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Text Message Brands Quebec Man a Terror Suspect
An anonymous reader writes "Saad Allami likely never expected that a simple text message of encouragement would have turned his life upside down. But as seen in a similar case of absurd overreaction by authorities, a simple text message is all it takes to have yourself branded as a terrorist. From the article: 'The Quebec man says he was arrested by provincial police while picking up his seven-year-old son at school. A team of police officers stormed into his home, telling his wife she was married to a terrorist. And his work colleagues were detained for hours at the U.S. border because of their connection to him.'"
They arrested him because of a simple text message, not because any actions that he took. Just speech. That's a lot worse, if you ask me.
He just wanted to "blow away" the competition
The article says that he told his colleagues to "blow away" the competition, so most likely it read as, "Blow them away." And it was misinterpreted.
The article says that he told his colleagues to "blow away" the competition, so most likely it read as, "Blow them away." And it was misinterpreted.
Indeed -- but misinterpreted by whom? His colleagues, or by someone who was spying on his text messages? And if it was the latter, did they have a search warrant, or is this another case of the government conducting warrantless wiretaps?
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
The US and Canada have become such cowardly nations that anything can be made into a threat.
A Connecticut Casino has a set of 4 "core values" that its employees are supposed to emulate:
Blowing Away the Customer
Developing Passionate and Dedicated Employees
Continuously Striving for Perfection
Bottom Line Performance
Is this out of a terrorist handbook?
"His name was James Damore."
"Telecommunications sales manager Saad Allami .. sent a text message to colleagues urging them to "blow away" the competition at a trade show in New York City"
..
Well there you have it, an obvious prima facie case if there ever were one. An Arab sounding name next to the words 'blow away` and 'New York`. The computers at Fort Meade must have lit up like a Christmas tree
AccountKiller
We need to be asking the right questions here:
He made the tweet on Jan 21, and he was picked up three days later. That is an incredibly fast turnaround for law enforcement, even for the US or Canada. They were throwing the T-word around like it was a known fact, all while terrorizing his wife and co-workers.
So, let's ask some useful questions.
1. How long have the authorities been monitoring this man?
2. WHY have they been monitoring him?
3. WHY did they go after his co-workers?
The answers are bound to be exceptionally interesting and frightening.
[End Of Line]
Allami says he sent the text message in French and used the word ''exploser,'' a term he claims is commonly used in finance to mean grow or succeed.
-- Seq
So if a guy solicits you in a bathroom, you'll have to assume it's a DHS agent.
the hell with that: if some guy approaches me in a restroom, I'm assuming he's a republican and I'm running for my life!
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
"Salem, je serai à New York le 25 janvier, on va exploser ACN, si vous avez des contacts référez-les moi"
http://www.aufaitmaroc.com/maroc/societe/2012/2/3/canada-un-entrepreneur-dorigine-marocaine-souhaitant-exploser-la-concurrence-ecroue
I think that must have been done by a non-native English speaker. It's just a mistaken idiom; the correct "core value" is "Cleaning Out the Customer".
i am just smashed thermodynamically to pieces by the kind overreaction here
one wonders if a complete shock wave of annihilation of common sense has occurred
what do we do as a society if we utterly and eruptive eviscerate and detonate our sense of proportion?
a violent cataclysm of frothing hysteria is bursting forth and is explosively convulsively disintegrating mental composure here in a frenzied fulminating volcano of bursting boiling meteoric rage and---
[NO CARRIER]
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Translates to:
Salem, I will be in New York on January 25h, we will explode ACN, if you have contacts refer them to me.
So yes, if you only see that sentence alone by itself, it will make you want to go and arrest the man.
The question is, why didn't they dig a bit deeper to get more information such as more details about the supposed bomb and other supposed terrorists *AND* why was his message intercepted in the first place? Welcome to 1984. The real terrorists did win, everyone in North America now lives in a police state.
It is indeed used very often in colloquial French. You can explode your budget, some limit/quota (overspend or overdo) and yes, you can explode your competition as the title of this article says.
more likely? Considering they went ballistic on one misinterpreted word in a text message, I'd say they it's 100% positive they were spying on him.
And the moral of the story is?
Dont travel to the US.
The #1 reason why the US was quickly ruled out as my holiday destination this year is because of the horror stories like this.
Im not a criminal hell bent on the cold blooded murder of thousands of people, im a tourist.
I want to take photos of my trip, not take photos with the intent of bombing the place.
I dont want to be fondled, radiated or seen naked on every plane trip, have guns pointed at me, screamed at followed or harassed.
bah, fuck that, im going somewhere else.
A real shame too, as genuinely I wanted to go there and see the sights.
Considering this story was about Canada, you must be really paranoid!
Don't paper over our intelligence failures. The title of the memo to the President of the US was "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the US." Bin Laden was, at that time, the head of an organization that had already carried out terrorist attacks against the United States in Kenya, as well as the bombing of the USS Cole. He wasn't a sales manager in Montreal.
If our governments are going to assume that we are all terrorists until proven innocent, the war on terror is over. We lost.
Don't send your buddies a text about metaphorically blowing people away at a trade convention, just because they're getting on a plane soon? You have to be shitting me. Sorry, I don't live in a reality where that's common sense. I won't stop flying because I'm afraid of terrorists blowing up my plane, and I won't stop sending perfectly ordinary text messages because I'm afraid of the authorities coming after me. You are a degenerate coward.
I like this guy, already. He isn't suing for millions, he is suing for $100,000. And, he wants a certificate of good conduct so that he can work in the field of his choosing. Obviously, he wants to embarrass the fools responsible. Sounds like a reasonable guy to me. I get so disgusted with people who have a legitimate greivance, but blow it all out of proportion by suing for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. It's like, "Oh, these guys insulted me - I should never have to work again! Set me up with luxury homes, luxury cars, furs, diamonds, yachts and private jets!"
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
My name is Jack. People can get arrested just for saying "Hi" to me.
Nothing happened with the Russian material because the Russian military officers were consummate professionals interested in maintaining the integrity of their nuclear supplies EVEN when they weren't being paid. The US helped a bit by offering support in the form of money, tracking technology and basically secretarial assistance in tracking and verifying the integrity of the supplies but every goes back to the Russians and their professionalism.
The few times a couple ounces of material disappeared it happened from commercial sources not weapons and even then it was quickly intercepted when they tried to sell it. This was all confirmed recently with recent books from people that have retired that were involved in the process, the Russians were always very professional. Hell its the reason we never ended up in a war with them, that same professionalism got Kruchef sacked and Stalin murdered by a Coumadin overdose. We might have some idealogical differences with the Russians on occasion but they've always been sane responsible people with integrity and honor.
I like this guy, already. He isn't suing for millions, he is suing for $100,000. And, he wants a certificate of good conduct so that he can work in the field of his choosing. Obviously, he wants to embarrass the fools responsible. Sounds like a reasonable guy to me. I get so disgusted with people who have a legitimate greivance, but blow it all out of proportion by suing for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. It's like, "Oh, these guys insulted me - I should never have to work again! Set me up with luxury homes, luxury cars, furs, diamonds, yachts and private jets!"
(Emphasis mine.)
You never learn, do you?!
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)