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People Unexpectedly Suspected Of Terrorism

OneWingedBird

OneWingedBird

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Flight Sim enquiry raises terror alert
By Andrew Orlowski in Las Vegas
Posted: 08/01/2004 at 22:39 GMT
Get The Reg wherever you are, with The Mobile Register


A mother's enquiry about buying Microsoft Flight Simulator for her ten-year-old son prompted a night-time visit to her home from a state trooper.

Julie Olearcek, a USAF Reserve pilot made the enquiry at a Staples store in Massachusetts, home to an earlier bout of hysteria, during the Salem witch trials.

So alarmed was the Staples clerk at the prospect of the ten year old learning to fly, that he informed the police, the Greenfield Recorder reports. The authorities moved into action, leaving nothing to chance. A few days later, Olearcek was alarmed to discover a state trooper flashing a torch into to her home through a sliding glass door at 8:30 pm on a rainy night.

Olearcek is a regular Staples customer and schools her son at home. The Staples manager simply explained that staff were obeying advice. Shortly before Christmas, the FBI issued a terror alert to beware of drivers with maps, or reference books.

At one time it was rare to find US citizens, in the safest and most prosperous country in the world, jumping at their own shadows. Now we only note how high.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34776.html
 
Did you notice the "related link" at the bottom of the article?

Beware of strangers carrying books, warns FBI
Click to expand...


For some reason, the words "Pol Pot?" (with a question mark) popped up in my head when I read that.

And of course, it serves to reinforce the statement:

At one time it was rare to find US citizens, in the safest and most prosperous country in the world, jumping at their own shadows. Now we only note how high.
Click to expand...
 
I have to say that the events in the this story are completely ridiculous. Paranoia in the extreme! One has to wonder what happens next, seeing as that particular flight sim is often bundled with new PCs.
 
Ye Gods! PC World must be an outpost of Al Qaida... quick we must burn the evil ones... burn them I say...

erm


Sorry


I've been reading the Republican Christian pages again... I'll fetch me coat...
 
9-11 was a terrible act that brought home to the ordinary American that terrorists can strike anywhere and at any time. I cannot blame the authorities for trying to protect (belatedly) its citizens. However, their lack of experience is starting to show by the fact that the Department of Homeland Security is now trying to "cover all bases" with possible terrorist aids, devices and opportunities. The fact that no matter what is done, a determined terrorist can find a way hasn't quite got through. They want to be seen to be doing something in order to ally the publics very real fears.

In a world where a killer has absolutely no fear of their own destruction and can look like anyone (and not just some swarthy foreign-looking guy), the US government feels completely powerless. The UK government, long ago, realised that to combat terrorism (which has no rules, no uniform and no predictability) one needs good reliable intelligence - something that the US Government spent furthering their own agendas abroad but little "at home".

Has Washington contacted Bill Gates and other software manufacturers over their flight-simulations? What is the next victim group of freedom loss in the US ... anyone with dark hair? Anyone who looks a bit foreign? Anyone who asks for directions to public monuments?

When once internal security was lax, the authorities are now overreacting. Too much, too late!
 
Flight Simulator?

What if someone is buying Hitman, or Silent Scope..?
 
How else are we supposed to catch terrorists? Everyone knows that there are always foreigners in the top percent of US University graduates, so of course terrorists would rely on books instead of people to find locations, and we all know that terrorists like to fly planes.

If we have to screen every 10 year old who wants to pretend to be a pilot and every lead provided by a FOX news watching store clerk, then darn it, that's what we're going to do. If a fed spies on me by skulking around the yard and flashing a light through my patio door at night, I'll be darn proud to say we have a hardworking homeland security department. I may even start leaving out donuts for those impromptu home searches, with a note that says "thank you for being so diligent".

:D
 
Tulip dear, I've said it before and I'll say it again..... IF YOU KEEP MAKING ME SNORT COFFEE UP MY NOSE i'M GOING TO COME OVER THERE AND THERE WILL BE TEARS BEFORE BEDTIME!


a-hem.... thank you. I feel better now if a trifle damp around teh gills:)

Kath
 
Original story

For further info. I've located the original story from the "Greenfield Reporter."
Question about flight simulator brings visit from police
By VIRGINIA RAY
Recorder Staff

COLRAIN - An innocent inquiry to a Staples store clerk about a computer software program that teaches how to fly an airplane by instrumentation brought a surprise visit this holiday season to a local family from the state police.

"At first, I felt a little angry and violated" about someone telling authorities about her inquiry, said Julie Olearcek, a 15-year Air Force Reserve pilot. "But now that time has gone by, I realize it may take someone like that, who's a little nervous, who may save the day." Olearcek's husband, Henry, is also a flier, currently on active duty, and frequently away from home these days.

About a week before Christmas, Olearcek said the couple's 10-year-old son, who has flight simulation software and is keenly interested in learning to fly like his parents, commented that he'd have to wait until his dad retired to learn to fly by instruments. She went to Staples soon after and took her son to the office supply store, where he looked through the available software.

"He was disappointed because there was military stuff, but it was all fighting stuff, so I asked the clerk, and he was alarmed by us asking how to fly airplanes and said that was against the law," Olearcek said. "I said I couldn't imagine that, but, because (the clerk) was a little on edge ... I left." But "what saves us, is people are paying attention," she said.

Olearcek said she and her husband both were well aware that the Office of Homeland Security had raised the threat level during the holiday and of the generally increased terrorism alert following the Sept. 11 plane attacks.

"And rightly so, this puts people on edge," she said.

But she was taken aback by what happened next.

"By 8 p.m., a state trooper was at my house," she said. "At first, it was a little unnerving because it was pouring rain and my husband had just left ... My son said he heard someone walking around outside and it startled him. We had put our Christmas tree in front of a sliding glass door and the trooper ended up tapping on the glass of that door and putting a flashlight in and it scared us."

But Olearcek said she doesn't believe the trooper was intentionally trying to frighten her family. Nor does she blame the clerk for erring on the side of caution.

"We all have to be aware," she said, not really even wanting to speak of the incident on the record, but wanting to keep the record straight. "It's not just the people in uniform who have to be looking after this country. So when people see something out the ordinary, they pay attention. Maybe by the way we worded the question - who knows? - it triggered the individual. Still, if they had done their homework (at Staples) they would see I home school my children and am a frequent customer and have a teacher's ID on file."

Olearcek said the trooper asked her if she had inquired about the software, and she said she had and showed him her military identification.

"He was totally understanding, but protocol means he has to follow through," Olearcek said. "I immediately gave him my military ID and I had no problem giving it to him. At first I felt like, 'Wait a minute, this is America.' But we also have to understand it takes everybody to pay attention. At first I was a little frazzled with someone knocking on my window at 8:30 at night, but the bottom line is this is a civilian who has tried to do his best."

Sgt. Donald Charpentier of the Shelburne Falls State Police barracks said police received a telephone call from the Staples manager "that a person had been looking for instructional videos regarding flying planes."

"Those programs are quite common for entertainment and training, but he felt it was suspicious enough to warrant a call," Charpentier said. "We responded, and it turned out to be innocent enough; a person looking to buy a Christmas gift."

Staples' spokesperson Sharyn Frankel said the employees were doing what they have been told to do.

"After 9/11, our store associates were instructed that if they see something suspicious or out of the ordinary, they're to contact their managers and local authorities," Frankel said. "It's all about keeping our associates and customers safe and this was out of the ordinary and kind of raised a red flag and they did what they thought was right."

"Bottom line is we've all got to look out for each other, and I wasn't harmed," summed up Olearcek. "And what if it were the other way around? It's going to take everyone in each town to look after one another."

You can reach Virginia Ray at: [email protected].
Click to expand...

http://www.recorder.com/Headlines/tuesday_basic.htm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Amazon.com's top three selling computer games the week after 9/11 were:

1. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000

2. Flight Simulator 2002 Professional

3. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 Professional

Don't believe me? Check out the attachment.
 
Hugo Cornwall said:
IS it just me, or does that feel like a spin piece?
Click to expand...
Possibly, but it seems to be the original source for the story. I'm vaguely tempted to e-mail the reporter (e-mail address at the bottom of the article) to find out more.
 
Quite frankly I'm not surprised. Air Force Reserve Pilot? I bet her superior was asked to "have a word". Sorry, I'm a nasty cynic.
 
Justin Anstey said:
Amazon.com's top three selling computer games the week after 9/11 were:
1. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000
2. Flight Simulator 2002 Professional
3. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 Professional
Don't believe me? Check out the attachment.
Click to expand...

One word of caution - MS flightsims tend to be bundled with alot of ready-made retails PCs - this counts as a sale for the title every time it's sold 'free' along with a new PC. This in turn somewhat warps how popular the games actually are in terms of sales.
 
perhaps the USAF have taken note and stopped carrying maps.

This would explain their attempt to bomb Al Quida out of Market Weighton.
 
LOL!

"Hey Buck, that sheep down there; I think it's reading the Koran..."

I know it's a silly question... But has everyone seen Bowling for Columbine? The notion of cultivating fear in the population, as discussed in the film, seems to be particularly prevalent at the moment.

Oh, popularity falling Mr Bush? Better stop a couple of flights on 'terror alerts'- that'll remind 'em what you're there for!

This sort of idiocy is just a symptom of the population of a country being raised on fear and drip fed propaganda their whole lives...

Sorry to rant, but it's infiltrating our (British) media now, the newspapers on the right (Mail, Sun and on the FAR right, the Express) are stirring up paranioa on a scale that's not far off this sort of guff. It's frustrating to see it happening before our very eyes.
 
Re: LOL!

Originally posted by daisys
[BThis sort of idiocy is just a symptom of the population of a country being raised on fear and drip fed propaganda their whole lives...

Sorry to rant, but it's infiltrating our (British) media now, the newspapers on the right (Mail, Sun and on the FAR right, the Express) are stirring up paranioa on a scale that's not far off this sort of guff. It's frustrating to see it happening before our very eyes.
Click to expand...

yes but its largely an urban thing... down here people go tut tut and carry on..London etc really is a forign country to us.
 
I suppose that's true to an extent, but I'm 'counrty' chap myself and I hear and see more intolerance, fear and misstrust among the middle class rural dwellers than I ever did while living in the centre of a major city.

The whole 'Tony Martin's Law' campaign that the Mail/Express are starting is the start of the sort of fear culture that the americans live in. I'm pretty sure the express' mission statement must be something like - 'Every stanger you see is an illegal immegrant terrorist packing an uzi and a cache of child porn - who is planning to raid your home and steal your silver before bludgeoning you in your bed'. The scaryiest part about the whole episode is that Radio 4 listeners overwhelmingly voted in favour of a 'Tony Martin' law - intelligent people; so affraid of the big wide world they think they should be allowed to kill anyone they find on their property... now THAT is scary, more so than a terrorist if you ask me...
 
I defy anyone to play MS flight sim then get into a 'plane and not veer off the runway and crash straight in to the control tower. You can't learn to fly that way.

As for the paranoia? It gives stupid people something to do, doesn't it?
 
that and pay their idiot tax to the national lottery ;)
 
Clash fan nicked
Terror profiling finds punk...
By John Oates
Published Wednesday 5th April 2006 11:36 GMT

A man from Teeside was dragged from a plane and questioned for three hours under the Terrorism Act after a cabbie reported him because he was worried about his choice of music.

Harraj Mann, from Teeside, suffered the interogation after he got a cab to Durham airport and plugged his MP3 player into the taxi's stereo.

After playing Procul Harem, which the cabbie enjoyed, he played the Clash's London Calling and Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. These clearly didn't go down so well because the taxi driver reported his passenger to police once they arrived at Durham airport.

Mr Mann was hauled off the plane to London and questioned. He was released without charge and caught a later flight. More from Reuters here.

It is not the first time Clash lyrics have attracted the wrath of UK authorities. In June 2004 Bristol man Mike Devine was arrested at his office after sending a text message including words from the Clash song Tommy Gun. There was speculation as to how the text message came to police attention - they insisted Devine had mis-sent the text and that they don't spend all their time reading everyone's messages. Click here for more.

Devine was released once he'd convinced investigators he played in a tribute band.®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/05/clash_fan_terrorist/
Click to expand...
 
Yes officer I've got this Remote Control device with which I'm gonna Rock the Casbah in precisely 48 Hours 'cos I wanna start a White Riot thus bringing about Armagideon Time or, failing anything on such a grand scale maybe just The English Civil War. Yeah I used to be a Bankrobber - I Fought The Law with a Tommygun. What's My Name not telling you mate - you've got to Know Your Rights in this business. Do you want to Pump Up the Jam..oops, sorry, wrong artiste, and besides, I don't think it's legal.

I'll get me coat. Anyway, that's probably Special Branch at the door right now.
 
I lived in Durham for 3years and to the best of my knowledge there is no airport there.
 
Previously called Teesside International Airport, it was renamed Durham Tees Valley Airport on 21 September 2004 as part of a redevelopment plan. This move was taken with the disliking of many Teesside residents.
Click to expand...

That explains it. I left in 2001. In British terms it's not really near Durham (the city).
 
phew! i feared it was an UL & me after forwarding the story to lots of people!
 
The unfortunate chap could always have told the coppers it was the Dave Clark Five he was listening to. There was a contestant on Ken Bruce's Radio 2 show this morning who managed to get the two bands mixed up, something I wouldn't have believed possible had I not heard it with my own ears.
 
Thank god he wasn't listening to Stiff Little Fingers. They might have thought he had a Suspect Device :shock:
 
i'd imagine Flux of Pink Indians' 'I love tube disasters' may be problematic for the authorities as well.
 
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