Posted on 09/23/2002 3:04:54 AM PDT by kattracks
What really happened in the case of the three Muslim medical students and Eunice Stone? She is the nurse who said she overheard the students Sept. 12 at a Georgia restaurant apparently talking about plans for terrorism the next day.Let's offer a probability rating, just as weather forecasters do when discussing chances of rain. Probability that the three men were terrorists who thought it was a good idea to discuss their plot loudly at a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun, Ga., the day before an attack - less than 1%. Probability that Stone decided to call attention to herself by making up this story or that she misconstrued a memorable line about Friday the 13th - also 1% or less.
Probability the students were playing a joke, then refused to take responsibility when the incident blew up into an all-day scare on cable TV - 98%.
The students' credibility suffered greatly after authorities stopped them and shut down a major Florida highway to check their two cars for explosives. None were found, but federal and county authorities said the three students, interviewed separately, gave accounts that didn't match. This seems a polite way of saying that a great deal of prevarication was going on.
Experience tells us that in situations like this, we are never very far from allegations of bias and racial profiling. Sure enough. One student, Ayman Gheith, said that after Stone noticed his Muslim garb, "Maybe she put a little salt and pepper in her story." He said she was "flat-out lying." Gheith's sister said the three had made the mistake of stopping for a meal in Georgia, implying the whole state is so racist that no Muslim should ever risk eating there.
Oddly, the media didn't buy the racial-profiling complaint. The assumption was that the men had been caught in a prank. Perhaps because the hoax theory was so dominant, the students and their lawyers evolved a new, softer media message. By Sunday, Stone was no longer a flat-out liar, but rather a kindly though mistaken bystander who had been trying to be a patriot.
Another change in the students' message: They'd used the phrase "bring it down," just as Stone said, but the reference was to bringing a car from Kansas City to Miami. Why it took three days to mention the car wasn't explained.
An odd comment came from Anthony Romero, the new American Civil Liberties Union executive director: "Satire, humor, jokes are part of our everyday lives. We shouldn't be afraid that what we say might trigger a reaction from law enforcement."
Romero apparently acknowledges this looks like a hoax, yet defends it on free-speech grounds. But it is not all right to joke about staging a terrorist attack. It's dangerous, puts stress on law enforcement and can cost a lot of money - more than $100,000 in this case.
All post-9/11 hoaxes should be taken seriously. People who mailed baby powder and other fake versions of anthrax faced criminal charges. So should hoaxers who talk of terrorist plots.
At week's end, there were signs that Attorney General John Ashcroft's detractors may cite this case as a horrible example of what would happen if average citizens were recruited to report suspicious activity, as he has called for.
But Stone behaved well in reporting what might have been a serious plot. It's no horrible example, just an ordinary citizen doing the right thing.
In fact, the subtraction of moslems from ANY situation or environment results in a measurable and welcome reduction in the number of stone-age-moron-induced problems.
The potential for improvement, and the means to achieve it, is obvious.
In fact, the subtraction of moslems from ANY situation or environment results in a measurable and welcome reduction in the number of stone-age-moron-induced problems.
I do not understand why there are any muslims in this country. Anything can be called a religion. An ideology, both absurd and evil, which turns 1/5 of its adherents into raving vicious lunatics and the rest into slaves to superstition is not a religion, it is a disease.
Do you suppose Nazis would have been allowed to hold meetings, wear swastikas and uniforms, and seek new members in this country during world war 2?
Give them all three months to be gone. It won't matter how they go. Those whose minds have not been completely turned to mush can just stop being Muslims, or they can leave, or ....
Hank
That's generous.
islam is no more a legitimate 'religion' than the pimples on my ass are the Gettysburg Address in Braille.
It's a conspiracy with quasi-religious aspects, in the same manner of La Cosa Nostra.
Round 'em up.
Get 'em the Hell out of this country.
ASAP.
If Attorney General John Ashcroft's detractors are successful with this ploy, then we also need to eliminate laws that allow law enforcement to jail idiots who joke about bombs in airports. What's the difference??? Why can't these folks cry "free speech" when THEY get arrested? I'll tell you why, because they are not Moose Limbs or some other revered minority/victim group.
These 3 scumbags deserve jail-time.
Hey, now...I'm 1/4 Dutch, and 1/2 Irish! And I was born here!
I'd be content to throw out all illegal immigrants, and subject attempted immigrants from known terrorist hotbeds to a lot of scrutiny before allowing admittance. That would go a long way to making the country a safer place. Will it ever happen? Probably not unless we get hit hard, as in tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths. Something only possible with a biological attack or a nuclear detonation in a city. As perverse as it sounds to say so, I find myself wondering if such an attack would be a good thing, in the long run. It might make our leaders wake up. Then again, it might give rise to the police state that rubs so many of us the wrong way.
If either of them ever stoop to the level of the mohamma-rama-ding-dong-dipsh!ts I'll be right there with you, spiny.
Until then all I want to see crowded on the poop deck of that tramp steamer headed out to sea is a gaggle of Satan worshipping ragheads.
Bump for great justice.
Try publicly threatening to kill the president. You'll get all kinds of "reaction from law enforcement".
This guy is an idiot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.