Security officers at Los Angeles Airport have confiscated a gun in a security scare - from a plastic toy soldier.

The two-inch weapon belonged to a GI Joe toy - similar to an Action Man.

A British tourist told how over-zealous security staff confiscated the two-inch-long plastic rifle from a GI Joe toy soldier she was taking home as a gift for her grandson.

Judy Powell, 55, bought the doll in Las Vegas as a gift for George, seven, and packed it in her hand luggage.

Stunned

But when she passed the bag through an X-ray machine at Los Angeles International Airport, security staff spotted the tiny replica Armalite rifle.

Mrs Powell, from Walton on the Hill, Surrey, said: "I was simply stunned when I realised they were serious."

Security "examined the toy as if it was going to shoot them and looked at the rifle", she said.

They then told her that if she wanted GI Joe to keep his rifle, she would have to check in again and put the toy in her suitcase so it could go in the aircraft's hold.

Lunacy

Eventually, she agreed. Mrs Powell added: "I was really angry to start with because of the absurdity of the situation. But then I saw the funny side of it and thought this was simple lunacy."

A spokesman for Los Angeles International Airport said: "We have instructions to confiscate anything that looks like a weapon or a replica.

"If GI Joe was carrying a replica then it had to be taken from him."

I know security is tight even nearly a year after 11/9 but surely things are going to far, anyone would thinks its an Al'Quida Jo

:rolleyes: :eek: OMG! :eek: :rolleyes:

I know that's probably spam but that's really all i can say after having read that.

Yeah, OK -- perhaps they were slightly overzealous. But I'll *take* it. Do you know that I flew into LAX on July 5th, so as I walked from the gate to the baggage buffet I got to see, everywhere I looked, banner headlines about the shooting there at LAX the previous day? Yikes!

I don't agree with a suspension of civil liberties and due process of law for anyone suspected of terrorism. I don't agree with massive intrusions of government into people's privacy -- or their tax dollars, for some huge military buildup. But! In this climate of fear, particularly at LAX or DC airports, not being able to carry on your GI joe doll is pretty small potatoes.

Big whoop. Poor her.

A good thing they didn't arrest Judy Powell for kidnapping american soldiers...
Anyway whats up with the Alien mother ship approaching the White House? :shake:

[ August 09, 2002, 11:18: Message edited by: Nobleman ]

Mr. Writer, what happened on the 9th of November?

Wait - in the UK, is the date switched around compared to the good ole US?

Maybe that old lady wanted to seize the plane fly it in direction of Bush and crash it on his head (A lot of people want to crash someting of hundred tons and going with an minimum speed of 250mph on Bush´s head, including me. :eek: )

Well it could right?? RIGHT?? Or am I just being paranoid?

Paranoid Morgoth! Well...not really paranoid since terrorists really come, oh yeah!

:coffee:

If you let her off, why not let the machine-gun toting maniac off? Where do you stop? Where is the border between something that could somehow be used to cause harm to another person, and something that is harmless? No-one knows! The only way we can be absoloutely sure is by being paranoid. It may cause a few kerfluffles with GI Joe, but at least jumbo jets aren't being flown into buildings.

Yerril are you feeling ok or has the propagnda got to you. Ok let me go nice and slow

ITS A CHILDRENS TOY, THE ACTUAL DOLL DOES MORE HARM THAN THE GUN WHICH IT MADE OF SUCH THIN PLASTIC IT BENDS

Its about 2 freaking inch long.

And while they are arguing over a small toy whos stoping the real terrorists?

And I know you dont think much of the terrorists intelligence but who would try taking over a plane with a childs toy. Small soliders isnt real.

[ August 09, 2002, 13:38: Message edited by: Mr Writer ]

I wonder how long it might take till someone gets shot because of weilding an umbrella - in a threatening way. Actually the wonderful thing for a bored paranoid is that he can be suspicious about everything since about everything can be used as a weapon :rolleyes: And even if someone's totally unarmed - maybe he can karate ...

The more I think about it the less safe I feel. I think the US Customs should examine every traveller extensively and closely ... hidden bombs in the teeth, 12 gauge shotguns hidden in the innards :eek: ugh ... you never know ... and because of karate - general hands inspection ... :toofar: ... and if there is any doubt - shoot first, ask later, better safe than sorry :rolleyes:

[ August 09, 2002, 13:45: Message edited by: Ragusa ]

You know, some here are right about the thought that confiscating a toy, 2-inch gun is utter idiocy and that it does not help fight terrorism. However, the spokesperson stated that they were supposed to confiscate anything that looks like a weapon or replica of it. Maybe that's what the security staff were taught to do. Maybe that's what their jobs required them to do and they did it. Still, it doesn't make this situation any less idiotic, but maybe the staff was just trying to follow directions from a crazier person from above.

By the way, Mr Writer, it is possible for a 2-inch tube or whatever, to fire bullets. Before WW2, the British made a "cigarette" that could fire a single bullet. Later, the KGB made a lipstick tube called "The Kiss of Death", which was also capable of firing a single bullet.

[ August 09, 2002, 15:50: Message edited by: C'Jakob ]

12 gauge shotguns hidden in the innards Wow, gotta eat something and you´ll blow yourself to pieces :grin:

hidden bombs in the teeth Played a bit too much Grim Fandango eh?

Oh, and Mr. Writer, relax will ya (You´re :aaa: scaring me)

:coffee:

Private security personell is always a little bit ... how shall I say ... they remind me of well or less well trained dogs - they are limited in their independent choices and thoughts.

- my polemic, insulting and totally subjective opinion -

Yes, Mr. Writer, the US has gone mad. It is a reaction to 3000 people being murdered. Are they being overzealous? Yes. Is it inconvenient for travelers? Perhaps.
My guess is, if someone had flown jets into buildings in London, rather than in New York and Washington D.C., that the UK would be going mad right now.
Would you like to honestly discuss how the UK deals with terrorists (such as the IRA)? Would you? I doubt it.

the american way of writing dates makes much less sense than the british way, progressing from small to larger time unit (day/month/year).

saying that though, maybe this date switching was carried out on purpose, in advance, to coincide with the phone number you need to dial for US emergency services? :alien: :alien: :alien: :1eye: :1eye: is it all a big conspiracy, did someone know about september the 11th?

something that's been annoying me for a while now is film trailers, which are dropping the 'Xst, Xnd, Xrd and Xth' from release dates ("...released August Nine"). is hollywood trying to undermine 'date literacy'? :grin:

Ok for starters, I don't believe that news story to be true. Its a great story, however, there's no source to the news (where did it come from), no title, and when I searched around for it online, I came up with nothing relating to security at an airport confiscating a 2 inch plastic toy gun.

However, whether I'm right or wrong about the validity of that article, amidst searching for it I found this one, from CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/08/08/airport.breastmilk.ap/index.html

Words don't convey...

Yes, Mr. Writer, the US has gone mad. It is a reaction to 3000 people being murdered. Are they being overzealous? Yes. Is it inconvenient for travelers? Perhaps.
My guess is, if someone had flown jets into buildings in London, rather than in New York and Washington D.C., that the UK would be going mad right now.
Yes we would, so would any contry in the world but some things people forget is, smokeing kills far far far more than that every month and puts extream preasure on any health service, if all the money that has been spent on september the 11th was spend on stoping people smoking your contry would be far better off. The same for car crashes.

To the people mentioning about how 2inch tubes etc can fire bullets, it would make sense to confiscate such items, but this is a very thin (it can easily bend) peice of sollid plastic, even in the hands of a highly trained assisin his shoes can do more damage, and ok if they were following orders doesnt it worrie you that such incompetant people are in charge of your security?

Would you like to honestly discuss how the UK deals with terrorists (such as the IRA)? Would you? I doubt it. Fine then, come on. We have made many mistakes over the years of terror we have faced, (Birmingham six, bloody sunday anyone) since the 70's (maybe im a bit off on my dates) we have been subjected to constant bomb threats etc, its only in the last few years things have clamed down. But I do think we have handled things better than the USA. I would go into greater detail but im not sure how intrested people here are and how straight my facts are, but I do know we havent killed more Innocent Irsish people in 20 odd years than the USA has killed innocent Afgans in less than 1.

Oh and morgoth, im sorry for scareing you its just things like this make my blood boil :(

Mr. Writer,
In the interest of full disclosure, I must state that my mother is from Ireland and I don't buy the English stance on their continued presence there.

but I do know we havent killed more Innocent Irsish people in 20 odd years than the USA has killed innocent Afgans in less than 1.
The English occupation of Ireland can be traced back to Cromwell (that's 800 years, not 20). The IRA has been active a LOT longer than 20 years, and since England is not open about disclosing the number of "innocent Irish" that they have killed, your statement cannot be conclusively proven.

Edit: I removed my comments about the Bloody Sunday of 72 after rereading your comments.

Back on topic:
I agree with you that confiscating the tiny plastic gun is absurd. The airport security people are being overzealous in a lot of ways (see the breast milk story). I believe that what we are witnessing is a typical human overreaction to a situation where immediate and drastic change is required. Often, the pendulum swings to the extremes before it balance itself out. Eventually, (hopefully) this kind of stuff will stop and airport security will be effective without being overzealous.

[ August 09, 2002, 18:15: Message edited by: Jack Funk ]

Jack Funk, 3000 people died 9/11. Atleast 10,000 afgani children has died in US retaliation attacks 'against' the al qaida network (I am counting very low here because I am not completely sure of the number I read but thats a low estimate so I am not blamed for exaggerating). Dont you think that should satisfy the american thirst for blood and vengeance?

(Edit for Jack, unfortunately I have no confirmation on these numbers as I read them in my local newspaper quite some time ago. But it isnt the big deal that you are making it into, people do die in wars. Even children, sad but true. I was just pointing out that even though the 3000 victims of 9/11 are a terrible tragedy it is still dwarfed if compared to what the people that harboured the leader of the lunatics that flew those planes have suffered.)

But back on subject, I know alot about silly rules and if you as a security personell has orders to confiscate anything looking like a weapon you sure as hell do it. You never know when some idiotic boss gives you **** for bending the rules for some trivial little thing.

[ August 09, 2002, 19:26: Message edited by: joacqin ]

At least 10000 afghan children have been killed? Is that right? I must insist that you provide proof of that statement. Some link (or links) perhaps? Why isn't the UN up in arms? Or your country perhaps?
If this is true (prove it), I will immediately contact every government official from the mayor of my city to the president decrying these war crimes.

2,000 afgans in a village were killed when a US bomber acidently dropped a bomb. How you can acidently drop a bomb i dont know, it was all over the news over here, but seeing as the USA was in a state of war it would have been censored

Links please? You overestimate the willingness of the US press to act as a mouthpiece for the government. Besides they can't censor the internet.
Like I said, if someone will provide links to news sources that confirm these war crimes than I will do what I can as a US citizen to affect change.

http://www.peacefultomorrows.org/news/christiancentury_a3.html
There is no reason you should trust this link any more than you didn't trust Joacqin, Jack. ;)

They US military is obviously ( No sarcasm :) ) better at judging the dangers of terrorism and how to respond than any of us. This goes for both precautions (airports) and diminishing (axis of evil). Personally I thing it is utterly rediculous if Mr. Writers story holds any truth.

As Ragusa points out, anything could be dangerous. Why have border control at all? Just rip the visitors of EVERYTHING. 3000 Americans where killed after all; and we don't want it to happen again do we? Where could it happen? Farms in Utah poisoned by bacterias from the fluid in a barbie doll? Long Beach biochemical attack from perfume bottles? Only allow naked travellers with their hands tied to the back. This is not for fun. The US has a terrorist threat hanging everywhere and ALL the time. Anyone saying that confiscating plastic toy guns is a necessity, will agree with me on this one.

Of toppic; Bombing a village by incident, Mr. Writer? Just recently the danish Air force has refused to work with the american Air force until they stop using the amphetamine "Dexedrine" to perform better and longer in combat. The danish Air force will simply not tolerate the risk of danish pilots' lives performing tasks with drugged american pilots.
Please don't kill the messenger :)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=8526828&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b
http://dk.news.yahoo.com/020803/108/yfuj.html
The last link is a danish link. Sorry couldn't be bothered to find it in English. Any Scandinavians can confirm its relevance for mistaken bombings over Afghanistan. Of course its easy for the danish air force to play precious. They don't have the same pressure and workrate as the american air force. A tired and exhausted bomber pilot is even more dangerous than a fresh but drugged one. I think the danish air force (any other air force) should come of their high horse. But thats just me.

[ August 09, 2002, 21:23: Message edited by: Nobleman ]

Long Beach biochemical attack?

What are you implying, Nobleman? I had nothing to do with it, nothing! -- I was at the mall whole time!

Nobleman, thank you for the link. No, I don't trust it. It references a University of New Hampshire study but does not provide a link to the study.

Additionally:

Joacqin said 10,000 children. With no corroboration.
Mr. Writer said 2000 villagers killed by one bomb (all over the news, at that). With no corroboration.
Your link states 3000 - 3500 in the entire campaign. That is quite possible, and quite repugnant.

I am not looking to defend the USA. I want to know the truth so I can do what I can. Which, admittedly, is very little.

It seems I have again allowed myself to be sucked in by anti-American rhetoric. I will have to retire from this topic if it continues this way. I don't have the emotional strength or energy to deal with rhetoric and anecdotes. Which is mostly what I am seeing.

On topic:

I have no plans to fly any time soon, but if I do, I will make sure I don't have any tiny plastic weapons on me. Or breast milk.

Not at all Jack. I don't believe Any stories about American massacres either. Unless I can read it on the US government pages Hence the little smiley next to the link I gave you :) . Don't feel that you have been sucked into anything. I think its actually your duty to encourage people to at least do some research or validity of their knowledge/rumors. I agree that if this turns into some rhetorical mudwrestle I am out of here too. I hope it doesn't, and it won't if people start backing their "Accusations?" with at least some decent links or some solid arguments :)

[ August 09, 2002, 21:20: Message edited by: Nobleman ]

Yeah, Jack Funk -- what you failed to acknowledge is that the only facts which leave a war zone are those which the invading force WANT the public to see.

(This is not intended as an attack on the American PEOPLE in any way...I sympathize with all that's happened. But I wasn't too happy having my bag opened, completely emptied, and ransacked landing in Logan Airport about a month ago. Wow, THIS fifteen-year-old is with the Al-Qaida!!)

Tiamat, practically every country has a wolf pack of hungry journalists and reporters looming over any warzone involving US. How should the American air force hide anything? Timestop and darkness radius 1000 miles? Of course everything that happened can be found in news medias. Especially the internet. Just don't trust spooky _subnet urls etc

EDIT; And I am sure the people burning alive in WTC wasn't too happy either; or perhaps more unhappy than you Tiamat. IF ransacing a million annoyed greek teens'(who are in a hurry) bags, will save just one person... I think its fine ;)

[ August 09, 2002, 21:32: Message edited by: Nobleman ]

Sorry about the late response -- I finally read the breast milk story.

Again, big whoop. As a formerly-lactating white woman, I don't see why, exactly, that group should be ruled out as possible terrorists. What some of you may not know is that human breast milk does not look much like milk. Human breast milk is quite thin and watery, and sort of blue. It is reasonable to me that someone seeing it for the first time may not believe it to be milk.

Nor it is disgusting. :mad: That woman has problems with self-loathing if she is disgusted by her own milk. What kind of person would breast-feed yet feel no curiosity about the taste? Is it just me? How must she feel about... her period? :eek: Give me a break!

The inconveniencing of airline passengers is a really minor issue -- people need to spend some time reading the stories of those who died in the terrorist attacks and get over themselves.

Tiamat,
If the invading force did not let out the results, then where exactly are Joacqin and Mr. Writer getting their information? Are they on the battlefield? Mr. Writer went as far as to say it was all over the news in the UK. If that is the case, it should be no trouble to produce a link to one of the fine (and reputable) London newspapers.

I want to clarify a little bit, while thinking a bit I might have to confess that the 10k death toll might involve the children dying of the aftermath of the bombs, like starvation and freezing to death. But if that is the case then 10k is an all too small number double it and you might crawl a bit nearer the truth. I suck at searching for info on the net and can therefore not link to any info I know that makes what I say perhaps useless in most eyes but I felt the need of saying what I have read in the newspaper and coming from a respectable newsagency.

CNN and other US media are very much in the goverments control, perhaps not in a dictatorship way but they have a close cooperation with it and they would lose viewers if they all of a sudden reported about starving people in an if possible even more devastated nation. Most of the media in the western world is all about money, not about truth or other silly things. That includes my little corner of the world, but here it is anti-us stuff that sells the paper. No one even needs to lie, all they need to do is to be selective.

Bag searching is certainly not unique to the United States or a sign that anyone has "gone mad". I lived in England during a very terrorism-intensive period. When Harrods was bombed I lived a short walk away, in fact, loud enough to hear the bang. Not only were bags searched at the airports, then and now, but at every museum, art gallery, and other public events. My school was frequently evacuated as a result of bomb threats and we had armed guards patrolling the school, searching our bags and occasionally calling in the bomb squad to investigate a lunchbox left unattended. Don't know if it's still like that in England- I imagine not- but it's a normal and healthy response to an increase in terrorist activities.

It seems as though the actions of a few airport security guards are considered to be representative of the USA's official approach to countering terrorism, but let's remember that security guards - airport and otherwise, American and otherwise - are human beings, good and evil. And people who elect to pursue careers in security (just like law enforcement or the military) are somewhat more statistically likely to enjoy exerting power over others. Right now, as a result of fears of terrorism, they have a greater carte blanche to indulge themselves in this area than they've ever had before, and some of them are drunk with it.

I've been to the United States twice since September 11, and both times, I was roughly handled by airport security guards. One one of the occasions, the man who grabbed my arm to drag me out of the "non American citizen" queue had his other hand on his gun. Both times I was held for interrogation for more than an hour after my plane departure time, which the guards laughed about amongst themselves in my hearing. Not sure how any of the questions improved airline security: Why was a French woman living in Canada? What does my father do for a living (they wanted to know this both times, but weren't interested in my mother)? Do I colour my hair? How much do I weigh? Do I have a boyfriend? The questions, on one of the occasions, were shouted into my face with a megaphone. They'd already searched my bags, had me sniffed by police dogs, and confiscated my nail file, as well they should have if they found me a suspicious character, but the personal questions, shouting and grabbing seemed unnecessary to me. I can't help wondering if maybe scaring a small blonde woman was just more fun to them than glancing through passports. Similarly- in the cases described above, I would doubt the guards were really worried about national security- they probably thought it was funny, making a woman drink her own breast milk and taking a toy away from a child. When I was telling friends and coworkers in Canada about my experience (which I only considered remarkable when it had happened a second time), they all knew someone else who'd been treated like this or worse recently at the US border.

I have seen pictures in the news of kids playing football in their football stadium that was once used for grim things. I can only say it made me feel quite happy to see, a people free of tyranny.

The "accidental" bomb drop sounds weird, must be a communication mix-up somewhere.

As for the starvation after bombing runs, I don't really believe it. Plenty of supplies were dropped after the bombing run. As for the numbers, what is what? 10k children? 10k people? How many civilians, innocent or taliban people?

Back to topic: 2 inch plastic toy guns? That's rediculous. What's it gonna do? Shoot a tooth pick at me with a range up to 5ft?

[ August 10, 2002, 02:20: Message edited by: Lokken ]

What is this breastmilk story? I never heard this, so could someone please provide links or something?

Anyway, to anyone that doubts this story, I actually read this in the New York Times, and saw it on CNN, so trust me, this is true.

The 10k death toll? Last I heard, it was roughly 3k people, but regardless, there's no way to prove this either way.

@Methyl, you were very fervent about your anti-death penalty arguments, and now you've become totally unsympathetic to others? How would you feel if one of your relatives couldn't bring you a gift because of some idiotic security guards?

The death penalty for the WTC and Pentagon is estimated at between 2300 and 4700, roughly the same number of people that were killed in Afghanistan. I'm not trying to say that this is right, but the USA has made every effort to minimize civilian deaths? Did they when they attacked us? Just the opposite in fact.

I might be able to understand the fact that it may have been a weapon, except for the fact that it's a solid piece of plastic! I guess we'll just have to resolve to the fact that Americans are morons. See my other posts in this forum if you don't believe this.

I would guess that that particular toy gun incident was a result of some new employee following the rules to the letter rather than using common sense. I know that replica guns are banned on aircraft, and some of the more accurate (life-size :) )replicas could concievably be mistaken for real guns and used to threaten someone in the heat of the moment. I saw a piece on the news about how the police in Edinburgh were asking people to get rid of replica guns before someone gets hurt in an incident where the police aren't able to decide quickly whether a gun's a replica or not. In that piece a police officer held up a real pistol and a replica, and they were pretty much identical.

Im a little off topic here but I find that giving toy soldiers with toy rifles to seven year old children is kind of sick.
What kind of message is the child getting from this, role modeling a soldier, playing with toy guns.
This makes me very unhappy, that parents would give there children toys like this.

[ August 10, 2002, 23:02: Message edited by: Aziraphale ]

Rastor: I'm a whiner, I'm sympathetic to some whiners -- therefore I must be sympathetic to *all* whiners? No, I do not see that. Some whiners should be slapped.

Was it stupid to take away the toy? Sure. But stupid stuff happens in the pursuit of important goals, and I don't get all the hoo-ha about it.

You really should stop with the "Americans are morons" crap. Maybe *I* am, or maybe you just disagree with me, but a nation of 250 millions could not be composed only of morons. It's statistically unlikely. And it's *tired*.

Sprite: Don't think I include you in the group of whiners that should be slapped! As you say so well, "people who elect to pursue careers in security (just like law enforcement or the military) are somewhat more statistically likely to enjoy exerting power over others." Yes, ask me about the time I was arrested on suspicion of prostitution by a couple of jerk cops. Power corrupts -- and airport cops have never had it so good with the *power.* I don't excuse it -- I don't excuse any of man's inhumanity to man, for any reason.

I just think that people (like you, Rastor!) use incidents like this to show that the United States is rotten, when they don't appreciate the culture of fear we are living in. No one ever thought we, here in the most powerful country in the world, could have anything to fear from war. But behold -- we are vulnerable, and people are scared.

Just like me and the LAPD -- and that wasn't the only time I was harassed by them for being a teenager out on the town in Hollywood with my Black boyfriend. I hated it, and I hated them. Then one night a white-supremacist started a fight as my boyfriend and I came out of a Ramones concert, and stabbed one of our friends in the stomach -- I only had time to go :eek: then beeeeoowwwwp -- the LAPD arrives. So the moral of the story?

We may hate what these airport cops become, but we should be glad they are there in the event we need them!

Methyl: As you probably know, yes I am an American, and yes, I do speak from personal experience in calling most of us idiots. No, I am not from California, so cannot speak for that end of the country. I only know that in the cities back east here, we are a region of idiots.

Was it stupid to take away the toy? Sure. But stupid stuff happens in the pursuit of important goals, and I don't get all the hoo-ha about it.I somewhat agree with you here, but I still fail to see how a 2 inch piece of solid plastic could be misinterpreted as a weapon! The airport security guards are certainly being overzealous in their duty.

I just think that people (like you, Rastor!) use incidents like this to show that the United States is rotten, when they don't appreciate the culture of fear we are living in. No one ever thought we, here in the most powerful country in the world, could have anything to fear from war. But behold -- we are vulnerable, and people are scared.Yes, but we should not be living in fear. Sure, the terrorists could attack at any moment, but I still cannot see how confiscating a toy soldier from somebody's grandmother is going to help reduce that threat. Not all of us are living in fear Methyl. Will I report suspicious terroristic activities? Sure, but I won't let those terrorists ruin my life. If we remain in constant fear of them, then al-Quaida has already won.

What she's trying to say is that overzealousness can be a problem, but sometimes it can help the solution. Yes, these security officers might have been on the aggressive side, but if they didn't let a 2-inch plastic rifle by, they sure as hell wouldn't let anyting bigger through...

When i was reading the beginning of this topic i was :lol: .
But after some time i recognized it was just another 11. september war.
One can't count death. It's stupid to argue with the number of dead bodies. I really can't stand it.
So this topic was just about funny incidents caused by paranoia of some sort. We don't need to discuss the source of this paranoia, we know it and yes we would be paranoid too.
That all reminded me of future politics and several fears drove my grin away. :(
But that doesn't matter because changing the world seems to be quite unpossible for me (today, just sitting here, having no visible halo :toofar: ).
I'd like to hear some funny paranoia stories. I think it's better having some fun while waiting if someone manages to destroy the world. Quite baroque.

ahem...

first: i do not felt or feel bad about the dead americans that died... they sponsor USAs reign of terror in the world as a "world police"

Second: the reason that the UN doesn`t interfere is that they are corrupted...

third: and how about when the americans send gene-manipulated corn to somalia just to test if you dies...

fourth: USA have killed more people than the talibans would do if they will drop a nuke over New York (ok not as much but close)

summary: Bush is a moron like all the other presidents... Long live Castro

While we should be concerned with potential weapons being brought on board, it doesn't mean we should stop using our BRAINS. I doubt the person who wrote the directive on searching for weapons anticipated that a TOY made out of crappy plastic which my 4-year son can destroy in mere seconds would be regarded as a potentially LETHAL weapon. [saracsm] OMG, next we'll have to remove people's hands and feet, because otherwise our planes might get hijacked by terrorists skilled in the martial arts!!! [/sarcasm]

Oh, come on.

If you read my above post, you should realize that there is nothing inherently wrong with what was done. I for one feel much safer, knowing that anything (including a 2-inch plastic rifle) which looks threatening to ANYONE will not be brought onboard.

***CONGRATULATIONS***
USA have just won the award for the most paranoid country in the whole fr*cking world... you didn`t see that one coming did you...

[ September 01, 2002, 10:16: Message edited by: AssWooper the UberSpammer ]

Great, an award an a double-negative in the same sentence!

If you read my above post, you should realize that there is nothing inherently wrong with what was done. I for one feel much safer, knowing that anything (including a 2-inch plastic rifle) which looks threatening to ANYONE will not be brought onboard.Actually, that makes me feel more insecure. It is by such *reasonable* steps that we slide down the slope into a police state. Study Nazi Germany a bit more thoroughly. Furthermore, guards harrassing a woman over a toy would still have missed those terrorists - it is people using their brains who catch them - like that customs agent who stopped a terrorist at the border long before the hijackings, because she knew something wasn't right.

USA have just won the award for the most paranoid country in the whole fr*cking world...I'm surprised it took this long for someone to notice.

And now for something completely different (http://www.satirewire.com/news/march02/screeners.shtml). :D

[ September 05, 2002, 09:54: Message edited by: Sojourner ]