A woman overheard a conversation from 3 guys she said "looked middle eastern". She interpreted them to be making plans for terrorists actions. They were since detained. I'm on my way top work. Are we going to start wire tapping Muslims now?? I'm sure there are more effective methods.

What city was this in?

(This is gonna blow if this keeps up at this pace, without the proper protocol.....)

[ September 13, 2002: Message edited by: bluebird48234 ]

This must refer to the people detained in Florida (who had been in Georgia when the waitress saw them). Here's a link.

[quote]Originally posted by SELECTIVE_SOLDIER4U:
A woman overheard a conversation from 3 guys she said "looked middle eastern". She interpreted them to be making plans for terrorists actions. They were since detained. I'm on my way top work. Are we going to start wire tapping Muslims now?? I'm sure there are more effective methods.

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Uh, this is already happening and was authorized by our Congress last fall as part of the "Patriot Act." Where have you been, fellow sportsfan??? In fact, our Attorney General is talking about "detention camps," "expanding" the wiretap powers, and other scary activities. Oh well...as Isaiah Berlin might have suggested, democracy always entails a battle between negative and positive liberties. Negative liberty (the freedom to be left alone to pursue one's own interests) sometimes are abrogated for the greater good--but there should be strict limits to the abrogation and protections of our rights in a free society. We are still a free society....

These guys need to keep their mouths shut. They knew they were being observed, thats why they made the joke, according to CNN. They should have to pay for all the investigation expenses. Now a circus will develope around this story needlessly. What a bunch of a**holes.

When the Conservative Party held its annuual conference in my home town (this was when John Major was Prime Minister) my father was interviewed by Special Branch officers three months before who asked questions about his boss. Did he know anything about his boss's political opinions, was he a regular churchgoer, etc, etc.

The reason? Simply that the boss's daughter had applied for a vacation job working as a waitress in the Conference Centre and the family had an Irish-sounding surname (though the boss and indeed his parents were born in England).

Anyway my father gave the required answers. His boss was not interested in politics and did not go to (Catholic) church so she got the job OK.

Which side of Fantoma's positive/negative dilemma does that come down on. IRA bomb avoided or unnecessary intrusion?

I dont want to sound superior about this. I know I have the same prejudices at times. When I saw some of the Sept 11th anniversary on television the other day I had a flash of shock/anger/whatever to see the marching band of the NYPD had shamrocks on their drums. My instinctive reaction was "how dare the New York Irish take part in this ceremony when they have donated so much money to IRA terrorists through NORAID down the years?". Immediately I felt guilty for having had that inappropriate reaction but it shows I'm maybe not so different from those Special Branch officers.