ABCNews.com: Passenger Arrested for English Exercise

[zbdent]

I guess this is why we're on "orange alert":

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040802_682.html

A Japanese man flying to Ohio was arrested after he was seen writing down the words "suicide bomb," but he was released without charge after explaining that it was an impromptu English exercise.

The 60-year-old man told investigators he came across the words in a newspaper and wanted to look up their meaning, police spokeswoman Alice Casanova said.

"He teaches himself English by reading newspapers," she said. "It was all just a miscommunication."

< snip >

[prodigal_green]

1. I told my students to do that all the time

and then come to class with the new vocabulary words. Good way to start a class discussion about current events while answering their vocabulary questions.

Of course, this was when Big Dog was our President, so the questions were usually about terms like "economic expansion" or "unprecedented growth."

[Endangered Specie]

2. Open up the internment camps!

[mark11727]

3. Good thing he wasn't reading about the Cheney/Leahy debacle...

...he could've been busted for obscenity.

[damnraddem]

4. Yeah, simply a miscommmunication. After all, the ...

Gestapo can't be expected to always get it right.

"Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said travelers need to be mindful of how they behave on airplanes because potential security threats are treated very seriously."

Better be careful what you think on an airplane too -- the Bushistas are working on mind control.

[FredScuttle]

5. What I want to know is

Who is this Betty or Barney Busybody and what are they doing sticking their nose in this guy's business? So he wrote down the words "suicide bomb"....SO FUCKING WHAT? It's not as if he was cradling the damn thing.

I love how the TSA spokeswoman quoted in the article makes it out to be this poor man's fault. How about holding the weasel informant responsible for this nonsense?

I am sick of this environment where non-whites are presumed guilty of terrorism...I want to scream!

[The Sushi Bandit]

6. Did it include an ANAL PROBE??

lookin for bin laden