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Israeli Border Police Shoot US Student's Laptop
zerothink writes "American student Lily Sussman, 21, upon entry into Israel from Taba (Egypt, Sinai) caught Israeli border police in grumpy mood — after two hours of questions and searching through her belongings they decided to put three bullets through her laptop. Explanation? 'I'm sorry but we had to blow up your laptop.' Haaretz also covered the story." All three bullets missed the hard disk.
Soooo... they nerdraged her puter?
Seems a little odd they would attack her puter. Feels more like they were little babies because they didnt agree with her on some subjects so they hurt the only thing they could. School playground antics from grown ups, awesome.
What.all my client case notes and testimony, writing, pictures, music and applications. Years of work. NO!!!! What?? Are you insane?? What were you thinking? THAT’S ALL MY WORK!?
What? There are a million and one things that could happen to a nice shiny laptop while travelling, if your data is that important it's pretty stupid not to backup, especially before travelling.
Nothing new to me. It even beats American airport security paranoia, I hear.
Here's an outline of the security measures at the train station near my home (minor suburban station with about a train an hour):
Before I enter the station, I see guard dogs, handled by security officers (in their 20s). They're actually a bit cute. Except they have sharp teeth and they're trained to kill etc.
I have to take my bags and put them through an X-ray machine, examined by a clueless security officer. I also have to step through a metal detector in case I have a gun/knife on me (never gets triggered by my belt and house keys)
Then as the train arrives, commuters are instructed not to board it until "security examinations" are finished (even if it's the back-and-forth shuttle train that only has two stops).
All train personnal are armed with a pistol. Including drivers. ... And then a 20 year old soldier walks in carrying an M16 and ammo which he is somehow allowed to because he has a slip of paper and uniform.
Security at its finest!
o hai
who wouldnt want to put three bullets through a Mac?
She had the following on herself -hand drawn map of downtown Jerusalem -Arabic stickers on laptop -"Fuck Star of David" pic on phone
-passport stamps from Arab countries -various Arab publications -photos condemning Israeli military action in Gaza
It is not convenient at all forgetting the details you mentioned. They change nothing about the story. The only thing that can justify such an action is if her laptop battery was made by sony.
Now that's a threat.
Selfdeclared? There WAS resolution of UN which allowed its creation. Most countries recognize Israel, even if they dont recognise Jerusalem as its capital. ... or all other states of world?
How about "selfdeclared" state of US? Or "selfdeclared" state of Syria? Or "selfdeclared" state of Spain? Or Iran
armed thugs stop the travellers on a regular basis, and demand all sorts of things from them, at gun point. like removing clothing, penetration of clothing (tap search inside pants), stealing items like water bottles and knifes, or destroying property as here. in worst cases they can even enslave you (called arrest and inprisonment now, or rendition)
this is not much different from the middle ages, where bandits would stop travellers, and demand all sorts of things from them at the threat of physical violence. at least, at that time one could prepare and fight back.
Given the other evidence they probably determined there was a statistically significant percentage that the laptop wasn't just a laptop, so they disposed of it how almost every group disables potential bombs, by shooting it.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
She had the following on herself -hand drawn map of downtown Jerusalem
Geography students in Israel better start wearing kevlar soon.
-Arabic stickers on laptop -
If you're one of the 530 million people speaking Arabic, here's some news - knowing a language could be a crime.
"Fuck Star of David" pic on phone
I'm not one for nasty language, but I won't go popping bullets in things I don't like, Mr Columbine.
-passport stamps from Arab countries -
What's wrong with visiting an arab country? or do you believe in enclosing a race to their own land and prevent them from outside contact? Similar logic to that of a certain country, I must say.
various Arab publications
That sounds plain xenophobic. Education is not synonymous to English or Hebrew.
-photos condemning Israeli military action in Gaza
You should start getting trigger-happy with the U.N., Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a dozen other human rights monitoring agenices and governemtns, because they condemned military action in Gaza. I should not have to leave my opinion at the border when entering a country, if my opinion is not causing any harm to anyone.
The bullets would have bounced off. But it does figure that angsty types would have an apple product.
Sent from my PDP-11
If it were a chemical or biological agent, that would release it into the air.
Was the agent wearing a proper hazard suit and mask?
Second, shotguns won't set off plastic explosives. Neither will a high powered rifle.
But if a shotgun pellet hit a blasting cap it will definitely explode the whole thing.
From what I hear, terrorist improvised explosive devices tend to be made with more unstable stuff (blasting caps) rather than more stable things (c4).
By the way, forget everything you've ever seen in a movie about explosives, it's total B.S.
Also, all the E.O.D. guys I know of doing a 'disposal' will either move it to a 'safe' location or at least sandbag the snot out of it before dealing with it.
(You know those new bomb robots that have the built in gun? It's for shooting at the control mechanism, not the explosives, and if you don't know where both those parts are, you don't shoot at it unless you want to buy a new robot. Last E.O.D. robot I played with cost $2.5 million. Nobody wants that coming out of their paychecks.)
Yes, I know what I'm talking about when it comes to those substances, I really was a Munitions Systems Specialist in the military.
(Job kinda sucked, so did the co-workers, but it had it's good points.)
Either way you look at it, they pumped 3 rounds into just to be pricks and F with the girl.
very true and the parent is very wrong. but it was created with very different borders than today
http://moinansari.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/israel-palestine_map.jpg
and that was using merkava "treaties".
On other news websites, "Thankfully, noone was killed". On Slashdot, "All three bullets missed the hard disc".
SURELY NOT!!!!!
I've crossed into Israel at this particular border point, around 5 years ago, and yes it was one of the hardest border crossings I've ever done, we were part of a tourist party who were going to be in Israel for around 30 minutes (a quick drive through Elat then out into Jordan), and its not somewhere I would take anything bigger than a camera I would even if I could empty the card before I went through. Everything was Xrayed, the metal detectors were so sensitive every scrap of metal was detected, a few people having to remove jeans with quite a few studs, your personal property was swabbed and checked for explosives and then once through there you were grilled about your personal details at passport control, quite a few people getting long grillings. All under the watch of guys with automatic weapons. It wasn't a place you made any kind of joke, you do exactly as you are told. At the time I though it was overkill then a week later this happened http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Sinai_bombings, a terrorist attack aimed at the Israelis pretty much at that border point (although on the Egyptian side), kind of puts it all into perspective. Saying that since that border crossing, I am a lot more careful what I take with me, laptops and cameras fully backed up, and only take essentials, even bought a travel laptop so my main machine would stay safe at home. Everything electrical packed into one easy to search bag. Jen
Admittedly, it does not sound as if shooting the laptop (and the display, of all things) was necessary, or even helpful. Having said that, the Israeli procedure seem to be:
Contrast and compare that with the US customs, which says:
Even on sheer "friendliness", I'm not sure which I prefer.
Shachar
The reason they're shooting it is to *try* to make it go off.
Typically this would be put in a bomb pit somewhere nearby. From reading the comments this is fairly common practice there. This one nailed it pretty well:
"I know many Jewish Israeli people who had their bag shot just because they left it unwatched for a couple of minutes. Yes, this is the unfortunate reality that Israelis live in, where Palestinian terrorist would do anything (such as put bombs cowardly hidden in laptops) to intentionally hurt innocent civilians. These are precaution measures intended to prevent loss of innocent lives (yes, sometimes at the cost of a cherished laptop because of a possibly careless border officer)."
Do you know what the symbol for "Arm" is on the firing control mechanism for an M1 Abrahms main gun?
Wait... you mean the design of the main US battletank supposes that the operators can't read english? Or is this from some israeli knockoff of the Abrams?
Yeah, the Israel version is called the Abrahams.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
It's easy to spot the difference, the gun is slightly shorter.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
We're sorry miss, but that is a Macbook. Therefore it is horrible and must be destroyed before our children see it and make an arbitrary decision about the proper O.S. and hardware. You might get away with using that in a Muslim land, but here it is not kosher.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
So which part do you disagree with? You don't feel that it's unfortunate? Or you don't believe it is reality?
I disagree with the emotive language implying that Palestinians are the only ones killing innocent civilians. Particularly given differences in death counts e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/14/gaza-city-fighiting-israel-un or the lack of running water for so many people
More than 400,000 Gazans were left without running water, while 4,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless; 80 government buildings were hit.[30]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_War or the ongoing dispute about construction of wells/water buildings + farming which Israel are preventing them from building (there are further links about the below, especially relating to actual construction and needs, and differences in water consumption, but no time to look them up at this moment)
According to reports, Israeli soldiers shoot towards farmers working on their lands along the buffer zone nearly every week...During Operation "Cast Lead" which ended in January 2009, private houses, workshops, cattle farms, tree groves, agricultural roads, water wells and rain-fed crop fields located within the area were demolished by the Israeli army.
So "unfortunate reality" that the poor israelis might have some bags and laptops shot given all the above, well yes, it does make me question if they have a sense of reality. Or perspective.
To respond to another post:-
Ohhh, I JUST love the "my side has it worse" game!
I'm not on anybody's side, except maybe the "let's not be hypocrites about this" side.
Whether the Israeli military used white phosphorous when targeting civilians (the evidence suggests they were using it the way everyone else does, as flares at night to light up targets so the wrong building/person isn't shot) is irrelevant.
Considering they mostly used it at daytime, it surely isn't.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Having been there, Isreal isn't even remotely 'western-civilized'. An American should seriously fear for their life there unless they know the ins and outs of that culture. God forbid you slip up and accidentally order a pepperoni pizza (my mother was ousted from the building) or stand in front of a muslim en route to prayer (my brother was picked up and thrown headfirst into a barrel of fish). A tour included a popular shootout spot, complete with bullet holes on either side of the alley. The airport we left from was bombed the day after we left. That place is NOT 'western-civilized', or anything civilized, or even safe.
First - My work place was on the 3rd floor overlooking a main post office. I remember a case where someone left his groceries when he picked up his mail from his mailbox. About 20m later, we saw the guy sprinting back a few blocks down the street. However, the bomb disposal people were at ground level... and their robot shot his bag before he could get close enough for them to see him. Veggies everywhere. So no, this isn't picking up on someone in particular. Leave a bag unattended in a sensitive public place, and this may happen to you - regardless of who and what you are.
Second - I am sure this girl had a most unpleasant time. She is overlooking the fact that she wasn't a suspect as such. If you were a terrorist trying to smuggle a bomb into a high security area, a good way would be to plant it on some young, sympathetic, naive, idealistic western girl who is "obviously" not a terrorist - a profile this girl fit to a T. To rule this out you need to ask a lot of invasive, personal, seemingly irrelevant questions. If this sounds far fetched to you, read about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nezar_Hindawi who planted a bomb in his pregnant Irish fiance's bag. I am certain she went through a most unpleasant time as well. I am also certain she appreciated keeping her and her baby's lives. I am also certain all the other passengers on her flight appreciated continuing living, too. And the crew. And all their families. And friends.
The bottom line is that security in Israel is different from the USA. Instead of inflicting ineffective, mindless, low-level nuisance on everyone, it focuses on people who may (knowingly or unknowingly) pose a risk and gives them a thoroughly unpleasant, but effective, screening. This method works. And for most people, Israeli security is a much more pleasant experience than going through USA security. Of course, for the few who end up getting the 3rd degree, it is much worse.