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Large Hadron Collider Scientist Arrested For al-Qaeda Ties
mindbrane writes "A scientist working as a subcontractor on a peripheral LHC project has been arrested as a terrorist. The CBC is running a story outlining the arrest of a man on Thursday in south-east France for suspected al-Qaeda links: 'CERN officials said the man, whose name has not been revealed, was working under contract with an outside institute and said he had no contact with anything that could have been used for terrorism. He had been at CERN since 2003, officials said. ... The news that someone with terrorist connections might have worked at the facility is likely to cause concern because of both the high profile of the giant physics experiment and also the technology in use, which has made some members of the public nervous.'"
He could cause the creation of a blackhole that will kill us all!
Or he could cause a couple of magnets to quench and suck up even more money!
Maybe the two are related?
Or a anti matter bomb like in angels and demons.
A religious al-Qaeda scientist, without a name. Why do I not believ this. Especially because al-Qaeda is not a group anymore because the US have already kicked their asses and al-Qaeda is now reffered to as people that want to commit terrorism under the name, just because they desire to use the titel. This is allowed by al-Qaeda btw...
Here be signatures
All he had to do was to twist the "EVIL LEVEL" knob to 11 and a portal to hell would have been opened!
Everyone can be linked to Al Qaeda
Large Hadron Collider. Now THAT'S a weapon of mass destruction.
You moved your mouse. Please restart Windows for changes to take effect.
I would suspect that the worst that i has done is to send some money home to relatives in a Arab country.
so you don't have to DO anything anymore to get arrested? He was arrested for "al-Qaeda ties"? what does that mean exactly? Did he kill anyone? Did he plot to kill anyone? Did he know about a plot to kill anyone? It sounds like his sister's friend's neighbor had a cousin who was friends with someone in Al Qaeda back in 1990.
Also, from TFA: "The news that someone with terrorist connections might have worked at the facility is likely to cause concern because of both the high profile of the giant physics experiment and also the technology in use, which has made some members of the public nervous"
So people are concerned about someone (with terrorist connections) MIGHT have worked at the facility?!?? OMG that's a reason to start rounding up everybody with brown skin!
Geesh
.. Obama had fixed this already?!
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
I thought that this was covered in the press last week, so why is it in /. now??
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Dont you understand how dangerous black holes would be in *terrorists* hands? They could use them to destroy the whole world. In my opinion only Americans should be allowed to create black holes.
I want an al-qaeda tie. I don't care what colour it is, i want one!
Because the LHC will create a black hole that will swallow us, we're destined to be in a universe where the LHC either malfunctions on its own or is sabotaged by terrorists.
I have never trusted those Europeans with their lage hedron and whatelse stuff
. . . it seems pretty capable of breaking itself on its own, with any outside help
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Next you will hear that CERN should be more concerned about security. There is only one way however. If you do not want people to find out what they find out, don't start looking for it.
It is not as if it is a super secret research facility.
Also most likely you could get information here in much more detail and the person arrested was seen to eat falafel in a place where the shop owners second cousins neighbor has the same name as somebody who was placed on the Al-Quida list by a jealous family member so he could get a reward payed out.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Immolation is the sincerest form of flattery.
I heard Newt Gingrich on a popular cable show a few months ago listing the most serious security threats we Americans face in our homeland and among the first few he listed was 'a threat from something we don't know and can't prepare for because we've fallen behind in so many areas.' That was ALWAYS laughable in my youth and I half-dismissed it as rhetoric, but here's the living proof that it wasn't and that the sometimes seemingly "square" Republicans are at least continuing to think about these issues during their "timeout." Thankfully this proof isn't coming from forensic scientists analyzing the aftermath of whatever this guy could have conceivably been intending to pervert the LHC's somewhat awesome technology to do to us.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't LHC should be able to proof existence "God particle"? Perhaps that guy only wanted to make sure the particle belong to "right" god.
Imagine trying to smuggle one onto an airplane... "I'm sorry, sir, your bag is overweight."
The Foundation (Al-Quaeda in Arabic) will be created in 12000 years by Harry Seldon, as the result of nuclear proliferation initiated by time-traveling terrorist, inspired by subversive element from Hidden Centuries.
It'd be nice if the papers would hold off reporting on things like this until the facts are in and public.
What you are referring to is not journalism but blogging.
Investigative journalism has a very important role in democratic societies as a tool for making information available to the public.
Look up Watergate.
As things stand, they're spreading as much disinformation as information.
Not if properly sourced and leveraged by some form ethical code of conduct - backed by either their personal or their news company's reputation and/or open to criticism of peer review.
It is quite understandable that in today's world of "FOXed out" news and anonymous internet commentators one might confuse investigative journalism and reporting with slander and propaganda.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
This is a much better news article than the one from CBC:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/nuclear-terror-suspect-is-top-physicist-1800927.html
It names the suspect and it explains how he was tracked and arrested.
According to the article, the suspect studied for his PhD at the Stanford University Linear Accelerator Center, stayed at EPFL and has published several articles.
And I thought after we got rid of george w bush, all the "al quaeda this" and "axis of evil that" and "osama this" and "emmanuel goldstein that", "give me all your money and all your rights or they'll kill you" would finally stop...
you know the literal translation of the word "terror" from latin is "fear" and a "terrorist" by definition is someone who makes you afraid. some people make you afraid by crashing planes or detonating bombs in your country or by sending you terror-threat videos. some people make you afraid by constantly telling you there was a bogeyman that is about to kill you - using his weapons of mass destruction unless we start a war etc.
wake up! your own government and your own media terrorize you far worse than al quaeda ever did! If you run scared everytime someone says "bogeyman", then the terrorists have won, because you are scared and THAT is exactly what they WANT
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
in 5..4..3..2..1..0..-1...
Funny that the blackhole joke came up one minute before the countdown.
Cue time travel jokes in -5, -6, -7...
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
The good news is that the National Ray-Gun Association is fighting the 3-day waiting period for mad scientists.
I am officially gone from
This wouldn't have happened at Black Mesa.
For all intensive porpoises your a bunch of rediculous loosers
But sir, apart from a hole, there is nothing in it!
Look for yourself...
That's the ultimate suicide attack - trying to destroy the entire universe!
Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
Wait, is that "good" news, or "Good news everybody!" news?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Black holes is a racist term.
Maybe he brought some Cat Stevens records....
Did you really have to title your post "Umm...No"? You're taking a totally unnecessary confrontational tone.
If you don't like your posts criticizing specific actions and cases being understood as general critiques on subjects - elaborate your posts a little further.
You know... like the stuff you wrote in the reply-post above.
Just dumping a throwaway comment like "Papers should STFU!" is bound to get you some negative or "confrontational" comments.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
And I do not trust the DST (or whatever it is called nowadays) as far as I can throw them. Even less than that. I can remember the "rainbow warrior" ship story, for example. It could very possible that they found a real idiot planning to do a terrist attack, or it is possible this is polically motivated and somebody needed that sort of "news" for nefarious purpose. We'll see in the next days.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Make him an insider !
Step 1) Open the colllides door put terrorisnt inside . ,too bad, A service to the world has been done.
Step2) Close door
Step 3) set power to max
Step 4) Fire !!
No cleanup required
If I'm wrong abour cleanup, O'h well
It wants its news back.
In France? :)
---
LHC Feed @ Feed Distiller
HAHAHA it's funny cuz its true
Five bucks says his name was Mohammed
was it this guy?
You can't handle the truth.
..He will be found to have had nothing to do with any kind of terrorism, and be released. Of course, the mainstream media only ever report the arrests - never will you see a subsequent report that the individual was eventually found innocent. I believe the goal here is keeping alive in the public mind the illusion of an effective domestic "war on terror", so that our most basic freedoms may be further eroded by the enactment of ever more insidious security legislation.
I think someone threatened by people buying al-Qaeda Ties, instead of Girl Scout Cookies, turned this guy in. The evidence is most likely pinned up on the wall in the employee lounge at CERN.
There's more going on here than we're hearing about.
So you have the two guys - one a brilliant physicist and the other with a PhD from the Curie University.
First off, it's hard to believe guys like this decide to blow things up. They are well educated; not the pawns of some brainwashing cleric.
But its even harder to imagine that they get caught in this manner.
These guys are so smart, but its easy to 'bug' their internet connection? Maybe they were sending e-mails without any encryption? Discussing things without using a code? Not able to stop people listing to their communications, or realising if they were being physically bugged? But holding down a day job at CERN? Doesn't add up.
Why did they even decide to get in touch with that group in North Africa? What could a bunch of guys living in a desert possibly offer to these guys in terms of help? These guys could probably plan their own misdeeds - so why would they potentially compromise themselves by trying to get in contact with some people they don't know and aren't sure they can trust?
I guess what I'm basically saying here is that if these guys are so smart - and I believe two people that achieve this sort of academic record, coming from nothing, are going to be shit hot - then I don't believe that they'd get caught in that manner.
I find it hard to believe that people that smart and that educated, having lived in different countries, would want to use terrorism to achieve their ends, but I find it really really hard to believe they'd be caught so easily.
[...] the arrest of a man on Thursday in south-east France for suspected al-Qaeda links: 'CERN officials said the man, whose name has not been revealed, was working under contract with an outside institute and said he had no contact with anything that could have been used for terrorism. [...]'
You have to decide: Either he's in arrest for a crime, or he is suspected and nothing is known or proven yet (and most likely never will).
I mean it's right in there: They have not found any ties. They just kinda heard from someone that kinda he could somehow be in an organization that somehow kinda could possibly be linked to...uuum...something.
One parrot tells it to the next parrot, and soon it's al-Quaeda, and he's arrested for shit.
But a friend told me that he came from Morocco to France, and the cops there were just like in Morocco. When he came to Germany, he was shocked, that the cops treated him like a human being. (And our cops still are on the level of semi-criminal bouncers who beat up people because they like to. It must be pretty damn bad in France.)
So I can comprehend how it can come to shit like this. But that does not make it OK.
I will wait and see what charges they bring up (if any). Or if it's the usual witch trial, like in those countries... you know... where "terrorism" "comes from"...
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
You could try placing it in a Bag of Holding ;-)
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
I've got news! The trial already happened. And I have a snippet of the only recording that got out.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Sabotage... or Scientific terrorism.
Religious terrorists (at least) don't tend to like science too much.
Think about it... how many creationists want scientists to unravel the secrets of the "big bang"?
Such science really gets in the way of convincing people of certain dogma..
Or it could be that, you know, al Qaeda really exists, and that they are really trying to conduct terror attacks, and that the two arrested really were participating in planning for those attacks. The French had comprehensively bugged their communications and knew what they were up to. From the Daily Mail:
"Adlene Hicheur is a former research fellow at the Rutherford Appleton and still visits the UK for conferences and other meetings. He and Halim are accused of compiling information about possible targets and sending it to contacts in North Africa involved with Al Qaeda Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). ...
European intelligence sources said that Adlene Hicheur, who studied at Stanford University in California before moving to Oxfordshire, had expressed a ‘very strong wish to carry out attacks anywhere where Western security interests can be damaged’."
Why did you think changing the president of the USA would in any way affect the behavior of the police in FRANCE?
If you have to go to Latin to figure out that "terror" is a synonym for "fear", then I suspect you're either not a native English speaker or your education was woefully inadequate.
Beware to put extra planar objects into a bag of holding.
Ever noticed that at least half of the world's terrorists were somehow trained/educated in or by the United States?
"And I thought after we got rid of george w bush, all the "al quaeda this" and "axis of evil that" and "osama this" and "emmanuel goldstein that", "give me all your money and all your rights or they'll kill you" would finally stop..."
Being paranoid over Al Qaeda doesn't meant they aren't a viable threat, though paranoia doesn't make for well thought-out policy decisions.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
It isn't hard to believe at all.
Intellectuals of a certain type have always been attracted to games of espionage, treason and conspiracy - and "game" is, I think, the right word here:
Cambridge Five, Whittaker Chambers
Most probably don't expect to be around when things blow up - but now and again you may find an exception: 2001 Anthrax Attacks
These guys are so smart.
The geek really ought to have learned by now that the smart and the arrogant make stupid mistakes. Hans Reiser
Each of these poor innocent protons was probably older than the earth itself, and yet we thoughtlessly slaughter countless billions of them for the sake of science. I urge all of you to join the CWFPP ( Complete Whackjobs For the Protection of Protons ).
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
So, a top scientist gets caught because of his e-mails ? I think he could have thought about encrypting them.
That is exactly the Moe GP was talking about.
Mad science doesn't kill people. People kill people.
Well, in the interests of full disclosure, & just to clarify this point:
Mad science doesn't kill people. People and my limitless armies of robot-brained atomic monster cows kill people.
What, they arrested some CERN scientist for wearing a thinkgeek.com product to the office?
What next a Tevatron researcher waterboarded for having al-Qaeda cuff-links?
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Obligatory XKCD.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
CERN officials said the man, whose name has not been revealed, was working under contract with an outside institute and said he had no contact with anything that could have been used for terrorism.
So we're looking for a guy who doesn't use shampoo or lighters?
Twinstiq, game news
> ... the National Ray-Gun Association is fighting
> the 3-day waiting period for mad scientists.
Darn right, they should. After all, ray-guns don't kill people... Aliens from the Krthiepth Cluster kill people. With ray-guns. Then eat them.
c.
Log in or piss off.
I find it hard to believe that people that smart and that educated, having lived in different countries, would want to use terrorism to achieve their ends
You mean like, say, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Born wealthy, educated in the U.S., and achieving a degree in mechanical engineering? Also the mastermind in plots that killed thousands of people to further the aims of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Queda, et al? You know, the guy who hacked off the head of a journalist just for the internet video shock factor it was intended to produce?
Yeah, being smart and living abroad and being well educated in a techical discipline: not a guarantee that you aren't also a militant, violent, jihaddist wackadoo.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Ever wonder how John Brown financed and armed his men for the raid on Harper's Ferry?
It makes for quite a story:
The Secret Six were not hardscrabble ruffians or ex-slaves but men of culture, education, and fortune, and, as such, an especial threat to the slave- holding plutocracy Five of the six were from Boston: Higginson a preacher and a writer; Sanborn a young writer, teacher, and protégé of Ralph Waldo Emerson; Howe a world- renowned physician who worked with the blind and deaf; Theodore Parker a well-known abolitionist and Unitarian preacher; and George L. Stearns a prosperous manufacturer. The sixth member, Gerrit Smith, was a rich upstate New York businessman and philanthropist. Civil War Chronicles: The Secret Six
... is fear itself!
"They were gunna collide that big hadron with sumpthin."
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
Yes, because a fascist newspaper is a good source of info.
He who controls the magnets, controls the metal detectors.
He who controls the magnets, controls density! Destiny!
CERN Security Agent 1: "Damn, there are going to be lay-offs. The scientists aren't performing criminal acts, we're useless, and there'll be funding cutbacks due to the recession."
CERN Security Agent 2: "Ok, lets smear this guy as an al-Qaeda terrorist, maybe that will help."
The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
But would you be able to smuggle it though airport security?
When it's ready, you won't have to.
That's why airport security is making the passengers curse on purpose.
Yeah, but this wasn't in our country. The LHC is located in France, and he was arrested by the French authorities. Please try to stay on topic.
Ironicaly , the only convicted anthrax through the mail person was American...
Oriental Hero "I want to live in a city where the Police don't shoot you" Jean Charles de Menezes
Problem is to get it into your bag before it eats Europe: They'd never let you enter the US if the black hole had been contaminated by fresh fruit and meat.
I'd bet, he was just planning on stealing a bottle of positronium.
I can't belive I'm the only one to be confused by misreading the headline
Sabotage the collider magnets? Or worse yet, create a black hole and destroy the whole world?
And how will we be able to tell the difference between his activities and normal LHR operations?
Have gnu, will travel.
As an american, it is my duty to speak for the rest of the world and agree with you.
yes, you are right. but think about how many political decisions in the last 8 years were justified by "al quaeda*". Now think about how many people died in the last 8 years through al quaeda terrorism in the USA...
the immense gap makes me LAUGH about "al quaeda*" arguments, no matter how serious they might be this time... I guess politicians just cried "wolf" a few times to often... and I don't say this because I'm german - we get a lot of "terror-warnings", too - and I laugh about them, too...
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
You could try placing it in a Bag of Holding ;-)
Holding without charge?
They just want to make sure that the God particle is the Allah particle.
Apparently, Osama Bin Smith was a model employee who worked diligently and quietly at his post for many years before his beard became a little too long and he was busted on employee saftey regs.
Given the famous six degrees, you have "some suspected link" to Al-Qaeda, American government, the LHC construction team, some defunct communist party, the Cosa Nostra, any of the Bildenberg conspirators and the Bush Family. All at the same time.
So "somewhere" you are pretty suspicious of "something" that can lead to your arrest. In some instances you can simply be detained without warrant or legal representation, kept isolated in an island for any of your links.
You have been warned. Go back to your closet.
They did not give out that much info in the beggining of this, but it was pretty obvious that they had more than 'just ties'. Yet, an AC got modded up, without anybody using any logic on his statment.
Revelations in the case have slowly emerged following the Oct. 8 arrest of 32-year-old French-Algerian Adlène Hicheur, who holds a doctorate in particle physics. Hicheur was nabbed after intelligence officials intercepted encoded e-mails he sent to AQIM members offering to plan terrorist strikes in France.
What this shows is that those who do not think or even openly sympathize with terrorism, are modded up here.
What else is missing is how much communications EU taps. Much has been made of America's PATRIOT act and the theft of our rights. Little is said of the quiet disappearing of similar rights throughout EU.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
First they came for the carders, and I did not speak out—because I was not a carder;
Then they came for the DMCA violaters, and I did not speak out—because I was not a DMCA violater.
Then they came for the crackers, and I did not speak out—because I was not a cracker;
Then they came for the Pirates, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Pirate;
Then they came for the Scientists....