Posted on 09/17/2002 10:37:06 PM PDT by kattracks
Three Muslim medical students who were stopped by police on Friday and interrogated for 17-hours after allegedly making jokes and threats related to the 9-11 anniversary have declined to take lie detector tests to back up their denials.
The refusal came after their accuser, Georgia resident Eunice Stone, said she'd be willing to submit to a lie test to prove her story, challenging them to do the same.
"While the young men were willing to take a polygraph.... we didn't want them to take a polygraph at this time," said the students' lawyer, Khummar Wahid, in an interview Tuesday night on MSNBC's "Phil Donahue Show."
"There's some scientific problems with taking a polygraph," complained Wahid, who is part of a legal team representing the three students assembled by the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Wahid said he also feared the test may be used as evidence against his clients, explaining, "at this time we're not 100 percent confident that the FDLE or Georgia or the FBI won't be in some way trying to file some sort of criminal charges here."
While he didn't expect his clients to be charged with a crime, the CAIR lawyer said he has yet to be told officially that they're in the clear. "We haven't gotten any real assurances publicly from (law enforcement) that they're not going to pursue anything here," he told Donahue.
The three Muslim students claim tipster Stone got it wrong when she called law enforcement on Thursday to report she overheard them while dining at a Georgia Shoney's restaurant making what sounded like plans for another terrorist attack on America.
"If they mourned 9-11, what will they think of 9-13?" one of the three said, according to the earwitness. "Do we have enough to bring it down?" the same student added, Stone said. "If we don't have enough to bring it down, I have contacts. We will get enough to bring it down," a second student allegedly replied.
According to reports the next day, a bomb sniffing dog in Florida later detected the presence of explosives in one of the students' vehicles after they were detained, but the FBI released the trio Friday without charges.
The students maintained that they made no references to 9-11 while dining at Shoney's and claimed that Stone had misinterpreted the rest of their comments.
Mrs. Stone told Donahue that if she had it to do over again, she'd do the same thing.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
He is not your typical polygraphie...
My point is that the average person is not equipped to trick the polygraph, even if they download all those nice little 'how to' guides from the internet.
I guarantee you those guys in question (in this post) are no Aldrich Ames. Additionally, I never said rely on it solely. It is simply one important tool amongst many.
This issue has brought out quite a few hang'em-from-the-closest-tree types. I forget that the Jerry Springer audience hangs around here until something like this shows up. It's times like this when you realize that alcohol and FR don't mix so well.
If you did an actual scientific study of it you'd find that it was nothing like 99% acurate. It's junk science.
I said a clear positive, when administered by a professional (for example, someone doing background checks at the CIA, or a cop with a lot of experience) is 99.99% accurate.
Few young men are capable of telling the truth when they've done something really stupid, never mind that as Muslims their religion allows them to lie to non-Muslims.
So you go right ahead and have a snit over this. But I tell you, they are lying and Eunice Stone is telling the truth.
Puh-leeze! You're exagerrating.
These three young men did something really, really stupid and they ended up with a lot of negative attention. More than likely their relatives all jumped down their throats and now to save face the three are spouting lies.
Taking a polygraph for something like this is not a life or death event, it is a "no brainer". The fact they've refused, and Eunice Stone has not speaks volumns about her integrity.
Coming clean and telling the truth would be mature. Frankly, I wouldn't want any of the three as my doctor, since they neither tell the truth nor take responsibility for their actions.
Hmmm, I believe this woman's telling the truth, and the three muslim types are liars.
Do you draw the same conclusion about Anita Hill, who took a polygraph, and Clarence Thomas, who wouldn't?
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