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Don't Fly During Ramadan

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Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#111

Post by legitsource »

ck2 wrote: post #103
corresation wrote: post #72

It is a terrible ordeal, but for all of the other factors brought up the critical factor is that he set off an explosion detector (and clearly it doesn't get false positives often given the response they showed). Everything else (about Ramadan, being Hindi, the color of one's skin, etc) may be nothing more than decorations, and no one here knows what would happen if John Smith Anglosaxon set off the same detector in…

How do you know they don't have a button to push to make it give a false positive so they can hold people? Cops have dogs trained to give false positives on signal and we are constantly spied on and lied to by our own intelligence agencies. So please don't tell me this idea is far fetched, I think it's very plausible.

The dogs aren't purposefully trained to give false positives, that's just a side effect of how social dogs are. They want to please their handler and the handler gives them rewards.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#112

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

corresation wrote: post #72

It is a terrible ordeal, but for all of the other factors brought up the critical factor is that he set off an explosion detector (and clearly it doesn't get false positives often given the response they showed). Everything else (about Ramadan, being Hindi, the color of one's skin, etc) may be nothing more than decorations, and no one here knows what would happen if John Smith Anglosaxon set off the same detector in…

I've always wondered what happens if you set off the detector.

The fact is that they allowed him to fly afterwards. Overall it's not so horrible.

Assuming the thing about the photo isn't true, of course.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#113

Post by andy_ppp »

This is one of the best written accounts I have read in a very long time, the ending is just beyond belief, but in this climate I'd say totally believable. It says to me one thing so clearly that has been somewhat lost in all of this:

WE MAY HAVE STOPPED TERRORIST ATTACKS BUT THE TERRORISTS DEFINITELY WON.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#115

Post by gk1 »

monsterix wrote: post #37

Thank you for posting this. I was about to book a ticket on Jetblue for next week but I am now decided not to fly with them or recommend them to anyone. While we can fix private airlines and businesses for their stupid attitude there is, of course, no way for people to fix NSA/TSA and all those inverted bullshitters living on taxpayer's money.

Most airlines reserve the right to remove passengers from a flight if they feel it is safer to do so. This happens all the time, and I'm sure from the perspective of the expelled passenger it's always "unfair." I trust you will follow your own principle and boycott every airline.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#116

Post by marvin »

The last part really got me thinking, when the author mentioned that his apartment was probably searched by some agency. He would obviously have noted if he had received some sort of notification that his apartment had been legally searched.

Is it legal for the police, the DHS, FBI or any other agency to search your apartment and belongings without notifying you? Are there warrants that will let the authorities do this? What are the circumstances which allow them to do this?

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#117

Post by rafeed »

I think it's pretty clear that this whole thing could've been avoided if you went through the normal security screening process that everyone else normally obliges to do. On the other hand, what happened to you is sick and disturbing. I really found the way they treated you disgusting and I'm sorry you had to go through that.

I also think that your title is misleading and mildly offensive. Ramadan is a holy month, and more so a time of peace (although it's a time of peace every part of the year). I doubt this wouldn't have happened to you if it had been a few weeks earlier or later. I don't think it's right of you to say this only happened because it was during Ramadan that you coincidentally decided to fly.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#118

Post by magikarp »

Everything about this story, right down to the questions, agents involved, luggage inspections and the man's apartment being broken into and searched, fits very well with my own experiences in 2012 with entering the United States. I'm a recent Lebanese immigrant to Canada, male, in my early twenties, and to top it off I work on encryption software. I imagine the only worse thing I could be is an Iranian nuclear scientist.

I was asked questions ranging from whether I am affiliated with Hezbollah to why I was developing encryption software (and one time there was even a technician who asked me about its technical aspects), and specifically detained for questioning more times than I can count.

I was never refused entry, but I just wanted to attest that this man's story is completely credible to me, right down to the fine details he describes.

Possibly an interesting side-story for HN folks: By astronomical coincidence, I bumped into David Petraeus at a strange social event in D.C., after being harassed at the border every single time, and told him conversationally, casually, about my background and what I work on, just to see how he would react, if his reaction would line up with the knee-jerk reaction at the border. He smiled, raised a glass of champagne, and said, "cheers."

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#119

Post by [deleted] »

jlgreco wrote: post #89
pinaceae wrote: post #56

Contrarian perspective: He fits a certain profile. Triggered a bunch of attributes (address move, chemicals on him, etc.). The 9/11 attackers walked through the scanners with knifes. The Boston bombers were flagged, but still traveled freely. After both attacks people were laughing at the stupidity of the enforcement agencies, uselessness of the TSA, etc. Here, the process worked. His account is subjective, everyone…

> Here, the process worked. So a false negative is it "not working" but a false positive is it working? How about no.

[deleted]
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