Three days ago, two Saudi men here on temporary student visas boarded a local high school bus. One was wearing shorts and a black trench coat.When alarmed students alerted their not-so-alert driver, the driver alerted the school officials. Then the school officials called the cops. Then the men were arrested and taken in for questioning. Um, am I missing something here, or would it simply have been wiser for someone to dial 911 to start with? Don't students carry cell phones?
Here's a more detailed report of what happened next. But I'll summarize it here for you. When the men were taken into custody, they lied repeatedly about:
Where They Came From: First they told the police they were from Morocco. Then they were from Saudi Arabia.
Why They Boarded the Bus: Even though they were enrolled at USF, they had decided they wanted to take easier English courses at the high school. No! Wait! They really did it for kicks, to see what an American high school is like. No! Wait! They couldn't tell the difference between a yellow school bus and a public one.
Yeah, I'm serious.
Then these guys were were held on bails of $250 each on misdemeanor trespassing charges. Oops, no wait a minute. Maybe there's something suspicious! (Could there be something suspicious in the state where the 9/11 terrorists went to flight school? Let's face it, we're Terrorist Mecca here). OK, let's play it safe and revoke bail, the judge decided. Oh brilliant, bravo. That took the mental alertness of Britney Spears.
Yesterday (only 2 days after the incident) the two men were released with no charges filed. Strangely enough, that didn't make the paper. However, we were treated to seeing them on our local news channel as they were released. They looked delighted, while their attorney explained that it was all an easy mistake and simply the result of a culture clash.
Sure! That explains it! I forgot in the Saudi culture that it's natural to give several opposing versions of the same story. And goodness knows that the Sauds are our friends, right? What? Most of the 9/11 terrorists came from there? Get back, Jack!
Let's face the facts. This was a dry run. And you know what? If we don't take it seriously, we will see Mana Saleh Almanajam and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran again. Well, if they're suicide bombers maybe we'll just see pieces of them. But they'll be scattered among the remains of children.We need to demand that all students carry bus passes, and all drivers must check the passes before allowing them to board. This won't prevent a terrorist with a gun, perhaps, but it may help deter one.
We also need to ask why Pres. Bush continues to court the Sauds "with the more open policy part of larger efforts at improving relations between the two nations." Bush can't have it both ways. Either the terrorist threat is real, or it's a contrived campaign of terror which our own President has conceived to justify the continuing war overseas. Let's make up our minds.
21 comments:
Reverberate, exactly! It makes you wonder, doesn't it? At least, I'm glad to see that it's making you wonder; I wish more people would.
I wonder if it's any coincidence that most bombings in Israel involve busses and cars near busses?
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism
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+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terror+Groups/
Hamas+terror+attacks+22-Mar-
004.htm
Sorry for the long link. I need Saur to tell me how to hyperlink in posts.
One scary story! No wait! Its an eeeeerie story. No wait! Its a story that makes me angry. Hmmm, I can't even MAKE myself contradict as much as these guys did.
Little man does not ride the bus, he can walk with dad.
Big guy has to ride the bus because of the god forsaken start time of 9:45am.
Little man does not ride the bus, he can walk with dad.
Big guy has to ride the bus because of the god forsaken start time of 9:45am.
Here is the thing, you need evidence to hold someone in jail. There needs to be charges laid, I am pretty sure that getting on a school bus when the driver did not tell them not too is not in and of itself a felony.
You live in a free country. You start putting in place all of these security plans and then your freedom is gone. Then the terrorists have already won.
Just my thoughts...
Scott
I voted for Pres. Bush two times. But I have come to the rue those days. I'll reluctantly go along with your "...it's a contrived campaign of terror which our own President has conceived to justify the continuing war overseas."
But no mention of reprimanding the bus driver? That's worrisome. How many kids climb aboard with knives, shanks or just plain ill will? Have other "unathorized passengers" have climbed aboard without detection?
Your paranoia is a little narrow here, but you're off to an interesting start, anyway.
Homeland (In)Security makes me feel as safe as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
Lets look at some facts here, keeping in mind my love for vast conspiricy theories.
1. Before 9-11 Bush's approval rating - not so great. Not terrible but not too good either. It was looking like he would be a one termer. The nation was still split pretty much 50 / 50.
2. After 9-11 Bush's approval ratings - SKY HIGH! Higher than Ceech AND Chong put together, multiplied by 10, then cubed. That is pretty high.
3. Now - Bush's apprival ratings are in the toilet. Lower than the bar at the world championship limbo contest.
Lower than a bow legged caterpillar. Lower than.....uhhhh...a low rider in south central LA. You get the idea.
So, what Bush needs is....ANOTHER ATTACK! Then he can say "see what happens when the democrats and some republicans do not allow the CIA to spy on people? See what happens when my secret directives that democrats complain about being against the law are not carried out?"
And the people, being dumb as rocks, will fall for it. The very vocal 25% closet facists WILL take over and rule us all.
Lets hope this is NOT a dry run and the wild conspiricy theory I just made up is just that - a wild and crazy untruth that someone just made up.
BTW - DEPORT THEIR ASSES! Ill buy one of the "students" a free one way airplane ticket back home. Coach seating of course. I can not afford first class. At the door to the aircraft, I will rip out the USA Visa from their passport books and stay there to watch the airplane door close and the jet to push back.
Unfortunately, we pay someone minimum wage to drive our children around, quite often without background checks, without any real training and with no support system in place when they start to lose their mind.
It's not too shocking that the bus driver let them on in the first place but it is deplorable. Used to be that the driver knew exactly who was supposed to be on his/her bus and if you wanted to ride another bus you had to have a note from your parents.
I'm all for making the kids have bus passes. We still live in this idealized world where children are innocent lambs and we choose to ignore that nowadays children are used as drug mules and suicide bombers. We choose to not acknowledge that the average age of soldiers/freedom fighters/terrorists in other countries is 14.
This situation is a lot like stalking laws. The police can't do anything until the perps actually do something illegal. One of the checks and balances of our system. Hopefully, they are now being watched very carefully. Probably not the case but ...
Bandar Bush.
Thats really all I have to say. House of bush, house of saud.
Alex, they're intertwined, aren't they? Daddy Bush is a paid consultant for the House of Saud (and ohhhh, what a sweet deal that is!)
Heather, happily the stalking laws are different here, due to a number of murders that everyone saw coming but no one could do anything about. Maybe they'll consider passing a law about this one, too. I don't really blame the bus driver, because the guys probably COULD pass for H.S. students.
Lazy Iguana, ohhh yes, we see eye-to-eye. How weird, huh? I used to mock conspiracy theories but just because they usually don't exist doesn't mean they always don't exist.
Paul, like you, I voted for Bush twice. Paranoia? Ouch! Not really. See my note to Lazy Iguana. I only WISH I didn't have to draw these conclusions.
Scott, very true, and I won't forget that. But, these are not American citizens who were doing something stupid. These were citizens from another country; and one that promotes terrorism (despite their official denials). Surely that would call for a longer detention from Homeland Security, and a little more digging into their background?
Michelle, I didn't know that Big Guy took the bus? I thought he walked.
TC, I can't blame you. I would drive mine to school every day, rain or shine, if I were faced with this.
Miss C, You're right! No, wait, you're partially wrong. No! Wait! Are you even Miss C? :D
AQ, yes, they make handy little delivery systems when it comes to mass destruction. And, the bonus would be taking out our youth with them, which would have a strong terrorism impact, huh?
well, it appears we do not hire Rocket Scientists to drive our school busses. That driver must be straight out of the "Simpsons"
It could be argued that terrorist attacks on the US play into the hands of the Bush administration, from there its not so much of a leap to come to under funding agencies to allow these acts to happen.
Big Guy does walk...to the bus stop. Seriously, if he does not walk in the door at 4:50pm we give it 10 more minutes and start calling.
Since I've never been on a public bus in the USA, how does it work? Here in Japan, I stick out like a sore thumb, but the driver doesn't see me until I'm about to exit the bus.
Thanks for the post, Saur.
that is a scary scary story. I totally agree with you. And what was with the driver not noticing that two ADULTS got on a school bus. um hello?? mcfly? WTF? crazy shee-ot man.
My school bus in Saudi Arabia was green and white!
Back in the 60's when Krushchev banged his shoe on the meeting table with Kennedy, he made it a point to let us know that he would get to our people through our children and our school system. This is not a far (albeit twisted) stretch for Al Quada to do the same today.... but instead use their own little homemade WMD to wipe out a school or schools. Who would have ever thought that they would use our own planes against us?
Since they have little or no regard for our way of life, this could actually be seen as a "dry-run". The fact that their stories don't jive well makes it all the more possible.
Should we wait for an attack to happen before we say, "Oh yeah, I guess we should have looked a little further into their backgrounds before we let them go."
As Americans we are walking a fine line for our freedoms, and realize that it doesn't come as free as we'd like it to anymore. These are not the same days we were dealing with pre-9/11. Maybe we purport ourselves as the land of the free, but a lot of people seem to forget that it is the "pursuit of happiness".... not a guarenteed entitlement because you are here, and that the freedom part is for thinking and speaking.... not bombing and terrorism. Our freedom now comes with a heavier price tag.
We need to protect our land and our shores, because we've seen what can happen when we are asleep at the wheel being so politically correct.
I think the dry run theory is very plausible. Al Qaeda is looking for the big one. Let's say a synchronized bombing of 50 buses, one for each state, should be big enough to make Osama happy. Make sure we get some school buses too. The way you describe it makes it seem easy. I don't think we're doing much about that threat, but I wouldn't blame Bush for it. Whatever his faults, he would never sacrifice American lives for a political benefit. Besides, it's peole like you who make the difference, just staying alert.
These guys wound up at my daughters' high school. How scary is that?
Fred, very scary, I'd say.
JJ Mollo, I hope you're right. And we often have to be careful. We must preserve rights, yet protect ourselves. We haven't (and hopefully won't) started checkpoints. It would put the terrorists on lock-down, but we would also suffer. The thing that worries me is how lax we all are, 5 years after 9/11.
Ellen, beautifully said. Thank you.
Nihilistic, ? You lost me there. I'm not sure if you're kidding, or if this is true?
KristieD, I suppose they might have passed for kids that age. But they don't look it to ME.
Jory San, I thought you were from here? Or are you from here and never ridden a public bus? Anyway, I've never been on one of our local ones (though I stopped one, once, but that's another story). The ones in NY are easy enough to use. You wait at a designated public bus stop (which looks entirely different than a school bus stop) and then you board the bus. You hand the money to the driver, and take a seat. The interiors, exterior, procedure, everything is different.
Michelle, smart!!!
Daniel, Yes.
Mallory, *LOL*
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