So, fun fact about Toyota trucks: They’re well-respected the world over by rebel and insurgent groups, to the point that they’re telltale signs.
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yesterday The U.S. issued a travel advisory suggesting (essentially) that tourists in Europe not hang out near public landmarks, due to a vague al-Qaeda threat.
today Japan followed suit, something that country rarely does. Also, the United Kingdom raised their terror alert level to high. There might be something to this. source
We don’t know yet if these two end up being bad guys or are just really strange people.
A U.S. official • Speaking about the detention of two people who had some really weird crap in their checked luggage on a flight from Chicago to Amsterdam. (They were detained by Dutch police after the end of the flight, by the way.) One dude had $7,000 in cash for no good reason. The other had a cell phone taped to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol (which isn’t a bomb, by the way), a bunch of cell phones taped together (also not a bomb) and a bunch of watches taped together (not a bomb, either). ABC News has reported that it appeared to be a dry run for a bombing attack, to check how secure the system was, but officials don’t know yet. Let’s hope they were just idiots who were holding a bottle of Pepto-Bismol for ransom. source
This guy right here? Terror suspect. No, really. Khuram Sher, who was arrested early Thursday in Ottawa, may have thought a little differently about Western culture a couple of years ago. The self-proclaimed Hilary Duff fan sang Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” for the bemused judges, who also learned that Sher also likes “hockey, music, and acting.” What they didn’t learn is that he might have ties to al-Qaeda. Count your blessings that he didn’t win. source
Which, of course, is always a good reason. The lawyer for Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was captured in Afghanistan by U.S. forces at age 15, is on hold for a month after Khadr’s military defense lawyer, Jon Jackson, collapsed in court yesterday. Jackson needs to head back to the U.S. for a month for further medical treatment, meaning the trial of the now-23-year-old Khadr is put on hold. Jackson recently had gall bladder surgery. source
14number of years Ibrahim al Qosi was sentenced in a military tribunal for conspiring with al-Qaeda and providing material support for terrorism
twonumber of years al Qosi may actually serve, based on a plea agreement which has been kept secret and may not be publicized for months, when nobody cares anymore source
