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Don't Fly During Ramadan

varnull.adityamukerjee.net

261–270 of 986 posts

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#261
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'They' also claim the contrails from airliners aren't spreading mind control agents...

I have proof and past experience with dishonest government employees. Please take your arguments for chemtrails elsewhere.

Sure, but what you're talking about is widespread conspiracy to allow ERDs to be 'triggered' manually.

I think that theory warrants about as much consideration as chemtrails.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#262
post #73

The land of the free. As I read more and more of those stories I can't help but wonder at how things changed. I am from a formerly-eastern-europe-soviet-bloc country (Poland) and these kinds of oppressive techniques sound very familiar. The haziness of procedures, lack of basic rights, intimidation, no accountability of state officials -- we've seen all that until 1989. At the time, while the communist regime was imp…

I don't think this is that oppressive. He went through security and set off an explosives detector. The cops showed up and asked some questions. Then he left. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say the government can't hamfistedly accuse you of a crime. All it says is that they have to charge you or let you go in 24 hours, give you a trial, and punish you in a consistent way. They did that here; they asked some ques…

By coincidence I was watching again the "Don't talk to the police" video on youtube.

Seems to me that this guy had to talk a lot, answer a lot of questions, without any of the protection the 5th amendment is supposed to provide.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#263
post #183
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are far more efficient ways to flag people that fit a certain profile. They should have checked all of his belongings and let him go, and not focused at all on his "attitude". Did you miss the part where the machines gave him a positive for explosives?

> Did you miss the part where the machines gave him a positive for explosives? Since there's no proof of this "positive", this claim sits in doubt. If he was already targeted, they'd claim the machine would say anything.

>Since there's no proof of this "positive", this claim sits in doubt.

...and since there's no proof of his story, his story sits in doubt. Right?

Is that the modus operandi?

I was commenting under the assumption that his experiences were conveyed truthfully and that the explosive alert actually happened and wasn't bogus.

Is there reason for me to automatically doubt the sincerity of those who tested him?

Is there reason to believe that they didn't want to tell him what exactly the machine told them because they were lying to him? Or is it a more reasonable explanation that they're not allowed to?

Racial profiling is bad. They acted differently towards him than they'd do to other people, but that doesn't mean we have to ignore everything and assume that every single person there was out to get him and put an innocent person through hell.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#264

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 set off the explosive detector a couple times. I don't take anything but lisinopril and OTC allergy meds. Each incident took 3-5 minutes to resolve, and did not involve any questions not directly related to the screening process. I have no idea what set it off, and as far as I know, neither did the TSA.

Apart from those two times, I've been the focus of TSA attention for more than a few seconds on exactly two other occasions. One was when the x-ray tech was confused by the small flatbed scanner in my carryon, and the other was the day I had to fly with expired ID.

Again, neither occasion took more than about five minutes, and again, they asked me no questions not directly related to the screening process itself.

Also, about half the time I travel on one-way tickets, often between points that my ID does not reflect an address for. I've travelled while tired, I've travelled while stressed/nervous, I've travelled with my hair and beard at every conceivable length/combination, including long beard, short hair, and a completely shaved head.

But I'm white and have a completely Anglo name.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#265

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 scien…

That's appalling.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That thought is terrifying. I was afraid I was going to be put on the no-fly list afterwards and would have to travel back to NYC by train (a four-day trip). Even before this experience I used to avoid flying in favor of taking the train. I don't know what I'd do if the TSA became commonplace at train stations.

Take the bus? Drive?

And when the TSA is at all bus stations and gates access to roads? Do you walk?

Logic like this means you essentially hide from the problem until there's nowhere left. What happens then?

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#267
As others have said, horribly misleading title. It has nothing to do with Ramadan! How about don't fly when you have some weird chemical on you that sets off airport security.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#268
post #103

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.

> How do you know they don't have a button to push to make it give a false positive so they can hold people?

I've never been in the US, but when I travel (Europe, MENA), I am always chosen by airport security, even in my own country when leaving, for an additional search (less annoying than a TSA patdown I read of, but still), and when I asked recently why is it always me, a guy answered I was randomly selected by the gate. Got to start buying lottery tickets.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#269
It's unfortunate he went through that, but I thought it was common sense that if you opt out of the scanner they are going to put your through the wringer. So I wouldn't call what happened unexpected.

Re: Don't Fly During Ramadan

#270
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internment is a revisionist word to make it sound less harsh. They were concentration camps.

Concentration is a revisionist word to make it sound more harsh. They were internment camps. Concentration camps are where you send people to die.

I'm not sure wether to chalk that up to ignorance or just a cultural understanding of the word. I realize here in the US, "Concentration Camp" has become synonymous with the Nazi death camps. However, a concentration camp is just another word for a place to intern people. A death camp is where people are sent do die.
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