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Going too far?

13:09 / 24.01.04

Now I know it's a pretty dumb thing to say "I've got a bomb in my bag" to anyone who works for the customs or airlines while in an airport - but the English girl who did it at Miami (I think) airport has gotten herself into a whole shit-heap of trouble... and NOW they've gone and arrested a woman at Newcastle airport for saying the same thing!

Has the world gone mad? Or is airline service that bad that the only way to get to the head of the queue is to threaten the staff!

I just flew back thru Geneva airport and the only thing that stopped them from making me take off my shoes, belt, jumper, jacket, and everything out of my pockets before going thru the metal detector was the rather large and obvious wrist strap I'm wearing due to a little 'accident' on holiday. (needless to say I could easily have had a 10" blade in it and the customs guy didn't even check it!)

My point, in a rather round-about way is this ..

Now that the war on terror is actually a day to day inconvienience for the average western citizen, are we finally getting sick of it altogether?

13:56 / 24.01.04

The whole "mentioning bombs and getting arrested" is nothing new though, is it? That's been a standard for decades now...

17:05 / 24.01.04

Yeah, there have always been those kinds of stories, but as far as I know they've always been more of a "given a good talking to and let go" variety, whereas this woman has been arrested, charged, sent to jail, had bail & court appearence set etc. - which is pretty fucking harsh and absurd to say the least.

Recently my brother was boarding a plane to Spain when he found he'd forgotten to remove a heavy-duty penknife from his pocket (he's apt to do that sort of thing). The result; they said to him "well obviously you're not getting on the plane with *that*!", put it in lost property until his return and otherwise let him get on with things.. what would have happened if that had been in Texas we wonder?

17:27 / 24.01.04

The Newcastle incident - the woman in question apparently threatened and "used abusive language" at staff immediately before claiming to have a bomb in her bag. When she told them that, they got security staff down and asked her to repeat it. Which she did.

Five times.

21:30 / 24.01.04

Recently my brother was boarding a plane to Spain when he found he'd forgotten to remove a heavy-duty penknife from his pocket (he's apt to do that sort of thing). The result; they said to him "well obviously you're not getting on the plane with *that*!", put it in lost property until his return and otherwise let him get on with things.. what would have happened if that had been in Texas we wonder?

They'd have most likely said he could either bin it or mail it back to himself, like they did to me in Seattle airport (a Swiss army knife only, admittedly). They're quite used to it, they had lots of binnable items.

If he looks a bit "suspicious" though, I don't know.

00:13 / 25.01.04

given that this:
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20040120.html
was an old joke nearly 30 years ago, do I get the feeling that the States are finally catching up with the rest of the world?

06:52 / 26.01.04

I've made similiar comments in the airport and I've been met with laughter. In fact, these comments have even stopped me from getting "randomly searched." No way someone joking about being a terrorist could be a terrorist now!

The only solution I can think of is for a large group of pranksters to enter an airport and claim to have bombs in their bags. Homeland Security Party Crash. What, are they gonna arrest everybody?

12:26 / 26.01.04

Probably, yeah.

17:29 / 27.01.04

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if, by some clause in some legislation, joking about being a terrorist actually makes you a terrorist.

20:38 / 28.01.04

Well, given that claiming any kind of sympathy for a terrorist makes you a terrorist under UK law, and given that in order to find a terrorist joke amusing would require you to be able to see both sides of an argument, jokes about terrorism make you a terrorist here...

20:44 / 28.01.04

but in the US... (ray of light?)

18:20 / 29.01.04

For all you Batman fans out there, they just captured an al Qeada guy in Iraq. I mention this because his name ended in "Ghul". Not Ra's, though...