May 13, 2010, - 3:34 am
Another Dry Run, We Look Away: Middle Easterners “Up to No Mischief” w/ Airport Navigation Aides
So, three Arab Muslims walk into a bar . . . er–trespass on an FAA property and look at fenced-in, restricted navigation equipment at a West Virginia airport.
It’s like a bad joke. Sadly, the punchline is that the joke’s on us. We let these three go. Nothing to see here. Move along. They aren’t up to any mischief. So sez the authorities. So it must be true, right?
‘Cuz don’t Middle Eastern men wander around airport navigation aides all the time for no reason? And then run away when police approach? I mean, that’s what all innocent people do, right? As reader James notes, this is either a dry run or an intel gathering mission of some sort, especially when you note what they were up to and what navigational aides are for, beyond the obvious indicated by the term. Testing the system is what they were doing.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Three men were released Wednesday after being questioned at Yeager Airport late Friday afternoon by FBI agents, after they were found near one of the airport’s navigation aides.
“They were probably up just out there walking around and were not up to any intended mischief,” said Yeager Airport Director Rick Atkinson. “They got a warning and were told not to trespass on airport or FAA property and they were told that if they were up there again, they would be arrested for trespassing.”
The men are all related, all from Kanawha City and between the ages of 19 and 26.
A Coonskin Park policeman found the men, apparently of Middle Eastern descent, in the vicinity of one of the many airport navigation aides scattered around the park.
Navigation aides can be anything from radios to weather instruments to lights that help airplanes land, Atkinson said. Each of the navigation aides is fenced in and owned by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Hey, do you think the FAA would let us go without charges, if we trespassed around fenced in navigation aides? Wanna try it and see? First, change your name to Mohammed.
According to Atkinson, the police officer was suspicious when he found the men’s van parked deep into Coonskin Park, near one of the navigation towers in an area of the park where there aren’t many other things to do. Also, the park officer allegedly ticketed one of the men last week for having an expired registration sticker on the van, according to Atkinson.
The park officer called Yeager Airport police. When the men saw the police, they took off running.
They were caught and questioned at the airport by the FBI, the federal Transportation Security Administration, the Charleston Police Department and the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department.
The men said that they did not cross onto FAA property, and Kanawha County sheriff’s deputies who went to the scene said they could see muddy footprints and saw that they stopped before the property changed over, Atkinson said.
Wow, not even two weeks since the Times Square attempted bombing and we still haven’t woken up. Absurd. But soooo predictable. So typical. So sad.
Rest of the joke: . . . so then 10 law enforcement personnel from the FBI, TSA, Charleston Police, and Kanawha Sheriff’s Dept. walked into an airport, and they still couldn’t change a light bulb to save America’s life.
And yet, no shortage of dim bulbs available.
Tags: airport, Charleston, Coonskin Park, dry run, FAA, FBI, flights, Islam, Kanawha City, Middle Eastern, Muslim, navigation aides, released, Rick Atkinson, terrorism, testing the system, TSA, West Virginia, Yeager Airport
weeping…
esther on May 13, 2010 at 3:44 am