All your base are belong to us
That old video seems somehow appropriate to the situation, this new terrorist warning of the invaders within. Perhaps it’s this line: “Somebody set us up the bomb.” Invaders are here. They’re not criminals…yet. And we’ll know everything about them within ten minutes of the time that it is not a dry run. But for now, we sit and wait to be hit. Men and women, “US persons,” who are “not linked” to “criminal or terrorist organizations” are practicing doing things on airplanes that would make your life a tad more interesting, if only briefly so. AP:
The bulletin said the passengers carrying the suspicious items seized since September included men and women and that initial investigation had not linked them with criminal or terrorist organizations. But it added that most of their explanations for carrying the items were suspicious and some were still under investigation. The four seizures were described this way:
• San Diego, July 7. A U.S. person — either a citizen or a foreigner legally here — checked baggage containing two ice packs covered in duct tape. The ice packs had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.
• Milwaukee, June 4. A U.S. person’s carryon baggage contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese. The bulletin said block cheese has a consistency similar to some explosives.
• Houston, Nov. 8, 2006. A U.S. person’s checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals and pipes.
• Baltimore, Sept. 16, 2006. A couple’s checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.
Should we look to see if there might be one or more things that these particular “US persons” have in common? But perhaps that would be too insensitive. Maybe we should just be on the lookout for broad stratas of people. Or maybe it is just safer not to notice anyone or anything at all, as Congress insists.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:29 am
Were I on a jury, I’d have no trouble convicting these “US persons” of conspiracy. Unless they could come up with a reasonable explanation for carrying a reasonable facsimile of a bomb onto an airliner.
Prosecute them for making the threat. If I point a gun at your head and don’t say a word, I would be convicted of menacing in a heartbeat. The same goes if it were a realistic toy gun.