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Forums - General Discussion - Tourists arrested in U.S. on terror charges over Twitter jokes

Mr Khan on 01 February 2012

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The stupid thing is, i know federal government people. They are indeed people, and not drones, and can distinguish between the letter of the law and the spirit of it, unless someone decided that the letter of the law needed to be enforced in this case to show everyone that the government doesn't mess around with fake terror threats

But still, one wonders how it got to that point, or what the actual agents looking for shovels would have been thinking. I mean, they're people too, they had to know looking for shovels was incredibly stupid...



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

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SvennoJ on 01 February 2012
HappySqurriel said:
SvennoJ said:
HappySqurriel said:
While I don't think the reaction was appropriate, I think the tourists were being morons ...

I have yet to see any security from any country that has a sense of humor, and they're going to agressively investigate any threat that they come across regardless of whether most people think it is a joke or not. Anything you say in a public forum will likely be tracked by all countries that have the capability to track it, and making the wrong joke on twitter close to traveling to another country will likely get you an appointment with a man wearing rubber gloves.

Am I the only one that thinks it's absurb that it is regarded normal nowadays that all your conversations are tabbed by government agencies of different countries?

The terrorists won anyway. I used to love going on holiday in the states but now I rather stay here or go to Europe. I'll take the more expensive direct flight instead of a layover in Detroit or NY.


This isn't a defence of the actions of the TSA but it is remarkably foolish to complain that it is violating your rights to have anyone listen to things you publicly broadcast. While there is a valid debate about the extent the government should be tracking their own citizens, it is foolish to complain about the government tracking publicly brodcast information of foreigners to look for threats.

Sure but where does public end and private begin. Is everything you say outside your house, over the phone, txt message etc, public? Anyway I don't have anything to hide, but when special computer programs start making weird connections and flag innocent slang like this without people thinking it through, yes then I have a problem with it.