Let me see if I have this straight. If I transport cell phones and take a

[yellowcanine]

picture of "the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages" that makes me a terrorist and I can be arrested? Doees anyone else think this is crazy? Is there more to this story. Yeah I know they are Middle Easterners. Anything other than that?

[Cooley Hurd]

1. I'm a ship-nut...

I've taken pictures of them for years. If I was caught doing so now, and had an almanac in my pocket, I'd be eating chicken at Gitmo by now.:(

[yellowcanine]

8. Makes it tough for train spotters and plane spotters also. What are the

Brits going to do for entertainment? All of that note taking on planes and trains. I guess you can do it as long as you don't look like a Pakistani. Probably get you shot on the spot in that case. Leave the cell phone at home for sure.

[Kutjara]

2. The law is clear:

Possession of a cellphone while brown. Taking photos of a national monument in a terroristy manner. Public exhibition of a beard.

These are all serious offenses.

[sui generis]

3. yeah, because Timothy McVeigh was so . . . brown and bearded

himself.

And Rudolph whatsisface.

and the unibomber.

and the Army of God anthrax freaks.

You'd think by now they would definitely be profiling rather ordinary looking caucasian males almost exclusively.

[Kutjara]

5. Yet there was some twink on CNN last night...

...trotting out the old "lets hassle all the Muslim-looking folks at the airport and let the decent white ones sail through" line yet again. There is no blindness like willful blindness.

[trotsky]

4. "in a terroristy manner"

I'd be :rofl: if it weren't so true.

[aquart]

15. What if you just buy a postcard of it?

Or carry a tourist's brochure? Or download pictures from the net? While brown.

[Kutjara]

16. All illegal.

Buying the postcard and brochure? Acts preparatory to terrorism. Dowloading from the Net? Using a telecommunications device to engage in act preparatory to terrorism.

Everything's illegal if you're even slightly the wrong color or religion.

[valerief]

18. Made me laugh! It's absurdly true. n/t

[htuttle]

6. It would depend on how many liquids you're in possession of

Make sure and empty your bladder first.

[Vinca]

7. It makes you want to hit a Walmart and buy a couple hundred

phones just for the hell of it.

[yellowcanine]

9. Or boycott Walmart. As if I didn't have enough reasons already.

[Warpy]

10. It's been illegal to take photos in France for a long time

of most of the tourist sites like the Eiffel Tower. They tell tourists to stock up on postcards, the photography is generally better and the "par avion" on the reverse will convince Uncle Herb and Aunt Millie that you really did spend your honeymoon there.

China has also had restrictions. My ex wanted a picture of a cement hulled boat on the Pearl River, didn't realize there was a Chinese naval base behind it. So much for THAT roll of film.

We're just moving toward that sort of thing here. I'd be very careful what I photographed in the northeast these days, or in most big cities.

[daleo]

14. This appears to be a copywrite issue (and a strange one)

"Despite living in Paris for the last few months, I haven’t taken any photos of the Eiffel Tower at night (yet). It seems that I probably won’t be able to, or at least I shouldn’t if I want to stay within the boundaries of the law, as it seems that Eiffel Tower is actually copyrighted! The the lighting display which adorns the tower at night is copyrighted by SNTE, the company who mainitain it. Technically speaking, both amateur and professional photographers aren’t allowed to publish photographs of the Eiffel Tower at night without permission from SNTE. Bonkers."

http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/photographing_the_eiffel_tower_at_night_deemed_illegal/

On edit - it seems that it is only night photos of the Eiffel Tower that can't be published. The lighting is considered a work of art, and is under copywrite.

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. This is precisely why the bill of rights exists. It is there to protect

us from al the Barney Fifes and vigilante bastards who are out to "protect us".

[daleo]

12. Soviet Union, circa 1958

No cell phones then, but you could go to Siberia for taking a picture of a bridge.

[hughee99]

13. One thing I saw in this article...

http://usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-08-12-terror-michigan_x.htm?imw=Y

"The men told police they were buying the phones, which cost about $20 and come with a charger, taking them out of their packaging and selling them to a wholesaler in Texas for about $38 without the charger."

Now I'm not in the wholesale industry, or even all that familiar with it, but it seems to me they've found about the dumbest wholesaler in the world. Buying phones for $38 without the charger, that sell at Walmart for $20, and having them shipped all the way from MI to TX? It would seem the wholesaler could get a better deal closer to home, there's plenty of Walmarts in TX, aren't there? And this wholesalers plan is to resell them (presumably at a profit). Is he going to charge $50 for a prepaid cell phone without a charger that someone could get at their local Walmart or convenience store with a charger for $20-30?

I'm not saying this has anything to do with terrorism, but it does sound pretty messed up.

[BlueStorm]

17. They were saying on the news (local FUX channel)

They they were buying them at the req price and then selling them for cheaper. Amy, one of my sis's neighbors said that was dumb because you would actually be losing money.

I called bullshit on the whole thing, besides I don't see any credible evidence that they were planning on blowing up the Mackinaw Bridge. Just film clips of cellphones and brown men.

So I guess that's how they do it: Show clips of the "device" and brown people and you have a "terra" story

Blue

[hughee99]

19. That was my point...

I can't see how you would make any money on this, and if you were going to lose money, you could probably get the phones cheaper (from the wholesalers point) and resell them for less of a loss. It just didn't make any sense to me.