People, people! Please! Let's not create a mob scene!

Those of you who have not been keeping up with the news this week might be wondering, what's been going on?

August 17:

A pregnant woman attempted to go through security in a West Virginia airport with two bottles of water in her carry-on bag, which is not permitted under tight new regulations. The liquid in the bottles is confirmed to be just water, but there is suspicion of "explosive residue" on the outside of the bottles.

The entire airport is evacuated and shut down as a precaution. The residue turns out to be from a single drop of bleach.


August 16:

United Airlines flight 923, flying from London to Washington, D.C., was diverted to Boston escorted by two F-15 fighter jets after a claustrophobic passenger with a fear of flying appeared "agitated" and began to act "unruly." She was carrying a banned substance in her carry-on bag -- hand cream.

The 59-year-old woman, described as a "peace activist" and a "friendly, stable grandmother with no history of erratic behavior," is in custody awaiting a hearing next week.


August 11:

Three men from Texas are arrested in Michigan are arrested and charged with "collecting materials to aid terrorism" and "surveillance of a vulnerable target with intent to commit terrorism" after purchasing a large number of cell phones and taking pictures of the Mackinac Bridge.

As it turns out, the men are in the business of purchasing and unlocking cell phones so that buyers to use them with any carrier, and took the photos of the bridge as many out-of-state tourists do.

It's too bad these amateur photographers didn't think just to go to the State of Michigan's web site at www.michigan.gov, where I counted 174 pictures of the bridge in question.


August 10:

Air Canada flight 7652, en route from Montreal to Washington, D.C., was diverted to a remote runway at Baltimore airport after a "suspicious package" was found on board. Passengers were quickly evacuated and the plane searched.

The package turned out to contain nothing more than serving plates.


Gosh. Let's not overreact or anything, because we wouldn't want to "let the terrorists win" by living in a constant state of unnecessary fear. Oh wait, isn't that what the goal of terrorism is?

Hopefully Al-Qaeda will be defeated soon and then I won't have to worry about all this terrorism coming to my neighbourhood.

Comments

Deb said…
It has gotten seriously goofy hasn't it? I may never travel again (after this time).
Seebz said…
Thanks for the update.
You may wanna check about the baby bottle thinggy that had bleach. I read somewhere that it contained some sort of liquid bomb.

Why did i have to go book a flight with BAirways?? oh yeah, it was a really cheap flight.
Sassan Sanei said…
We must be referring to two different incidents. Mine had no baby bottle. I've updated the post to identify the one I was referring to, which is at an airport in West Virginia. No explosives were found, there was no liquid bomb (only bottled water), and the woman was released. Now... EVERYBODY PANIC!
pure madness. we're just waiting until terrorism comes to the shores of australia.

until then we're pretty lax about the whole thing.

oh, but sjust after 2001, some tourist joked about having a bomb in his carry on lugagge a a steward was putting it in his overhad locker:

"carefull, there's a bomb in there"

everyone knew he was joking, including the stewards, but he had to be escorted off the flight anyway. it went to court and he was charged.

heavy.
Seebz said…
Yeah, my mistake. I had just read:
"A husband and wife arrested in the British terror raids allegedly planned to take their six-month-old baby on a mid-air suicide mission" and then your post. Looks like I kneaded them up and made a whole new story. ;)

In both cases, like Sassan mentioned, EVERYBODY PANIC!
Sassan Sanei said…
I watched a fascinating documentary on CBC last night called Why We Fight that puts the role of the U.S. in the world in a whole new light. It's well worth watching.

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