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Lawyer: Fake Bomb Charge an Overreaction
Peoplepc Online/Associated Press ^ | Sep[tember 22, 2007 | Staff

Posted on 09/22/2007 6:37:50 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20

http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&referrer=welcome&id=20070922/46f49340_3ca6_1552620070922-1497302150

Lawyer: Fake Bomb Charge an Overreaction

BOSTON - The MIT student who walked into Logan International Airport wearing a computer circuit board and wiring on her sweat shirt claimed it was harmless artwork. But to troopers who arrested her at gunpoint, it was a fake bomb.

Nineteen-year-old Star Simpson was charged Friday with possessing a hoax device. Her attorney described the charge as offbase and "almost paranoid," arguing at a court hearing that she did not act in a suspicious manner and had told an airport worker that the device was art.

(Excerpt) Read more at home.peoplepc.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airlinesecurity; bomb; bos; fake; mit; starsimpson
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To: jim35
Of course, according to you, you can always tell, even at a glance, what ISN’T a bomb

Well, it wasn't a bomb, but according to you and your crowd this girl is guilty because the security folks suspected that it might be a bomb.

There are three choices here:
1. It was a bomb
2. It was not a bomb, but a (deliberate) hoax
3. None of the above.

My argument is that just because the security folks were suspicious does not mean that she was not innocent.

It does not look like a bomb and the girl did not try to convince anyone that it was a bomb.

But I am arguing with the idiot who thinks there is no difference in meaning between "left" and "fled."

After withdrawing cash from my ATM, I "left" the bank.
After holding up the teller, the bank robber "fled" the bank.

A police officer would have probable cause for a stop on #2, but not on #1. They are not subtle.

281 posted on 09/23/2007 9:06:49 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson
RE: # 251

.... it wasn't a fake bomb.

How do you know she didn't intend to scare the hell out of that multitude of ignorant people; kids, little old ladies, untrained security people, and in your opinion, the vast majority of IQ-less people who all believe the movies that portray bombs as being lit up with blinking lights, and who don't know, as you do, what all bombs do look like.

And when are you going to educate, by sharing that knowledge with us, the great unwashed, gullible peasants, some of who just might believe that it is posssible for an explodable bomb to have flashing lights on it if the maker, for some unfathomable reason, so desires.

Or are you also claiming that that is simply impossible?

282 posted on 09/23/2007 9:08:10 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
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To: R. Scott
That way it wouldn't look like a "real" bomb.

It doesn't look like a bomb, and it wasn't a bomb. Therefore this girl's life should be ruined so that terrorists don't even think about trying that trick either.

The terrorists need do nothing but stand back and watch the US destroyed by rampant idiocy unfettered by even the most simple and basic logic.

Why don't we just have a country where security can lock up anyone they suspect of terrorist activities. Oh, wait that is what the Stasi, NKVD and SS did, one suspected subversive at a time.

283 posted on 09/23/2007 9:14:32 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: Turret Gunner A20
How do you know she didn't intend to scare the hell out of that multitude

Well fact number one. She didn't scare the hell out of that multitude.

Second, she didn't act in any way to try to scare that multitude (running around screaming "I have a bomb," "Bang and you are all dead," or any such thing).

So absent some demonstrative fact that she did so intend (a fundamental requirement, still of American jurisprudence), I think we have to conclude that she didn't so. Simple allegation of such an intent, absent a demonstrative fact, is insufficient to carry this charge.

284 posted on 09/23/2007 9:17:58 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: Turret Gunner A20
some of who just might believe that it is posssible for an explodable bomb to have flashing lights

You need two components to carry out your scheme. 1. Flashing lights. 2. A bomb.

There was no bomb.

We have flashing lights without bombs all over the place in the US. We should lock the place down, I suppose.

285 posted on 09/23/2007 9:20:40 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson
RE: # 253

No they didn't "detain" her. They surrounded her with automatic weapons and threatened to blow her brains out if she moved.

def: detain -- 1.to keep in custody; confine. 2.to keep; withhold. 3. to keep from going on; delay.

Now, I don't know about you. pal, but, if they surround me with automatic weapons and threaten to blow my brains out if I move, I have brains enough to freeze as stiff as a marble statue. And, I will also consider myself thoroughly detained.

286 posted on 09/23/2007 9:22:43 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
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To: ninonitti

We- the US and its constitutional form of government - are in deep and serious trouble.


287 posted on 09/23/2007 9:23:23 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson

Since apparently a bomb’s appearance falls under a very narrow description, please, in 20 words or less describe what every bomb used in the last 10 years looks like.


288 posted on 09/23/2007 9:36:47 AM PDT by Maverick68
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To: FreedomCalls
This is a real IED discovered in Fallujah. It is an open circuit board with electronic components attached, dangling wires -- some covered in black electrical tape, a battery holder for a 9-volt battery, and bags of stuff that resemble Play Doh (Semtex).

Click here for a better shot of that gadget.

It was being built into a vehicle armrest. I presume the intent was to conceal it so that it would get past any checkpoints. Then park the vehicle alongside a road traveled by US soldiers and set it off when a US vehicle drives by.

No flashing lights visible — wouldn't want to scare those excitable Americans at a checkpoint. They might blow your head off.

Here's a short video that will show how easy these bombs are to spot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7yKgqtEZ_M

289 posted on 09/23/2007 9:39:17 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Turret Gunner A20

Old CPUs with the interior exposed have been made int belt buckles and wearable art since at least the mid 1980s. We need a picture to see if the woman or the security people were being the idiot in this case. (not that one precludes the other)


290 posted on 09/23/2007 9:40:50 AM PDT by MrEdd (Keeping my foot on the necks of liberals since 1980.)
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To: MrEdd
We need a picture to see if the woman or the security people were being the idiot in this case.

Note the green LEDs arranged in the shape of a star, as in Star Simpson. Scared the bejesus out of Maria Moncayo. It was her report that set the airport SWAT team in motion.

291 posted on 09/23/2007 9:53:23 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: submarinerswife
While I realize that there is a very strong anti-elitist, anti-intellectual mood here on FR, I would remind you that your husband goes to sea at speeds greater than 20kts and depts greater than 400ft, operates effectively and returns home safely, only because MIT graduates, a lot of them (and their ilk as well) designed the reactor, the hull, the materials that withstand the pressure and corrosion, the sophisticated sonar systems, communications systems, electronic warfare systems and all the signal processing systems and software that make all of that stuff work.

It is our "elitist" engineers and scientists who design and build all of the wiz-bang stuff without which we would not have the most effective in the world.

292 posted on 09/23/2007 9:54:37 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: cynwoody
Note the green LEDs arranged in the shape of a star, as in Star Simpson.

Her userid on instructables.com is stasterisk.

293 posted on 09/23/2007 10:00:08 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: CJ Wolf
Put on a badge I want you to watch over us.

No idea what you're talking about.

294 posted on 09/23/2007 10:04:27 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: Turret Gunner A20
Let us go back to basics. It wasn't a bomb. She did not pretend it was a bomb. It doesn't look like a bomb. So the state troopers therefore used their iron clad logic to conclude that she was trying to perpetrate a hoax.

Just because one party is a dupe to self-delusion does not mean that the other party is a fraud.

295 posted on 09/23/2007 10:12:14 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: cynwoody
Note the green LEDs arranged in the shape of a star, as in Star Simpson.

And presumably Maria knew this was the Star Simpson of dingbat fame. OF course if the Star had some common courtesy she would have replied to Maria that this was simply a project she'd done at school lighting some led's in a pattern of a Star because she was a Star. Nope, can't do that.

Scared the bejesus out of Maria Moncayo. It was her report that set the airport SWAT team in motion.

BTW, was the putty in her hand in the shape of a star as well or did two days of sleeping with it in her hand ruin the star?

296 posted on 09/23/2007 10:14:07 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: AndyJackson
Just because one party is a dupe to self-delusion does not mean that the other party is a fraud.

And a corollary to that is just because one has been duped by a fraud doesn't mean that the fraud had no intent to make the dupe appear the dupe.

So in the end, Maria was duped, Star id a Star for 15 minutes and the cops did what cops are supposed to do when alerted to a potential problem at an airport.

Ain't life grand?

297 posted on 09/23/2007 10:17:46 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: AndyJackson
RE: # @95

Let us go back to basics. It wasn't a bomb. She did not pretend it was a bomb. It doesn't look like a bomb. So the state troopers therefore used their iron clad logic to conclude that she was trying to perpetrate a hoax.

Just because one party is a dupe to self-delusion does not mean that the other party is a fraud. What in the living hell has that got to do with my post # 286, to which you are allegdly replying -- which reads:

"def: detain -- 1.to keep in custody; confine. 2.to keep; withhold. 3. to keep from going on; delay.

"Now, I don't know about you. pal, but, if they surround me with automatic weapons and threaten to blow my brains out if I move, I have brains enough to freeze as stiff as a marble statue.

And, I will also consider myself thoroughly detained."

298 posted on 09/23/2007 10:50:27 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
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To: Turret Gunner A20
RE # 298

Editing/Re-formatting # 298

RE: # @95 Let us go back to basics. It wasn't a bomb. She did not pretend it was a bomb. It doesn't look like a bomb. So the state troopers therefore used their iron clad logic to conclude that she was trying to perpetrate a hoax.

Just because one party is a dupe to self-delusion does not mean that the other party is a fraud.

What in the living hell has that got to do with my post # 286, to which you are allegdly replying -- which reads:

"def: detain -- 1.to keep in custody; confine. 2.to keep; withhold. 3. to keep from going on; delay.

"Now, I don't know about you. pal, but, if they surround me with automatic weapons and threaten to blow my brains out if I move, I have brains enough to freeze as stiff as a marble statue. And, I will also consider myself thoroughly detained."

299 posted on 09/23/2007 10:58:18 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
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To: AndyJackson
Once you realize that not only do LEDs not have anything to do with bombs, but having further investigated and discovered that there were no explosives, you appologize to the young lady, let her go about her business, chalk it up to experience and add it as an item for staff training.

AJ, I agree with you. When I went through basic electronics in the service, the first device we all made was a "pinger detector", 2 LED's with a timing circuit that made the LED's blink.....the entire flight marched back to the barracks proudly displaying our "pinger detectors....hehehehe.

The entire flight of airmen could (and apparently should, according to many on this thread) be shot for having a blinky light pinned to our uniforms. What we have here is a 19 year old kid that made a blinking LED star (as in her name.....Star) and went to the airport to pickup her boyfriend....BFD!

It's apparent this country has already given up it's freedom for a little security.....and we all know what Ben Franklin thought about that.....

300 posted on 09/23/2007 11:21:14 AM PDT by ScreamingFist (Annihilation - The result of underestimating your enemies. NRA)
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