Is Star Simpson's "fake bomb" just an art jacket?

http://images.salon.com.nyud.net:8090/tech/machinist/blog/2007/09/21/star_simpson/story.jpg

Star Simpson, a 19-year-old MIT student, was arrested at gunpoint Friday morning at Boston's Logan Airport when officers suspected that a circuit board and battery she had pinned to her sweatshirt was a bomb. Indeed, every news outlet is now referring to the thing as a "fake bomb," and Simpson has been charged with possessing a "hoax device."

But pictures of the sweatshirt that officials are putting out show something quite less scary -- I have no idea what a real bomb looks like, but I don't think it's a plastic board with a 9-volt battery on it. Simpson's explanation is that the jacket was a wearable-art project she made so she could stand out at her school's career day (the plastic board lights up). All information now streaming in supports that view, and suggests that the affair could have been a misunderstanding, one that very nearly turned tragic.

This is my speculation only, but it seems quite possible that rather than intending to deliberately walk into Logan with a fake bomb, Simpson might instead have rolled out of bed with an art jacket she often wore around campus and slipped it on in a rush on her way to pick up a friend -- forgetting that she was heading into the all-fear-all-the-time black hole that is U.S. aviation ...

Damn. Had it not been for the six years we've already lived through irrational, useless, annoying, psychologically defeating overeager airport security -- put in place to prevent an event that could have been solved by a single measure, locking the cockpit doors -- the prospect of a promising young student being killed by cops for wearing a battery on her back might come as a shock ...

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/09/21/star_simpson/

Seriously, how can an intelligent person just assume that someone would forget they're wearing something like THAT when going to an airport? Isn't wearing it ANYWHERE intended specifically to be provocative?

than does a transister radio, or a flashlight, or anything else with batteries.

ok, it is clearly an improvised something-or-other, since the wiring is exposed and the circuit board is visible instead of being in a tidy case like a gameboy.

so maybe the security guy rightfully should have said "what's this?" and made her turn it on, like they do your laptop. Maybe even confiscate it like a pair of toenail clippers, if really nervous about it.

Bur arresting her and charging her with intentionally perpetrating a hoax? Hell, why not just taser her and be done with it? If she blows up, it was a bomb. If not, let her go with a pat on the ass.

(don't anyone pass this idea along to bush - he'd like it!)

By Ryan Singel
09.20.07 | 2:00 AM

International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years.

Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material ... http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/09/flight_tracking

By Vanessa Colón / The Fresno Bee
09/21/07 05:37:48

New federal rules that give airport screeners more discretion to inspect turbans worn by some Sikh men are stirring anger in a Valley community that has felt unfairly targeted by security measures following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Now Valley Sikhs are gathering signatures to urge local members of Congress to get the new security rules changed.

Screeners previously were allowed to inspect turbans only if a metal detector went off ...

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/144577.html

September 18, 2007

Thought of as a part of our past, blacklisting has become very real for outward U.S. government critics.
By Chelsey Perkins

when we look back at the Joseph McCarthy era of anti-communist hysteria in our country's history books, we think of the blacklisting and unjustified governmental questioning of suspected communists as a thing of the past.

Wrong.

Since Sept. 11, we have heard much about increased airport security. One of the tactics employed as a security measure in our nation's airports is an extensive list of people who require more thorough searching before boarding flights - some are not allowed to board at all.

Although this list is touted as one that helps to identify individuals who fit the "terrorist profile," it is 540 pages long and contains about 75,000 names. Many of the names are those of journalists, academics and well-known activists who have spoken outwardly against the Bush administration.

Naomi Wolf, author of the new book "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot," describes in an article for AlterNet how she first discovered she was on "the list." Wolf is an outspoken critic of increased presidential power, the lack of checks and balances and its effects on our civil liberties. Wolf said that security guards pulled her aside so often it became routine, and when she asked for the reason, a guard answered simply, "You're on the list." ...

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2007/09/17/72163402

But if you know it's a bull, you know better than to wave a red flag in front of it, unless you WANT it to charge you.

And maybe airport security over-reacted. And maybe a lot of folk are misrepresenting a jacket wadjamacallit that really might not look very much like a bomb

even consider that to bear resemblence to what it was made out to be. A cheap radio maybe but nothing more than that.

so figure that out....

You see an electronic device. And don't play games about "real bombs don't have flashing lights." How do you know that? Someone's got something that looks suspiciously electronic on her jacket.

And she's a young goth chick. These are people with ties to Satanism, extreme cults, possibly terrorist cells. Sorry, kids, but that's what goths look like. They are people about whom you have suspicion even if you're not a cop. You are put on edge in their presence.

And she's in an airport. An airport where it has been established, for years, that you do not joke about bombs or guns or hijacking. A place where you, a guard, will become responsible for the deaths of hundreds or thousands if you let the next terrorist pass you by.

Even if she might not specifically be a terrorist, she's mocking the rules that are in place to keep people safe. (You don't like those rules? Tough. Try getting others passed, especially right now.)

She's lucky her head wasn't blasted into a fine red mist, as would have happened if she walked into an Israeli airport with this gear.