guy had to do SOMETHING to get his Al Quida pay check and to stay in the "Club". Taking a picture is a lot easier than actually doing something... terorristic

[StolarStorm]

In Houston we already have a very real problem of insane truck drivers causing accidents... but they don't come from the Middle East ... they come from Mexico.