Those Fascinating American Tunnels....
AP:
An Israeli man was detained by Maryland State Police for more than four hours after he was seen photographing the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, a state police spokesman said.
The incident began around 6:30 p.m. Friday when authorities received a call from a motorist who reported seeing a man taking pictures as he drove through the tunnel which runs under Baltimore Harbor on Interstate 95.
The Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, which passes on information to local, state and federal public safety agencies, connected the caller to the Maryland State Police. Troopers were alerted to watch for a green 1998 Dodge Caravan with Connecticut license plates.
The motorist who made the initial call contacted authorities again as he headed south on Interstate 95 north of Washington, D.C. The driver reported seeing the same van heading north on Interstate 95.
Maryland State Police stopped the van near Laurel just before 7 p.m. Investigators said the driver did not immediately produce his international license. An explosives detection dog team called to the scene did not find any explosives, but a laptop computer and a digital camera were found in the vehicle.
The man was taken to the state police barracks in College Park for questioning. He told authorities that he was in the Baltimore-Washington area visiting friends for the Rosh Hashana holiday which began at sunset on Friday. He also showed them a valid passport indicating that he had been in the United States for about six weeks.
The man told troopers that he took pictures of the tunnel because there are no similar facilities in Israel.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Tuesday, September 26, 2006
10 Comments:
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Artstudents.htm
TCR seems to think this is suspicious. I'm not so sure. When I was in Japan I took pictures of tunnels, bridges, constructon equipment and random street intersections. They just look different than those in the US. By the same token, it is a cliche that Japanese tourists take pictures of seemingly mundane things. I'm reminded of Caddy Shack. Rodney Dangerfield: "Wang! It's a parking lot!" Without more information, being suspicious of this Israeli seems paranoid to me.
Kilfarsnar, I think you have hit TCR's entire point: if this were a person of Arab or maybe even Indonesian Muslim descent, tens of millions of people in this country (tho not necessarily you) would be instantly convinced that he was a terrorist. But because this man is an Israeli, or at least seems to hold a valid Israeli passport, everyone assumes he is not a terrorist. If this man were an Arab tourist, he would probably have been locked up for weeks while the authorities sorted things out. When, as you say, he could simply be taking pictures of things that look very different from his homeland. If this hypothetical Arab tourist received such treatment, we could well have made a terrorist sympathizer out of a former American admirer. How many times has this happened already, to real people rather than hypothetical ones? We don't know. Which is why racial profiling is counterproductive.
Thomas,
Excellent point. Perhaps I misinterpreted TCR. Certainly, we must be vigilant. But jumping to conclusions about anybody is, as you say, counterproductive.
BTW, Anonymous, that is an interesting article you linked to. It's long and I have not finished it yet. But it further indicates that more went on on 9/11 than we know. See, I can be paranoid too! ;-)
The Republican and religious right have determined that he's stolen the soul of the tunnel by photographing it.
As an aside, Semper Fubar, you wouldn't happen to be a leatherneck?
semper fubar:
That's truly, well, FUBAR!
wayne madsen's site and onlinejournal site both down possibly for latest hariri scoop...
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