Canadian Muslim Who Sends Text Urging His Employees To 'Blow Away' The Competition Arrested As A 'Terror' Suspect
from the common-sense-is-dead dept
Boing Boing points us to the crazy story of Saad Allami, a sales manager in Quebec -- who is Muslim -- who sent a text message to some colleagues heading to New York for a trade show, in which he encouraged them to "blow away" the competition. He (quite reasonably) says that he was trying to "pump up" his staff. However, apparently Canadian law enforcement thought differently and arrested him, detained him for a day, searched his house and repeatedly told his wife he was a terrorist. I recognize that law enforcement wants to be careful, but at some point, doesn't someone run these kinds of things through a "common sense" filter?
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Filed Under: overreactions, terrorism, text messages
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They should get a dictionary
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Re: They should get a dictionary
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Re: They should get a dictionary
How would you know this? Are you associated with any terrorist networks? The feds would like to have a word with you.
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Here, let me be just as subtle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSOC87NkmXc
Subtle
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Zero-tolerance for tourism
No.
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Re: Grrrr
Also, you have an awesome handle.
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Re: Re: Grrrr
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I used to not really care, I used to laugh at the politicians who were failing to understand technology, the idiots who feel money dictates what is right, and the moronic shills in the comment section who cheer on the destruction of their freedoms.
Now it gets under my skin in a way that nothing else ever has. I spent 20 minutes reading the front page today to get caught up on the articles that I missed earlier. After the session, it felt like there was a demon in my skull trying to pound his way out to feed on copyright maximalists.
I almost hate to do this, but I'm going to have to scale back on reading tech-related sites like ars and techdirt just to keep from having a stroke when I'm 30. Maybe from here on out I should just adopt a policy of not caring about how politics hinders technology unless police start going door to door confiscating computers.
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One word: poutine.
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I assure you I expected nothing less.
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There's a place here in unseasonably-warm Toronto where you can get poutine with freshly shaved roast beef, sauteed mushrooms and peppercorns on top - and if that doesn't perk your ears up you should go shoot yourself in a Denny's bathroom!
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THANK YOU!
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That ain't cheese...
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A lot of America's problems lie somewhere in the gravy.
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Ah, for the days when you could troll law enforcement and they would get the joke. Of course, the Secret Service no longer needs to hire a nerd to run grep across a few thousand newsgroups.
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Arrest NFL players!
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Re: Arrest NFL players!
Only people with Muslim-sounding names will get detained for terrorism charges when they use the term "blow away".
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You're asking too much, Mike.
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The ultimate muslim app
Watch as government agencies all over the world routinely and collectively shit in their pants.
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Re: The ultimate muslim app
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Have the Canadians imported NSA spying tactics into their country? Did the NSA tip them off? Or was it some other entity spying on personal messages or possibly one of the recipients?
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NYT: Radical U.S. Muslims Little Threat, Study Says
“Radical U.S. Muslims Little Threat, Study Says”, by Scott Shane, New York Times, Feb 7, 2012:
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Re: NYT: Radical U.S. Muslims Little Threat, Study Says
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Re: NYT: Radical U.S. Muslims Little Threat, Study Says
If even 1 of the murders in the US was due to Islamic extremism, the problem would still be minuscule. Now think about the reaction. While I agree that the TSA employs A LOT of people, wouldn't that money be better spent on more police officers.
The counter to that is to say "Look at how well the TSA is doing, we prevented terrorism." I say great job, now can we cut back on the 14,000 fucking actual murders and not worry so much about the hypothetical plots to "blow away" the competition.
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Very funny
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You presume too much
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Hey?
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Where do you run if you're already in Canada?
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Next in the news
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Terrorist/9-11/New York/Bomb/Gun/Death/Obama/Osama/cross-hairs/rifle/shooting/Explosion.
There I should get a visit from the ATF/DHS/FBI, and perhaps the NSA will stick a probe up my ass.
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Don't know how law enforcement operates in Canada, but in Australia law enforcement have the power to inspect all SMS & email messages for any reason.
If they have a system in place to automatically check for key phrases, it shows up.
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I'm not saying it makes sense. But it's what happens when you have racist thugs going on their gut instinct instead of deferring to logic and facts.
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They monitor whatever they want now - regardless of the legality of it.
"Law Enforcement" obviously does not care it *they* follow the law, only if they are busting down common citizens who don't - or well, even those who are following the law obviously.
It's really a stretch to call them "Law Enforcement" anymore - they do not meet the definition for that now.
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The sad part is...
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Bigotry reigns
I do like the question about how did the law enforcement get a hold of the Tweet and as far as Police State I am afraid that this is where we are all headed with current government/political leadership in both countries. Note: I do question my own use of the word leadership under these conditions.
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Re: Bigotry reigns
remember the guy who showed how the G20 plans were flawed and all of the bomb making things they found in his home... like clay with some crystals... and the giggle in court when he pointed out it was cat litter.
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To be honest, our csis has earned a lot of leeway with me. I don't think they should be allowed to arrest for stupid reasons or anything, and if it's just a stupid mistake they should certainly pay retributions but their past history has earned them the benefit of the doubt with me and I'd give them quite a while to explain themselves before condemning them.
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Blowing things ... up?
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Lawsuit
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Your Privacy Is Toast
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What utter and complete stupidity.
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@techdirt
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Re: @techdirt
Because she did stupid things like spam every blog she could find, paying no attention to the fact the average reader here would never bother to follow this sorta jackassed posting.
You might think the trolls/shill might, they are weak minded, but they are to busy keeping up their correspondence with that Nigerian Banker who is going to get the millions to them as soon as the next payment arrives.
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Re: Re: @techdirt
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Governments are getting scary is time people start dealing with their privacy, with 10 of thousands of laws in the books on any one country anything you say can an will be used against you no matter how stupid it is, those people on law enforcement are in game mode, they don't use common sense they want to see how many they can nab for the heck of it apparently and see who scores more in the office.
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Sure the fact he was arrested for a figure of speech is disturbing but it's much more disturbing that they actually had access to his messages somehow.
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They knew exactly what they were doing...
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yet again, LE goes too far
Really? Common sense? How about a "Not be a piece of lying trash while you have no evidence" filter first?
That might come in handy, I'm so glad the world rests in hands as skilled as these.
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test message
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