A Pressure Cooker
Hussain Al-Khawahir, a 33-year-old Saudi Arabian man and father of three, was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on May 11 after Border and Customs Patrol found a pressure cooker in his luggage. Al-Khawahir will remain jailed until his preliminary hearing on May 28.
Pressure cookers have been under increased scrutiny since they were used to make homemade explosives that killed three and injured over 250 people at last month’s Boston Marathon. But that doesn’t excuse throwing brown foreigners in prison on the flimsiest of charges, something the U.S. government tends to do to varying degrees in the aftermath of a terrorist attack (ever heard of Guantanamo?).
According to the federal complaint, Al-Khawahir is accused of “Willfully and knowingly use[ing] an altered Saudi Arabian passport with missing pages and [making] a materially false statement to a [Customs and Border Patrol] officer about a pressure cooker in his possession, all to gain entry into the United States.” Sounds pretty serious until you read the details about the “false statement”:
When the Defendant was questioned, initially he said that he brought the pressure cooker for his nephew because pressure cookers are not sold in America. The Defendant then changed his story and admitted his nephew had purchased a pressure cooker in America before but it was “cheap” and broke after the first use.
Keep in mind that Al-Khawahir doesn’t speak a word of english. He was interviewed by CBP through an interpreter, which could have easily led to a misunderstanding.
Al-Khawahir traveled to the U.S. to visit his nephew, Nasser Almarzooq, a student at the University of Toledo. Almarzooq told reporters that he asked his uncle to bring him a pressure cooker so he could cook lamb. He believes this was all a misunderstanding.
Al-Khawahir’s attorney James C. Howarth, who met and spoke with his client for the first time for a total of 20 minutes just before his bond hearing, said that Al-Khawahir didn’t even know pressure cookers were used in the Boston bombings. But even if he did know, “Carrying a pressure cooker does not make you a criminal in the United States of America,” said Howarth at a bond hearing earlier this week.
In the written motion, Howarth argues that the alleged inconsistency in Al-Khawahir’s statements about why he brought the pressure cooker with him are not much different.
The “false statement” concerned whether the “troublesome” kitchen implement was brought here because his nephew couldn’t seem to find such a device in Toledo or because the nephew’s previous pot was cheap and broken; possibly a distinction without much difference.
As for the charges that his client altered his passport, Howarth argues that Al Khawahir “was in possession of two passports, one valid, one expired. The passport that was purportedly ‘altered’ was the expired document.”
But none of that matters to U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade who said in a statement, “The combination of facts, including an altered passport and false statements, raised concerns. Although we never want to jump to conclusions, we have a duty to conduct an appropriate investigation to protect the public.”
It’s a shame that aside from local media outlets and a couple of Associated Press articles, Al-Khawahir’s detention has gone largely unnoticed.
Put yourself in this man’s shoes for a moment and imagine that you’re being questioned in a foreign land by people speaking a language you cannot understand. And then imagine that you’ve been tossed in prison and labeled a criminal for possessing a kitchen appliance. Just think how scary such a scenario would be, especially in a country that has a penchant for locking away and torturing innocent people who look like you indefinitely.
That’s what our government has done to Hussain Al-Khawahir.
We haven’t figured how to handle threats in this new “american bomb era”. I can forgive infringements on my rights until we figure things out. Poor guy if he’s innocent, because it was a wrong place wrong time type of deal. Don’t care he’s “brown” as I think anyone flying with a pressure cooker will make me uneasy at the moment.
If I was this guy I would use my “voice” to lead the conversation in a manner that promotes actionable realistic action items law enforcement can do to prevent as many false arrests but not lessen the scrutiny that will keep everyone safe. I’m sure with the facts presented in from of him he can understand why this happened and not go back to his homeland preaching the Westerners hate us because I’m brown and then inspire more ppl to blow us up.
May 22, 2013 at 4:16 pmI see where you are coming from, but we simply cannot criminalize the possession of everyday items just because they can be used as a part in a bomb. Could he bring a box of nails to his nephew?
May 24, 2013 at 2:55 pmDo you feel uneasy over all those people who buy and store potential bomb making materials? I mean you can’t get much more distant from main stream society than being a farmer. They’re mostly self sufficient, are often clannish, and possess untold opportunity to make subversive use of fertilizer that the possess in large quantity. For no reason better than to supposedly throw on the ground.
Sounds about as well thought out as your statement above and takes into account about the same level of cultural understanding as you provided.
Finally, we are Americans. We SHOULD be better than this. (Showing where my cultural blind spot resides.)
May 24, 2013 at 4:39 pmJerry old bean – the slight problem with your theory is that it isn’t your rights being infringed. It’s this poor mans who you callously dismiss as collateral damage.
May 22, 2013 at 5:58 pmWhats your alternative?
Not to be smart but like I said earlier, not really interested in debating if this was right or wrong because he was brown, just if there’s something that can be fixed in the process to prevent people like this poor guy being detained. Until we have a process shits going to get messed up and I’m not okay with it but I understand it. Sort of like anything we do in life. When we first start there’s always a mess but we fix the process and we get better and more efficient.
Example: First time dealing with a kid making a explosive device for a science project, we go crazy and almost give her the death penalty. Lesson learned for everyone to chill out and no more exploding volcano’s in school.
But be my guest if you want to make this into a brown v.s white debate I’m all ears.
May 22, 2013 at 6:34 pmThe United States of America have 17 official security services. That’s 17 OFFICIAL security services with up to an alleged 26 or more unofficial adding to the mix.
Several of these security services were in Boston operationally on the day of the bombings – a day on which a “terror drill” was being conducted- using amputees as “realism”.
None of these security services stopped the “bombers”. I don’t think this is about pressure cookers or “brown people”.
May 22, 2013 at 6:42 pmHoly shit somebody has pointed out the obvious. There are so many idiotic comments here that it has reminded me that we must share SOME common ground in order to converse at all. Micheal O’Neill has a realistic view of the “Boston Marathon” operation. I would encourage all other realistic persons to head on over to http://now.nashownotes.com to observe some crucial media assasination and deconstruction of events such as the “Boston Marathon” operation.
We can have productive conversations about our liberties, but not if half the room is tied to fascist babysitter-state tendencies.
I try to blog bits of reality at my blog at http://inthemorningzen.wordpress.com.
May 28, 2013 at 11:18 amSome holiday for this poor guy. I will be bringing my own lubricant when I travel to the US, just so the cavity searches and such are a little easier to bear at the airport. On 2nd thought, I think I probably go pre-lubed before boarding, should speed things up a bit. I think everyone should follow suit.
From an outsider looking in to the States, it would appear that .gov would like to take more of your liberty in the name of security, when in actual fact – if you want to look at recent history – they already possessed enough information to intercept the Boston bombers – TPTB simply fumbled the ball with their chin over the endzone. Asleep at the wheel. Insert cheif Wiggum meme here.
Guy does good by his nephew, wins a 10 nights Detroit sleepover.
May 22, 2013 at 7:41 pmWhen a nation is afraid of its shadow, EVERYTHING looks like shadow. As almost everything could be used in constructing an explosive devise, panic can easily be caused amongst the panic prone, and when that individual is a position of ‘authority’ this is what happens.
When the US gets serious about wanting to reduce the people across the globe who would be happy to see it blown up, or disappear into one of those holes that open up and swallow everything around them, it will stop killing, and generally destroying the lives and cultures of other people.
It really is not difficult, all that has to happen is that the US loses its ludicrous notion that it is anything special and that they are entitled to plunder the resources of the world.
May 23, 2013 at 2:00 amHow come some of the people seen in footage of the Boston Bombings can be seen on some of the sandy hook bombings? Hmmm
May 23, 2013 at 7:45 amI feel bad for the man. I also feel bad for the false flag conspiracy theorists, as they must suffer from some type of mental illness or paranoia. like the dude above this post.
May 24, 2013 at 2:14 pmLike most things, this requires a great deal more information before warranting indignation. Anything can be made to sound ridiculous, and any seemingly harmless activity can look dangerous under the right circumstances. Unless indignation is what you’re looking for. If it’s really about bating brown people, who needs a pressure cooker?
May 24, 2013 at 2:24 pmIs it sad that this doesn’t surprise me?
May 24, 2013 at 2:46 pmWhat happens if he was a terrorist? What if they let him go because they didn’t want to discriminate and he killed hundreds of people? It’s very sad yes, but with the way things are now, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. You’ve shed light on this and so has the media. He won’t be tortured or falsely accused because I’m sure people will be following this case.
May 24, 2013 at 3:26 pmAre so-called brown people the only ones to set-off bombs in this country?
May 25, 2013 at 10:32 amI’m brown…am I?
May 26, 2013 at 1:30 pmNo, of course not, but they are the only ones who’s brownness can be used to make socio-politcal hay.
June 6, 2013 at 7:16 pmThis is like telling a deaf kid to change how he spells his name in sign language because one of the symbols looks like a handgun, only much worse and potentially much more psychologically damaging. It seems the authorities will keep doing the wrong things to remedy our problems and use politics as an excuse to stop the right solutions getting implemented.
Also, if this guy was a terrorist, why would he bring his supplies in his luggage? It’s very easer to buy this sort of stuff in America on the cheap and still get results.
May 24, 2013 at 4:11 pmI hesitate to like this because it’s such a disturbing story with no winners in it. The government looks hysterical and criminal for harassing someone with a pressure cooker, that would not have raised an eyebrow three months ago. The poor man in jail is being held with few protections because of the suspicions of terrorism. We have allowed the law in this country to permit the government to deprive people of civil liberties on the flimsiest of pretexts. That is a real tragedy for every person, brown or white, because we have lost something valuable in pursuit of “safety.” Who was made safer here? No one, and it injured our attempts to get along with all ethnic groups and heal after the Marathon bombings. I am sad for Hussain Al-Khawahir and his family. Thanks for drawing attention to this.
May 24, 2013 at 4:24 pmWhat a sad thing for Hussain Al-Khawahir and his family. Sorry that Boston Incident has made it hard on others as well. Aren’t you sad as well?
May 24, 2013 at 6:15 pmHindsight is 20/20. We can all be wise in hindsight. One must realize that our sleuths need some starting point. It is unfair to expect the border patrol agents to nab potential terrorists with their hands tied. There was a sufficient element of doubt in this case and they made the arrest. It would be wrong though to keep him in custody without evidence and a proper trial. That is where I would have an issue. Because of my ethnicity, I have a few middle eastern features and evey now and then I do get pulled up for a random security check. I don’t mind it because it just tells me that the border patrol and custom guys are alert.
May 24, 2013 at 6:27 pmCue David Bowie. “This is not America …”
May 24, 2013 at 8:19 pmWhat next? Hair dryers? I guess crazy people will find creative ways to use anything to hurt others.
May 24, 2013 at 8:34 pmNot to make too light of this, but as bad a cook as I am, I shouldn’t be allowed to use a pressure cooker…you know, in the wrong hands and all, the meal would be a disaster.
May 24, 2013 at 8:52 pmyou know, i was thinking the same thing. I looked at the cooker, which is vary different than the one my mother used, but it reminded me of all the great meals she made with hers, and how i never learned to use one for fear of a kitchen explosision. probably an unrealistic fear, but i remember hearing of gasket failures and serious injury, never mind that people get burned from stoves and hot water everyday. the idea of an exploding cooker prevented me from ever touching one after i was old enough to quit washing dishes in my parents house.
Imagine my surprise to find out the pressure cookers, something i had imagined as a passing american fad, were popular all over the world, especially in arabia and africa…
should the guy have been arrested? probably not, but someone mentioned a box of nails. actually, i think someone bringign in a box of nails would have raised suspicions, and if he had answered that he was bringing to a relative because nails were not available in america, her might have been detained. bringing weird stuff, stuff that we do not expect flyers to be carrying is likely to raise security questions.
June 4, 2013 at 5:31 amoh, and while as far as i know, there is no law against being wrong. there are a wide variety of cookers available in america:
https://www.google.com/search?q=pressure+cookers+for+sale+in+america&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
June 4, 2013 at 5:34 amReblogged this on ftharvey.
May 24, 2013 at 8:55 pmSorry to disagree, but either Hussain Al-Khawahir had brought the pressure cooker in either because his nephew couldn’t get one in the US, or he brought the pressure cooker in because his nephew had one but it broke down easily. I don’t think that an inadequate knowledge of the language could produce such two different stories. Neither his colour (as you imply) nor his nationality should have anything to do with it, hopefully the law will sort it out one way or another. An altered Saudi-Arabian passport with missing pages on the other hand is serious stuff, surely.
May 24, 2013 at 9:16 pmSpeaking as a Certified Interpreter who has often worked with police and social services, it is amazing how stories can seem at first different depending on how questions are put by the authorities. People from other cultures and backgrounds do not always grasp the phrasing or precise meaning of the question until it is put in a different way by the questioner, particularly if they are nervous or afraid. Then there is also, unfortunately, the competence of the interpreter. Some interpreters are less competent than others, which can dramatically alter the results of an interview with authorities.
May 26, 2013 at 12:08 pmThanks for responding. The thing is, you don’t know for sure and neither do I, whether or not this man is innocent. He very well may be. I can only go by your interpretation of what you have read and I wasn’t convinced. I guess I responded to that. So, two questions – how do you know the interpreter was incompetent? Surely some of them can do their jobs. Secondly, what is your theory on that mangled passport?
May 26, 2013 at 3:50 pmI was merely offering possibilities on why the story of the person under investigation may have differed, and did not suggest that the interpreter actually was incompetent – merely that this was also a possibility. Regarding the “mangled passport,” I did not touch on this, and did not comment on it. All that was offered were a few possibilities on why the story was not consistent. I have no knowledge of this case, except what presented, and have no direct knowledge of how United States Customs and Border Services operates in cases like these. My comment was made on the basis of professional experience, having had cases where the subject gave inconsistent answers either because, yes, they were lying, and also where cultural differences between the questioner and the subject made communication difficult. An interpreter is a conduit, saying what what said in the target language as accurately as possible without ANY additions or omissions. The reason I mentioned the possibility of interpreter incompetence is because, yes, most unfortunately this can happen, although if this is suspected, would hope that another interpreter is called upon to adjudicate the recorded session, a role which I have had to do.
May 27, 2013 at 12:09 pmReblogged this on vacuntress and commented:
What is happening to this poor man is disgusting and ridiculous. And it’s receiving almost no media attention. Surprising no one.
May 24, 2013 at 11:35 pmSo how many articles have you posted about innocent Americans, old ladies, and infants being treated like criminals by the TSA in America? I am more concerned about all the Hussain Al-Khawahir’s coming into my country. I am glad he was stopped, and from what I have read, other than your loosely written facts about the case, he is right where he needs to be until he has been cleared.
May 25, 2013 at 12:18 amHorrendous! Thanks for doing the research and bringing it to our attention.
May 25, 2013 at 1:01 amVery Sad.,,,Thanks for the post..
May 25, 2013 at 1:23 amIf this guy REALLY was a terrorist and he was REALLY intent on making a bomb then WHY try to smuggle a freakin’ pressure cooker in to the country with a freakin’ EXPIRED passport from SAUDI ARABIA. That’s the equivalent of a Palestenian walking through an Israeli checkpoint on the Ghaza Strip with an RPG and telling the IDF it’s a walking stick. The tragedy is that the geniuses at TSA actually think they are smart enough to catch someone.
May 25, 2013 at 2:02 amIts only a crime if your blowing things up with it. These guys obviously did not have a plan b. Nor the awarenes that everything is on camera thee days. Its very sad what happened there, its too bad we couldnt stop this one in advance. Maybe we should have to take our shoes and belts off at events like we do to fly on a plane.
May 25, 2013 at 2:11 amShame this happened, though US officials were alerted by Boston bombing and might have concerns – a catch-22 situation.
May 25, 2013 at 4:23 amI’m all for rights but I’m also all for not being in a plane full of terrorists too (I was actually on a plane during 9/11 – luckily not THE planes)). It’s a very difficult line – I think some profiling isn’t profiling, it’s a pattern. But I also don’t want to see anyone harassed just because they’re a muslim. I’m glad I’m not in charge!
May 25, 2013 at 6:13 amIs Possessing A Pressure Cooker A Crime? Only If You’re Arab | Dispatches from the Underclass [url=http://proticblog.net/eleves/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=2112&blogId=146]solitary pilot is a surefire relating to help Christian Louboutin marguerite[/url%5
May 25, 2013 at 8:20 amI don’t transit through the U.S.A. any more.
Bullying ‘security’ personnel, dishonest baggage handlers, immigration officers who think it’s suspicious that you visit Nicaragua, but above all the sense that if some paranoid idiot sees fit you risk disappearing into what the Nazis used to refer to as nacht und nebel….with no chance of proper process.
Security measures…done with courtesy…are one thing, but the lack of recourse if you fall foul of them is quite another.
May 25, 2013 at 8:40 amAllow me to play devil’s advocate here. If the gentleman was a terrorist and allowed on the plane and did succeed in blowing up a few hundred people above the Earth, would this article then be critisizing airport security for not doing their job properly? Granted throwing the guy in jail and potentially throwing away the key without a fair trial is not fair but surely its better safe than sorry.
May 25, 2013 at 10:25 amGreat article raising the delicate balance between human rights and the prevention of terrorism. Personally I feel that states must be able to take measures to protect themselves against terrorism and that there is nothing wrong per se with questioning a person carrying a pressure cooker such as here, especially considering that this appliance was used in the Boston bombings. However, such powers should be interpreted restrictively and do not give states carte blanche to interrogate and detain anyone who merely ‘looks suspicious’.
May 25, 2013 at 11:13 amReblogged this on Technological attempts by an educational technophobe and commented:
There is a mindset of fear in society. It’s happened over and over again in history – we can look at the detainment camps during WWII with Japanese Canadians. When are we going to learn from history and our mistakes?
May 25, 2013 at 11:25 amPerhaps I’m confused…if he was coming into the country to build a bomb, wouldn’t it be a heck of a lot easier and attract less attention to buy a pressure cooker from Wal-Mart once he got there? I have Asian friends who’s parents have brought them rice cookers from home because they felt the North American ones weren’t good enough…
May 25, 2013 at 11:53 amThink green! Pressure cookers save time and energy when cooking.
May 25, 2013 at 3:31 pmReblogged this on Cabin Fever.
May 25, 2013 at 3:44 pmNo a pressure cooker is not an illegal possession until a member of the alphabet soup wants it to be. Similar in the James Holmes case the prosecution is making a big thing of his purchase and possession of weapons which were all purchased legally. I guess if I stab out someone’s eye with a pencil then I should expect to receive a charge for possession of “illegal pencil”…it is upsetting to me the way that boy died in the streets from a PHOTO, and to learn that he barely spoke English and translation errors….$&@$^*&#@$^&#@$^#*&$^
May 25, 2013 at 5:22 pmDid they find nails and ball bearings in the pressure cooker? There is absolutely nothing wrong with traveling with a pressure cooker. If I was traveling with one and officials asked why, I would simply ask them, why not? And yes, some people cook daily with pressure cookers. The level of security is absurd when you realize that they let real terrorist go, while harassing innocent people.
May 25, 2013 at 9:04 pmdoes ANYONE have the real answer as to where we draw the line?
May 25, 2013 at 10:03 pmYes. Not even difficult.
The US apologises to the world for ever imagining that what they said was the best — of anything! — clear out all their bases, make arrangements for fair and equitable compensation to all who they have offended over the years, and as a final show of force concentrate their whole fleet of Israel and demand the return of all nuclear weapons.
Don’t think I have missed anything. Of course across the US there would have to be ‘counseling’ So that they understand that not only are they not ‘exceptional’, but that across nations, they would have difficulty making ‘average’.
The rest of humanity would muddle along quite well.
May 25, 2013 at 10:35 pmpredictably, with their poorly educated one track minds, america’s bloated national security will be concentrating all its efforts on investigating pressure cookers, thus contributing to their utter failure in preventing the next disaster.
May 26, 2013 at 12:49 ami think you and the media need not make this a thing of race or religion but instead respect that these things are taken seriously.. if it were one of your family member killed in that bombing you would only hope customs took more caution.. why did he lie in the first place? i am so sick of people crying racism…. HELLOW WERE WE NOT ATTACKED in our own homeland again.. you better believe i as an AMERICAN respect any choice customs make for MY OWN SAFETY!!!
May 26, 2013 at 1:31 amNICI: you are certainly entitled to these views, and it certainly makes you the type of citizen that the ‘authorities’ require. You are obviously one of those who see ‘important people’ in their fancy suits and braid, with others in uniform, with weapons, to emphasise just how important these people are.
This is something that those who get their history from John Wayne war movies are prone to do.
Many of us, on the contrary, see hairless apes looking ridiculous in their pomposity.
Your ‘WERE WE NOT ATTACKED in our own homeland again’ is just a little shrill, after all the homelands of the attackers were destroyed by the US and its allies, and the US has attacked with intent to destroy more than 150 countries since the end of WWII.
If the US was a little more concerned with the safety of others, the world would be a better place.
May 26, 2013 at 4:21 amPH, your claims are severely inflated and grossly incorrect regarding American invasion activity since WW2. “Just a little shrill,” indeed. And without regard for any of that, is your position that terrorist activity within American borders is ok because you’ve somehow justified it for yourself? As I see things, you are becoming as they are, justifying terrorist behavior with specious arguments and false claims.
May 26, 2013 at 10:43 amTell that to the people who lives were lost,.. I am certainly not one of those types… but I have military family and many friends that wear blue, i myself an an emt… if you cant respect what the system has provided to keep you safe then YOU sir are one of those who deserve the KARMA of your words…
if you are just trying to be one of those oh cry me a river this or that.. theres a system its not always just but it is the system that is in place.. if you dont like america or what happens here go elsewhere..
ITS SICKENING people always crying race religion… THE MAN LIED… he shouldn’t have lied and therefore for his lie he got locked up and is now being prosecuted.. MAYBE NEXT TIME HE WONT LIE…
you said there was an interrupter how was there any miscommunication.. YOU SIR seem like one of those people always trying to make something out of nothing
TRY FINDING POSITIVE IN A NEGATIVE SITUATION.. like i said,, we were attacked… our country has ever right to try and protect ITS PEOPLE THE BEST WAY WE KNOW HOW…
ID RATHER THEM ARREST HIM FOR HIS UNTRUTHFUL LIE INVESTIGATE HIM AND IT COME CLEAN THEN LET A POTENTIAL THREAT JUST PASS THROUGH HENCE 9/11…
May 26, 2013 at 8:22 pmAgree 100%
May 27, 2013 at 10:26 amHey don’t you worry love-birds; The time will come that the entirety of the US citizenry is either IN prison of WORKING FOR the prison. Good on ya for being all ready and prepared and not scared of nothing. I’m sure you’ll make a real good brownshirt. Wake up now or sleep forever – War Is Peace, Baby. Let the good times roll like heads on the floor.
May 28, 2013 at 11:11 amOh yes, America is such an oppressive society. Rx = daily reality check and world view update as required.
May 28, 2013 at 11:20 amI didn’t try to use the big powerful tears on your sleeve O word (oppressive). “Oppressive” is a nice word for westerners like us to describe other nation-states we’ve zero empirical knowledge of.
We’ve fought many profitable wars by setting our targets on “oppressive” regimes. The sleazy citizens of my country whose opinions show up in “polls” are delusional enought that they think they have the right or the responsibility to stick their noses into other sovereign sectors of the globe in the name of fighting “oppression”.
When our blood-thirsty president, Barry ‘bama, sticks his Wall Street Dick-Sucking face out of his White House to comment on the meaning of Memorial Day, he can’t even get a message of peace out without a little war-drumming.
Martin Luther King Jr. tried to tell us in all honesty that we have more blood on our hands than any other citizens of any other nation on earth.
If we keep listening to fools like marcopesce57, we’ll be hunting Joseph Kony and Saddam Hussein (or their more contemporary analogues) for eternity.
There is always some evil out there in the world we can point our finger at and call “oppression”, but remember I didn’t even bring that word or notion up. I just stated the facts that we, the citizens of the United States of America, are bigger fans than any other citizens in the world of putting our brothers and sisters in cages and profiting off of that system.
America, Fuck Yeah.
On second thought; America, Fuck You!
May 28, 2013 at 12:59 pmNot a very intelligent rant.
So, where are you immigrating to? What country offers you your utopia?
Interested to see exactly where you are coming from. No foul language necessary, lets just use intellect.
May 28, 2013 at 1:14 pm@Nico & Marco:
Reducing this to “race” or “religious tension is erroneous and dangerous, in that you reduce the serious implications of what happened here.
What is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this story is not the story itself, but your unreflective and hasty reactions to the story–it is your tendency to form inferences and conclusions without reflecting on your thoughts and the implications of those thoughts. Some of you, including Nici and Marco, have expressly condoned your rights, and of others, being abridged to advance security interests. That view is both selfish and selfless.
It is selfish in that you dismiss, and quite swiftly, the hazard of other innocent beings losing most, if not all, of his or liberties, in ways you couldn’t fathom. You condone, for instance, a wrongful detainee having half of his or her life flushed away in confinement, meanwhile you indulge in the comfort and leisure, often taken for-granted, to express yourself as you wish, say as you desire, travel to a destination of you choice; but above all else, to indulge in self-satisfying activities, all of which a wrongful detainee, of 20+ years, would only hopelessly dream.
It is also selfless in that you care for the security and safety of not only your person, loved ones, and community, but, I presume, also of the greatest number of innocents. It is perfectly fine to hold firmly, and dearly, to the desire for such safety and security–but you must be prepared to draw the ‘red line’ somewhere, because unchecked, over-zealous, and uninhibited pursuit of security measures will inevitably threaten the common interest of all: the very ‘integrity’ we all selflessly seek to preserve.
If our legal system, with the guardians of our valued rights and liberties–those being judges–made decision in a manner as haste and unreflective as your thought process, America would be in shambles much worse than present-day Syria. Gratefully, our legal system is the most proceduralized aspect of society, and such procedure, if adhered to wholeheartedly, will offer the greatest protection from folks like you–folks who care too much for their safety that they ironically diminish it (by condoning unchecked pursuits of interests, and subverting the rule of law), and risk destroying it altogether.
So please, tone-it-down, think hard and well about your thoughts before you, without a hint of heed, hold true to them.
(advocatesgavel.wordpress.com for commentary on legal and moral topics relevent to recent news)
May 28, 2013 at 3:33 pmHE LIED, HE GOT ARRESTED.. if you dont care about your country and its safety thats on you… stop making this into something its not!!!!!
LIKE I SAID ID RATHER A MAN GET ARRESTED FOR HIS LIE AND COME OUT CLEAN THAN NOT GET ARRESTED AND SOMETHING HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!!
you can spit out all your fancy gibberish but I SITLL STAND ON WHAT I SAID!!!!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.. dont you have a life other than to scam through comments and take clearly what is a long time to write back to two people? state your opinion ….
YOUR NOT CONVINCING anyone.. and REDUCING IT TO WHAT IT IS BEING SAID AS RAVCE AND RELIGION IS NOT DANGEROUS…
I AM SO SICK OF THAT CARD BEING PULLED OUT… find another one…
HE GOT SENT TO JAIL FOR LYING END OF STORY…. STOP MAKING IT INTO SOMETHING ITS NOT!!!!
May 28, 2013 at 4:03 pm@Nici:
First. Relax.
Next. You have not a clue about anything pertaining to my life, so your indifference–by concluding that I “don’t have a life” because of the length of my comment–is not only unwarranted, it is also severely insulting.
You need to seriously consider insensitivity and cognitive therapy, because you apathy towards my concerns, and your indifference to a stranger, is concerning.
You have reduced the implications to “he lied, and therefore he got arrested” You’re not in possession of the details–and neither am I, I admit–and facts of the matter. Like I said above, and I stand by all of it: thankfully our legal system is the most proceduralized facet of our society–its proceduralized nature offers the greatest protection against the dangerous zeal in some cases, and nonchalance in others (when it comes to individual rights, liberties, and the rule of law), exhibited by folks like you.
May 28, 2013 at 4:43 pmThank you for your thoughtful and insightful article. It is surely a contribution to the type of discussion that will help us find the middle ground on many of these post-9/11 issues.
However, ignorance or unfortunate circumstance does not absolve someone from suspicion. This is simply a fact of social interaction. My rule on the matter for myself and anyone else: “If you don’t want to be thought a criminal, don’t look like one.” Pressure cooker in the luggage so shortly after the Boston Marathon? Importing via personal luggage certainly takes the paper trail out of the purchase. Two passports? The only value of an expired, modified passport might be for further modification to represent someone else. And frankly, after watching people jump to their deaths from the World Trades Center because it was preferrable to burning to death, I’m more than willing to profile a connection to Saudi Arabia (where most of those terrorists came from) or any other country that has a heavy Muslim population. Does this make Muslims bad? No. Just a statistical reality that countries with large Muslim populations are much more likely to spawn persons who believe in the jihad against America.
So we look, we question, and ignorant people often get to pay for their ignorance. The people of Toledo probably aren’t as concerned about this traveler’s well being regardless of how his possible innocense is couched. His possible guilt looms large too.
May 26, 2013 at 10:35 amhaving a pressure cooker in one’s luggage, makes him look like a cook. why do you claim it makes him look like a criminal? that is a telling measure of how distorted your perceptions are.
May 26, 2013 at 5:16 pmMy reply specifically states “Pressure cooker in the luggage so shortly after the Boston Marathon?” It’s as if some wish to make this a Food Network problem, forget that the lie he told was not even close to a problem with translation, and that he was carrying two passports. When a passport is lost in this country, the government wants to know where it went. When expired, they’re supposed to be surrendered before a new one is issued. So this Saudi Arabian traveler hit the trifecta. He’ll be released in time, no doubt. And a clear signal will be sent: Don’t Be Stupid.
May 26, 2013 at 7:24 pmAt what point do we distinguish between an appliance and a material used for bomb-making?
There must be a limit, in scope, somewhere; it would be an over-broad reach to criminalize the possession of common appliances simply because of the potential for bad-faith use.
During a demonstration, for example, can using a blunt object that, normally, has a bona fide use (such as a golf club) be considered a “deadly weapon?”
There is definitely a legitimate interest (ensuring public safety through proactive enforcement) here, but the way they are pursuing that interest seems to be too restrictivThere is definitely a legitimate interest (ensuring public safety through proactive enforcement) here, but the way they are pursuing that interest seems to be too restrictivThere
May 26, 2013 at 11:37 amI’m pumped were able to have a platform like this to express our opinions! I’m reading thoughtful views from both sides of the coin and its great.
May 26, 2013 at 1:48 pmTerrible for the poor chap. I wish the person in charge could differentiate between a criminal and an innocent man.
May 27, 2013 at 12:35 amI feel so sorry for him. I’m sure he didn’t really understand what was being said and that’s why he gave a false statement. And I’m sure the altered pages in his passport had nothing to do with him. And not for a minute do I consider a pressure cooker a stupid thing to carry through customs just after a terrorist attack by Muslims using pressure cookers.
I agree with the person above who thinks that immigration officers should learn how to differentiate between terrorists and innocent old men. I’m sure it must be easy enough.And they shouldn’t just concentrate on Muslims. I’m sure members of the Quaker community are just as likely to blow themselves up as Muslims. It’s pure racism, Islamophobia and fear of ‘the other’.
I think we should simply let everything through customs. After all, even Semtex can be used harmlessly as Play-do for the kids. Jumping to the conclusion that people who have altered their passports and given false statements and who are carrying something that could potentially be used as a weapon is a hysterical over-reaction. I’m sure that back in Saudi a foreigner arriving with an altered passport and carrying a potential weapon and who lies to the immigration authorities would have simply been waved through. These damned Americans have no manners.
How great that we have a platform here where we can air sensible, non-partisan views.
May 27, 2013 at 9:33 amMaybe we should just eliminate passports, airport security altogether and just tell all the naughty people to stop being bad
May 29, 2013 at 12:53 amI applaud the authorities for moving quickly with this case. Obviously they have probable cause, or the judge at the probable cause hearing would have immediately released him. So, let our criminal justice system process work and we will see. If he is innocent, he will be released. If he is found guily, he will be punished. Quite simple actually. It is still the best process in the world, so be thankful he wasn’t arrested in Turkey, Thailand or other countries where he would probably never be heard or seen again.
In summary, I would rather our authorities move quickly on these type of situations versus having more of our citizens blown up.
May 27, 2013 at 10:24 amAny society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both ~ Benjamin Franklin
May 27, 2013 at 11:35 amWe are not giving up liberty. We are apprehending a man who gave false statements and tampered with his passport and who was carrying something that could be used (and has been used) as a weapon. If this is your idea of giving up liberty then maybe we should do away with border guards, police and any other kind of law enforcement. Let’s see how that goes.
May 28, 2013 at 8:05 amWe need law enforcement but criminalizing of common household items out of fear has nothing to do with law enforcement. The problem is that you will never stop the most determined people from their goal.
My guess is that we will do just fine without crazy border guards like this.
May 28, 2013 at 8:31 amEveryone is going to see this situation, differently. The U.S. has had it’s share of terrorist attacks; a few on the Twin Towers, before they finally succeeded on 9/11 – and several unsuccessful attempts afterwards over the years; not to mention the nominal numbers abroad against the U.S prior to 9/11.
But one thing is true, that they have not been able to succeed in any of them, here, until Boston. Until then, small conspiracies have been thwarted around the U.S. – San Francesco, Florida, New York, to name a few. Those that have authority to persue, detain and persecute these people that bring their fanatical beliefs to the U.S., and defuse them, are to be respected for what they have to do in order to keep our families safe. Our leisure – leisure.
There are plenty of blunders, but that is being ‘human’. It is a great responsibility to decide who to detain and who to let pass. It is likely that a middle-eastern person would be stopped longer than another. It is not racist, but profiling. It is not such a dirty word when they are right, is it…..
There is a reason they call this ‘Terrorisim’. The acts themselves bring common people to an awareness that they are in danger. They look around corners before turning them, bomb detecting robots prod odd or abnormal objects left by ….who? We stay away form popular venues that would otherwise be crowded with enthusiastic spectators, ejoying a day of common interests. Skies are less traveled, for fear of never landing. Shampoo and conditioner are taboo as carry-on…..
Terrorism is wide and common in countries all over the world; in some countries it is more rampant. Profiling is not such a dirty word when it can stop a potentially dangerous situation. It is the reason some complain – Racist. More the point, ‘Sympithizers’ of the crime thwarted? Why would you complain about anyone being detained, regardless of nationality, for having something of suspicion? Okay, pressure cooker does not come to mind on a normal day as being a potentially dangerous weapon, unless you don’t know how to use one properly, but recent occurences like Boston would spark attention to things that we would normally ignore. And considering the recent event in Boston, don’t you think that this idividual should have, could have used his brain and assumed a little more responsibility and used a little more incentive to make himself look less conspicuous by mailing it ahead, in stead of bringing it with his luggage?
U.S. Customs: little paranoia sitting on left shoulder;
College student – visiting relative with a messed up, expired, visa (extra points for that)……totting a pressure cooker…?
Sounds like an expensive joke to me…..but it also could be a good attempt to see if we are watching. Maybe they have been laughing at us ever since the detainment? (good joke to them – ‘U.S. detaining potential terrorist with pressure cooker). Wasn’t so funny in Boston to the families or the victims.
Security in a nut shell: Damned of we do, and damned if we don’t.
May 27, 2013 at 1:41 pm[…] Is Possessing A Pressure Cooker A Crime?: No, but owning a toaster oven is downright Machiavellian. […]
May 27, 2013 at 8:02 pmI really don’t care, I would rather they error on the side of precaution, I am quite happy to virtually disrobe before boarding a plane if that may prevent me from being blown into a million little pieces mid air
May 27, 2013 at 10:28 pmJust glad I don’t live in America. If this guy turns out to be innocent, that’s time spent in jail for no reason. The people that say they would rather be safe than sorry will change their minds pretty quick if they had to spend unwarranted time in jail.
May 28, 2013 at 3:04 amPerhaps you haven’t been reading attentively enough. The article said that he made false statements and had tampered with his passport. Try this kind of thing in Iran, Saudi, or many other countries and you’ll wish you hadn’t. I imagine that Americans are equally glad you don’t live there. You might be one of the kind of people who wants to turn it into Europe, just when it is becoming clear that the European model does’t work and we have given Europe away to the children of Third World immigrants on benefit. You need to take a look outside your Cltural Marxist box to see what the world really looks like.
May 28, 2013 at 7:08 amAbsolutely agree, well said.
May 29, 2013 at 12:49 amBobolous, I’m glad you don’t live in America too. Your perception of “unwarranted” is a little disturbing, and you tend to show a complete lack of understanding of how our freedoms have been used against us by those that don’t have these same rights within their own borders.
May 28, 2013 at 9:59 amIt’s quite plain to see that these ‘events’ of late have been manufactured by the security-state in order to further mandate their own existence. These lawn-mowing, Dorito-eating, buzz-killing, fun-hating, repressed, ignorant, permanent sheeple such as tomburke1 (rambling on like a crazy person about our unique ‘freedoms’ as U.S. citizens) would prefer to maintain the sickly attitude of one with superiority complex over the rest of the world.
These people in Amer’ca work the entirety of their lives towards the goals of their corporate overlords. Everything is for sale. Nothing is earned. Everything is granted by your ‘boss’ or your ‘government’. Because the sick sad people of America are so overworked at meaningless information age capacities, they have no bond to reality. They are ‘living in the future’, if you will. Their overlords tell them that success is an iPad, and therefore they work as much as possible to add that piece of shit to their overall debt load.
The term Weapon of Mass Destruction has been ‘reworked’ to include any and all destructive objects that destroy more than one cell. Every particle in our world is ‘amassed’ into cohesive structures, so it makes sense that any and all destruction would be the destruction of mass. This is just one example of the overlords using their absolute control over language against us.
I should just keep my lips shut, before they redefine my words.
Cheers. Good luck getting these monkey-thieves off your back.
May 28, 2013 at 11:06 amI live four miles from this airport, quite near the glide path. The office building where I work is also on the glide path, and I pass the runways twice a day on my commute. This is the same airport where a dude tried to ignite his underwear to bring a plane down at Christmastime in 2009.
It is important to note that he wasn’t arrested and detained for carrying a pressure cooker. He was arrested and detained for having an altered passport, and lying to authorities (evident by the fact that he changed his story through the interpreters that were provided).
Living in an area that has the largest Arab population concentration outside the Middle East, I can tell you that my guess is this guy was not some hapless, non-english-speaking man bungling his way into the US. It is expensive to travel from Saudi Arabia to the US, and only those of means make that trip.
The flimsy lie about availability of quality pressure cookers in the US, in the weeks immediately following the Boston Marathon bombings at the very least shows unbelievably bad timing.
I am 100% in favor of detaining those who try to enter under some false pretense (such as altered travel documents). I don’t buy the lawyer’s claim about expired vs. current passports. Any experienced, international traveller would know better than to try to pass off their expired passport. Also, that wouldn’t explain the missing pages. Missing pages gives one reason to think there is something to hide.
A few years back I made a trip to Germany (hopefully the last I ever have to make). On my return, departing from the Frankfurt airport, I inadvertantly forgot to take my belt off my pants before passing through the metal detector. There was no second chance. I was immediately escorted to a curtained area where I was thoroughly searched. It made the stories I hear about being “handled” by TSA seem like a walk in the park. This armed individual was deadly serious as he put hands in places I would prefer not be touched by strangers.
I was not the only one who got handled that day. As I waited for my plane, I saw others who were thoroughly searched. The area we were to wait after security had only a bathroom, and chairs. No Starbucks, no news stands, no Cinnabon. No one complained.
We in the US are new to this whole idea of REAL security on flights. We would faint at the site of the military patrolling the airport with machine guns, as I saw in London in 1998, but no one there batted an eye.
Make the skies, and the entry points to this country safe. If that means that someone who lies has to cool their heels in a cell for a few days, then so be it.
May 29, 2013 at 9:58 amAnother story involving a pressure cooker can be found here:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2013/05/pressure_cooker_found_in_metro.html
This also happened in the Metro Detroit area. Again, a pressure cooker in a bathroom isn’t illegal. But, rightfully, it was treated very seriously.
May 29, 2013 at 10:06 amProblem reaction solution
May 29, 2013 at 10:31 amIt’s a foregone conclusion that our justice system has both evolved and gotten better since the time of Benjamin Franklin. Due process as we know it now did not exist then, so when someone was brought up on charges or detained, there may have been no hope … or a confession could more easily be beaten out of them. Apples to oranges, sir.
May 30, 2013 at 9:40 pmI like the tagline of this site, ‘Amplifying the voices of the voiceless’. A real life Robin Hood! It strikes me that Muslims don’t need their voices amplified. After all, their pressure cookers speak louder than words.
Or by ‘underclass’ maybe you mean the people who don’t work and are financed by people who do? What is it that these people wish to say if only their voices were loud enough? ‘Give me more money’, perhaps?
Or maybe you mean ‘the undocumented’, the PC way of referring to illegal immigrants? Does America owe these people a living? Did it ask them to come here?
Maybe I have misunderstood you and you mean some other kind of underclass. Perhaps you could specify which people’s cause you are supporting here.
June 3, 2013 at 10:26 amI am not the administrator of this website, but I must say that when I hear ‘underclass’ I think:
peasant, serf, peon, feudal, indentured servant, slave, wage-slave.
There are certainly vast numbers of people (if you count hundreds of thousands of the industrialized world’s welfare subsidized citizens within the seven billion plus residents of the globe as vast) suckling off institutional tits beyond adolescence. These folks may be tangentially related to our “underclass” focus.
More importantly, there is such a thing as the working-class poor. We in America see a certain brand of poverty, and within that poverty stricken demographic we see many of the aforementioned welfare subsidized citizens. Even with that mass of citizens clouding our view, we can clearly see in America working people with little monetary wealth. We can clearly see (and get to know if you go out much) people who have been and will be working 40 hour weeks for the entirety of their lives with no retirement in sight.
We are all just off preaching to our little choirs on these interwebs and that’s fine. The lines were drawn in the sand long ago. We know you loathe us and our chicken coops and our rubber tire garden features and our lust for life.
In closing; You are coming off as a douchebag Mr. theunrecorded man. I am hereby specifying that I see the “underclass” referred to by this weblog is very similar if not the same as “the working-class”. Have you ever seen a rich factory worker? A rich coal miner? A rich logger?
Someone’s hands had to assist in manufacturing the microphone your douchebag idols use to indoctrinate you with hate for and fear of those who play in the mud beneath your ivory tower.
June 3, 2013 at 2:44 pmama2er #: You missed mentioning the automotive industry workers who have lost their health and retirement entitlements in the various ‘bailout’ terms that have been negotiated down the years. Entitlements that they traded in lieu of wage rises.
Good comment though!
June 3, 2013 at 6:46 pmYou could not have visited this site before or you would never have written such arrant nonsense.
The blog is not about Muslims, but about those who are ignored in the mainstream media, people who are regarded like people such as you as less than human.
The US does not owe anyone a living, but across the globe it certainly owes massive amounts in reparation and compensation, for the destruction that it has wrought, or supplied the wherewithal to be wrought, but not in its name./
As the balance of power changes in the world, hopefully the US will be called to account, will be compelled to pay, even though it could never pay enough to compensate for one thousandth the destruction it has wrought.
June 3, 2013 at 6:37 pmPlease, do not lump me as an American in with the paranoid actions of our government. Politicians made decisions and deserve to pay for their actions. The people are innocent.
June 8, 2013 at 4:39 pmIt’s funny that I see comments saying that seeing “someone” (Arabic?) with a kitchen appliance makes them uneasy but the hundreds of thousands of White people everyday carrying concealed weapons is fine. Pressure cookers don’t worry me, but having the guy three barstools away from me pull out his gun to show his girl his manhood and accidentally shoot me scares the living hell out of me.
June 5, 2013 at 2:41 pmThank goodness I’m not brown. I own 4 large, canning pressure cookers. =-)
But, I do live in the only state that doesn’t allow concealed carry (yet) and that scares me more. Dam you Lisa Madigan!! So, until that passes, I’ll just have to throw my cookers at people that wish me harm.
June 5, 2013 at 3:01 pmThe TSA are behind the curve here; Pressure Cooker’s are so last month. Since Johnny Depp was seen buying one in Cannes last week Omelette Pans are the kitchen appliance to be seen with this month.
June 8, 2013 at 11:03 amWhy would someone be carrying two passports? I have extreme distrust of the government but equal distrust of the people who have attacked us time and again, namely Saudis among others. I would think an expired passport is a flag. Is the name the same? I am quite sure not all pressure cookers in the US are ultra cheap. I am equally sure one can be bought in our borders of equal or better quality that what this man had. Before siding with a suspected terrorist I would need to weigh all of the actual evidence not just what is gathered from media outlets. I am not siding with government on this issue but neither am I willing to give this person benefit of doubt.
June 8, 2013 at 4:32 pm