WTF? (**NSFW**)

[Vertigo]

Is it a Yemeni custom to tape cellphones and boxknives together? Perhaps a traditional souvenir for the kids?

I'm perfectly willing to admit that on this pass, they did not have the materials necessary to blow up a plane. But it looks damned suspicious, and it would not surprise me if one of these guys is found responsible for a future attack.

I don't know if it's custom. But it was cell phones and watches taped together and one box knife (not taped to anything). Maybe, just maybe the guy is selling bootleg phones and watches in Yemen and secured them together to keep them from getting tossed around in his luggage and was planning to use the box knife to cut off the tape once he arrived. Not how I would secure my crap in my luggage, but hey, to each their own. I also don't like cheese on my apple pie... my grandpa on the other hand.

[brabus]

Oh wait... they have muslim names. They have to be terrorists. My bad

Nice try. I don't give a shit if they were white. Dude, taping a cellphone to a pepto bismol bottle. Really? I guarantee most of the people on this site can make a bomb out of that. It's called explosive material in the bottle and a call to the cell phone provides the trigger. Throw in the MULTITUDE of other suspicious items and the questionable situation and it's just way too much to be a simple coincidence. Sure the "experts" let them go, but I will not be shocked one bit if we see something like this happen again, except with something actually happening. I sure hope it doesn't, but I don't have much faith when there is zero common sense applied in situations like this.

[tac airlifter]

I'm not one to make a mountain out of a molehill, but this looks exactly like a dry run. If you're a terrorist, how else do you practice? Maybe these guys were simply told what to carry through customs so someone else could gage the responses and timing. Who knows. But chances are high that this was not simply some innocent dudes who happen to tape cell phones together when they travel. I think that is the least likely scenario.

Edited September 2, 2010 by tac airlifter

[busdriver]

It's also easy to believe they were let go to watch where they end up.

[Helo Kitty]

Down here at a training base in Texas the wing/cc has been driving around base and threatening to give LOC's to those folks whose lawns aren't cut or up to standard... regardless if you're living in privatized housing or not..

My WTF meter is pretty high on this one because its been like a billion degrees out and hard to grow much of anything besides butt sweat..

If this is standard for living on most bases I'll stfu...

[Skyclops]

Haha definitely got ninjaed the LOC for not watering my backyard. Yeah, that e-mail threatening people about this? DEFINITELY made it to us AFTER we got the LOCs (this and more went into my rebuttal MFR). And yeah, the general reaction to this is WTF!?

My front-yard looks nice :)

[tac airlifter]

Haha definitely got ninjaed the LOC for not watering my backyard. Yeah, that e-mail threatening people about this? DEFINITELY made it to us AFTER we got the LOCs (this and more went into my rebuttal MFR). And yeah, the general reaction to this is WTF!?

My front-yard looks nice :)

You guys were given an LOC for not cutting your grass? Was it that bad, or is this just mistaken leadership priorities?

[Smokin]

Reason #69 not to live on base.

[M2]

WTF? (***NSFW*** due to language, I think!)

Cheers! M2

[sky_king]

Haha definitely got ninjaed the LOC for not watering my backyard. Yeah, that e-mail threatening people about this? DEFINITELY made it to us AFTER we got the LOCs (this and more went into my rebuttal MFR). And yeah, the general reaction to this is WTF!?

My front-yard looks nice :)

I know I'm on the shit list for a bad lawn and I'm going to get yelled at about it tomorrow. My defense... I just tore out my fence at 10:30pm. Now when they say "Captain, you are a disgrace to the nation because of those 6-9 patches of grass that are 4 inches long. Here is your LOC." I can rebut with "Sir, I don't have a fence. Therefore, Pinnacle is responsible for the upkeep to my lawn."

[Guest StreamOfTheSky]

Spontaneous combustion!

http://www.fireengineering.com/index/articles/Wire_News_Display.1254315795.html

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A fire that did $20,000 in damages to a northeast Arkansas home wasn't caused by an electrical problem or burning food or arson, an insurance investigator concluded. Instead, the dead plants did it, according to a report summary provided to the homeowner, Brian Duncan.

"The fire was caused by self-heating through decomposition of organic materials contained within a plastic flowerpot," the Aug. 25 letter from State Farm Insurance Co. said. Or, in layman's terms, spontaneous combustion. Duncan, whose home is a few miles south of Paragould, said the flowerpot had contained dead, decomposing flowers and potting soil that his wife had planted in the summer of 2009. "She had intended on repotting (the flowers)," Duncan said. But they sat on the porch, unwatered, and died. No one was injured in the blaze and Duncan's father-in-law was able to put it out with a garden hose even before firefighters from a nearby volunteer fire department arrived. But it still caused some damage. Duncan, 51, CEO of Craighead Electric Cooperative, said the blaze charred decking around the hole where the flowerpot had been, and caught the home's vinyl siding on fire. He said the heat broke a sidelight window next to the front door, and his air-conditioning system sucked in smoke from the fire. "The house was full of smoke," he said. The smoke damage inside the 15-year-old home, Duncan said, meant his family had to repaint the entire interior of the 2,200-square-foot home and replace the carpeting, in addition to replacing the vinyl siding on the front of the house and the wooden decking of the porch. Duncan said that, since the fire, he had begun spreading the word about the potential fire hazards of dead plants. A fire marshal in nearby Jonesboro, Jason Wills, said such an occurrence was rare. "Spontaneous combustion is something where you have to have a lot of variables come together and it has to be just right," Wills told Jonesboro television station KAIT. "It's something that does happen, but this is the first one in our area that I'm aware of."

[Guest]

It's also easy to believe they were let go to watch where they end up.

We probably only stopped them because we weren't sure the bad guys weren't about to gimbal our real time surveillance capability.

[tripilot]

Yemeni Airline Suspects Freed Without Charge

I guess you'll have to say that the FBI (and U.S. intel) along with Dutch law enforcement (and their intel) have no clue on what they are doing.

Oh wait... they have muslim names. They have to be terrorists. My bad.

You're totally misreading these news reports. The guys were freed without charge because there was nothing to charge them with! They didn't commit any crimes. It's not illegal to fly with duct tape and cell phones, and you can't just slap together a case for conspiracy off that flimsy evidence.

That does not imply that these guys were not up to no good. OBVIOUSLY there is some shady sh!t going on here. I can't even fantasize in my mind how far my head would have to be up my a$$ to think that a couple guys flying with cell phones taped to plastic bottles and changing their flights at the last second to get their luggage diverted is some sort of "coincidence."

[Vertigo]

You're totally misreading these news reports. The guys were freed without charge because there was nothing to charge them with! They didn't commit any crimes. It's not illegal to fly with duct tape and cell phones, and you can't just slap together a case for conspiracy off that flimsy evidence.

That does not imply that these guys were not up to no good. OBVIOUSLY there is some shady sh!t going on here. I can't even fantasize in my mind how far my head would have to be up my a$$ to think that a couple guys flying with cell phones taped to plastic bottles and changing their flights at the last second to get their luggage diverted is some sort of "coincidence."

They changed their flights because they missed their connection, due to no fault of their own. Their luggage continued on, through no fault of their own.

But feel free to jump to all sort of conclusions. I wouldn't expect anything else.

Edited September 5, 2010 by Vertigo

[StoleIt]

They changed their flights because they missed their connection, due to no fault of their own. Their luggage continued on, through no fault of their own.

But feel free to jump to all sort of conclusions. I wouldn't expect anything else.

Yes, them getting put on the same one is a coincidence of pure chance.

Was them missing their flights a coincidence? No way to tell. It's very easy to miss a flight...just don't show up.

But having cell phone duct taped to bottles in their luggage? Please enlighten me on what purpose that has. I would LOVE to know.

[Spoo]

I don't know if this should be filed under "WTF?" or "Awesome!".

BTW, It's not the kids who should be jumping in the castle...

[zrooster99]

Kills two birds with one stone...

Edited September 6, 2010 by zrooster99

[Guest Skyrider]

I'm perfectly willing to admit that on this pass, they did not have the materials necessary to blow up a plane.

Actually, they did. Maybe not blow it up, but at least disable it. The suspicious part isn't so much that the cellphones were taped to things, but that there were so many of them. Lithium batteries make a very nice explosion and all you need is something to short them with.

Hmm, I guess the tape could have the same effect as it does on sparkler bombs. No tape=sparks. Taped up=BOOM.

And if you try this at home, careful, there is sometimes a second explosion if the cells go separately.

Edited September 6, 2010 by Skyrider

[Vertigo]

Yes, them getting put on the same one is a coincidence of pure chance.

Was them missing their flights a coincidence? No way to tell. It's very easy to miss a flight...just don't show up.

But having cell phone duct taped to bottles in their luggage? Please enlighten me on what purpose that has. I would LOVE to know.

It's also easy to miss your flight if your arrival is late getting in. Ever flown into/out of O'Hare? Yea it's a fuckin' nightmare. I avoid that airport at all costs.

As far as the taped phones and watches... I'll let the former head of TSA, Kip Hawley, take that one for me.

"It is not unusual to find items like watches and cell phones bound together on flights to countries like Yemen."

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/08/2-arrested-in-amsterdam-after-flight-from-chicago.html

Edited September 6, 2010 by Vertigo

[sky_king]

You also know how easy it is to schedule a tight turn between flights to make it nearly impossible to make your connection. I'm not saying they WERE making a dry run, but this is something this should be investigated a little deeper than normal. I'd say this warrents the media attention that it is getting.

[Guest]

I'd say this warrents the media attention that it is getting.

I don't care about media attention but I'm glad it got the attention of the proper authorities.

It is simple. We are at war against an unconventional enemy. Any strange or unusual shit should be investigated. Let them go if there's no immediate risk or crime. Keep an eye on them if you think that is required. Kill if required.

[Vertigo]

You also know how easy it is to schedule a tight turn between flights to make it nearly impossible to make your connection. I'm not saying they WERE making a dry run, but this is something this should be investigated a little deeper than normal. I'd say this warrents the media attention that it is getting.

That is totally something I can agree on. Ya it's suspicious, yes it should be looked at, yes these guys should be investigated and looked at with more scrutiny. My whole argument was against those (like Brabus) who automatically assume that they are guilty of whatever they are being suspected of. I guess the assumption of innocence only applies to those of non muslim sounding names in his book.

YGBFSM!!!! Why are they even asking if this is just "a coincidence" or not.

I'm not naive enough to think that those that want to do us harm won't test our security systems first. I also know innocent people get convicted of crimes they didn't commit and that coincidences, while suspicious on the surface, do occur.

Edited September 7, 2010 by Vertigo

[brabus]

automatically assume that they are guilty of whatever they are being suspected of

.

I didn't say they were auto guilty, I just thought it was ridiculous the whole thing was dismissed immediately as no big deal and just a coincidence (at least on the surface...there very well could be far more going on here, but I won't speculate on that).

I guess the assumption of innocence only applies to those of non muslim sounding names in his book.

Good one dumbass. I already stated I could give two shits what their skin color is or their religion. Could have been two white guys from Oklahoma and I would have said the same thing. Quit trying to lean on retarded statements with zero merit to support your argument.

[Vertigo]

I already stated I could give two shits what their skin color is or their religion. Could have been two white guys from Oklahoma and I would have said the same thing. Quit trying to lean on retarded statements with zero merit to support your argument.

I gotta be honest. I don't believe you. Sorry. If that's the case then I would have expected equal outrage when the Hutaree militia was allowed to go free on bond.

[Smokin]

I guess the assumption of innocence only applies to those of non muslim sounding names in his book.

No, the assumption of innocence only applies to legal proceedings. OJ Simpson may have been found not guilty in court but he is still guilty to me. You also might be a little more convincing if you quit calling people racist. I haven't seen any posts here that refer to what country the people came from. Most of us are well aware that domestic terrorism is also a very credible threat and I think you would see similar reactions here regardless of the color of skin or last names.