This guy just might be a candidate for a Darwin Award
SEATTLE A doctor who had missed his flight called police three times to tell operators there was a bomb aboard the plane, forcing its return to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, federal prosecutors said. Kou Wei Chiu, 31, of Bellevue, Tennessee, made an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, where he was charged with making a false threat against an aircraft. A detention hearing was set for Friday.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Chiu admitted that he used a payphone at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to call emergency services number 911 three times after he arrived at the gate too late to board his Northwest Airlines flight Wednesday. "Flight 980 Memphis. There may be a bomb on board," Chiu was quoted as telling the emergency operator.
"After his first phone call, he looked outside at the plane and saw that his call had had 'no effect,"' FBI agent Gary France wrote. "He made a second phone call and noticed that this call too had no effect. This led to the third call.
"Chiu stated that he made the calls thinking that the airline 'would ground the plane for a couple of hours,' because bomb threats are taken seriously. When asked how he thought other passengers might react when they overheard his calls, he conceded that he thought 'they would be traumatized,"' the affidavit said.
Chiu also told investigators that he had been off his antidepressant medication in recent days, France wrote.
His lawyer said Thursday that Chiu is eager to return to his family.
It might be a while; and I don't think the Feds will ship him via Northwest.
The plane was in the air by the time Chiu was arrested, and it was brought back to the gate and grounded for several hours while authorities determined the threat to be a hoax. Northwest estimated that it lost $70,000 in fuel, gate fees and other expenses. The plane arrived in Memphis late Wednesday night.
#1
Wonder if there is more to this than homesickness?
First we have (another) highly educated individual,
next we have the story about no luggage which later changes to yes i checked luggage but in another's name
and yes i checked in for the flight.
right afte 9/11 the rule was that if you weren't on the plane, your luggage got taken off. seems that that rule is either ignored or rescinded.
i suspect there is more to this; perhaps round two of testing. the northwest was the one part of the country missing from the earlier round of cheese and cell phone tests. wonder if they made it through Sea-Tac security?
#2
"His lawyer said Thursday that Chiu is eager to return to his family"
His return may be delayed for several years due to a multiyear detour to a federal prison.
#3
"After his first phone call, he looked outside at the plane and saw that his call had had 'no effect,"' FBI agent Gary France wrote. "He made a second phone call and noticed that this call too had no effect. This led to the third call.
Am I on Candid Camera?
Chiu also told investigators that he had been off his antidepressant medication in recent days, France wrote.
Ah, there it is.
I may go on antidepressant medication just so when I screw something up I can say I was off it.
#4
I agree there is probably more to this and may be part of the sleeper cell plan. Northwest has a major hub in Muslim Minneapolis, with cabbies and airport workers filing lawsuits for footbaths and refusing to carry passengers with alcohol.
#5
What is it with these doctors? Is it really that stressful?
And, I've got a suggestion. Tell his story far and wide in Tennessee (his home state), then release him in the hill-country there. Things will take care of themselves, I promise.
Posted by: BA ||
07/27/2007 12:05 Comments ||
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#6
tu: "Chiu also told investigators that he had been off his antidepressant medication in recent days, France wrote."
he later admitted to taking his medicine; so i count at least 3 lies in his story (medicine, luggage, check in status).......this has more to it than meets the eye; lots more to it.
#7
Wonder if he's done with all his immigration paperwork? Otherwise he gets one more flight courtesy of the US taxpayer.
Posted by: ed ||
07/27/2007 12:42 Comments ||
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#8
A few more details here. Chiu graduated from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 2003 and works at the Spanish-speaking medical practice of Medicos Para La Familia. He told airport police he was on anti-depressant medication and had been without it for a few days, although he said he did take the medication on the day of his flight.
Nasa is investigating the apparent sabotage of a computer due to be flown to the International Space Station on the Endeavour space shuttle next month. The US space agency said the damage to wiring in a network box was intentional and obvious, but said it could be repaired before take-off on 7 August. Nasa stressed that the lives of its astronauts had not been put at risk.
Nasa's Associate Administrator for Space Operations, William Gerstenmaier, said the apparent sabotage of a non-essential computer had been discovered earlier this month. "The damage is very obvious, easy to detect," he told reporters. "It's not a mystery to us." Mr Gerstenmaier said wires had been found cut inside the unit before it had been loaded onto the shuttle. The computer is designed to collect and relay data from sensors which detect vibrations and forces on the space station's external trusses.
"It's currently being investigated by the [Nasa] inspector general's office," he added. The equipment had been supplied by a sub-contractor. Mr Gerstenmaier said engineers would try to repair the hardware before take-off in two weeks' time, but that the mission would not be delayed. The damage is believed to be the first act of sabotage of flight equipment Nasa has discovered.
#1
VARIOUS SOURCES > NASA Astronauts may had flown while drunk, besides also being under suspicion by NASA of sabotaging the aforesame computer???
Ergo its in PRAVDA.
#2
Considering what it costs to put stuff into orbit ($50,000/pound) I wonder why they are flying non-essential computers.
Posted by: kelly ||
07/27/2007 14:54 Comments ||
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#3
Why would someone do this? Why do something so self-destructive, but not do it to something critical or in a way that was not easily detected? There seems to be something more going on - it's either a frame-up (perhaps part of another NASA love triangle) or an attempt to publicize a perceived vulnerability (or, of course, something I didn't think of.)
Which member of Congress was scaring the bejesus out of colleagues late Tuesday night by putting in fake reporter requests to speak to lawmakers about Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka the D.C. Madam?
Reporters long have filled out cards in the Speakers Gallery to request face-time with members. An aide brings the card to the particular member on the House floor and he or she decides whether to come out and chat with the requesting scribe.
The rambunctious lawmaker filled out cards posing as a Washington Post reporter, only to watch the color drain from the faces of unsuspecting co-workers when confronted with the cards from a journalist writing about Hill types caught up in a scandal related to an alleged prostitution ring.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/27/2007 09:09 ||
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mike, quit you're gonna make me turn it on c span too see this
(SomaliNet) 200 Somali immigrants convicted of crimes have been deported from Yemen to Somalia, Somali councilor in Yemen Hussein Haji said on Thursday. Before expelling from the country, all the deportees were accused of robbery and drug dealing while some of them had been in Sanaa jails.
Mr. Hussein told the local media that the deported refugees were collected from the refugee camps and inside the town where they were caught in the acts of wrongdoing. Most of them were drug addicted and here the government of Yemen introduced a tough law on the drug consumption and dealing, said Hussein.
The Yemeni government estimates that up to 10,000 Somalis arrive every year. Most of them live in urban areas, where they are self-supporting. Some 10,000 are being cared for in UNHCR's Al Kharaz camp near Aden.
Soon to be turned into Paleos.
Yemen hosts the Arab world's largest population of non-Palestinian refugees. UNHCR estimates that there are more than 70,000 refugees in the country, but government figures put it at more than 165,000 refugees. The Somalis make up the majority - numbering some 64,000 - but there are 11 other nationalities among the refugee population, according to Yemen Times.
Just how bad does your home country have to suck when you look to Yemen as the promised land?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) China is Zimbabwes top co-operation partner, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe pronounced, Harare's Herald newspaper reported on Friday. "Currently, we are being driven by our Look East policy and our first country for co-operation is China." Harare's Herald website quoted the unpopular leader as saying.
President Mugabe was addressing a delegation from the Communist Party of China at a meeting in Harare on Thursday. He said relations between the two countries dated back to the struggle for independence, which Beijing backed to the hilt. "Now that we are independent and sovereign, we have pursued together ways of how we can transform our socio-economic systems for the benefit of our people."
Zimbabwe and China had always been criticised by Western countries at international forums on false grounds that they did not uphold human rights. But the United Nations had always found nothing wrong with the human rights records of China and Zimbabwe, Mugabe said.
That's 'cause they were spending all their time on Israel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2007 00:00 ||
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Well, color me pink and call me Shirley. I'd have NEVER guessed that China would team up w/ old Bob to institute an oasis of prosperity.
Posted by: BA ||
07/27/2007 8:01 Comments ||
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#2
Hope the red commies swamp Mugabe's satrapy with Dollar Store junk...that's what it means to be a partner with these marxist heretics...
#5
The Chinese have got to launder all that Walmart money. What better place than a pit like Zimland? Get the Chinese to follow the old Soviet model of propping up fail economies and government. Better them than us.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - A judge ruled police faked evidence against opposition activists accused of mounting a gasoline bombing campaign and freed them after five months in jail, the activists' lawyer said Thursday.
Mildly surprised about this: there's a judge in Bob-land who hasn't yet knuckled under?
Attorney Alex Muchadehama said 13 activists of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, including opposition lawmaker Paul Madzore, were released Wednesday after High Court Judge Lawrence Kamocha threw out all key police evidence. Kamocha ruled police failed to show the location on maps of a farm where the suspects were allegedly trained in terror tactics and concluded in his written judgment ``it turned out to be nonexistent.''
He also said two men police had called key witnesses were ``fictitious persons.''
Muchadehama said Kamocha would still consider release applications for two other activists held on charges of allegedly recruiting pro-democracy militants for terror attacks.
No comment was immediately available from police or the government.
Defense attorneys Muchahedama and Andrew Makoni were arrested earlier after they described evidence as faked. Their arrests led to a protest organized by the Zimbabwe Law Society outside the Harare High Court in May. Police declared the lawyers' protest illegal and injured a number of lawyers while breaking it up.
Muchadehama said 34 opposition activists detained since March were linked to a series of fire bombings of police stations, a store owned by a ruling party official and a train. Four police were said to have been injured in the bombings, which the government described as an ``orgy of terror'' and blamed the opposition.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2007 00:00 ||
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#3
USN, in Zimbabwe they are not subtle. I would expect that a bunch of thugs policemen will visit the judge to explain a few points of "law" to him. With clubs and chains.
Two graft cases have been filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) against former communications minister Anwar Hossain Manju, his wife Tasnima Hossain, their daughter Shima Hossain and another person. The cases were filed with Dhanmondi and Ramna police stations in the capital on Wednesday accusing them of taking Tk 1 crore and Tk 75 lakh in bribe from two construction firms.
The other accused in the cases is Mahmood Hossain, executive director of Aegis Textile Mills Ltd. In the case filed with Ramna Police Station, ACC Assistant Director Sheikh Faiaz Alam said the accused persons in connivance with each other took Tk 75 lakh in bribe from China National Overseas Engineering Corporation sometime between February 13 and February 18, 2001 to get them secure work order of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD). Manju was then communications minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2007 00:00 ||
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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday filed a case against detained Chief Conservator of Forest Osman Gani and his wife Mohsen Ara Gani for giving false wealth statement to the commission. ACC Deputy Director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury filed the case with Uttara Police Station at 3:10pm under sections 26(1), 27(2) of the Anti Corruption Commission Act-2004, section 5(2) of the Corruption Prevention Act-1949, section 15(Gha)(5) of the Emergency Power Rules-2007 and section 109 of the Bangladesh Penal Code.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2007 00:00 ||
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88 others including his relatives also jailed
A Natore court yesterday sentenced former deputy minister for land Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu to eight years in prison for guiding and abetting arson and damage of houses at three villages in Naldanga upazila in 2004. The Court of Additional District Magistrate (ADM) also sentenced Dulu's cousin Atikur Rahman to eight years in jail and 87 others including his brothers, cousins and nephews to rigorous imprisonment for seven years. It fined all the convicts Tk 10,000 each, and in default ordered them to suffer one year more in jail.
The judgement delivered by ADM Rawnak Mahmud in presence of Dulu is the first in 22 cases filed against him and also the first one in the country by a magistrate's court punishing a former minister. The convicts include Dulu's brothers Nabi Talukdar, Anisur Rahman Talukdar, Mujibar Rahman Talukdar, Rafik Talukdar, cousins Nurunnabi Talukdar, Abidur Rahman, Mujibar Rahman nephews Rentu, Belal, Helal, Bulbul, Dalim, Dollar, nephew-in-law Rahim Newaz and Natore municipal ward commissioners Sadrul Huda Dambel, Sohag and Nasim Khan.
The other convicts include former president of Jatiyatadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) Natore unit Dewan Shahin, secretary Mostafizur Rahman Shahin, BNP workers Mintu, Ratan, Hazrat, Shafi 'gunman', Shanti Mastar, Mamun, Razzak, Kuddus, Alamgir, Hafizul, Majibur, Azizul, Jalal, Aziz, Rahim Bux, Golap, Kalu, Kausar, Tofazzal 'Rajakar' and Saiful.
The court acquitted five accused in the case including district Jubo Dal General Secretary Babul Chowdhury, Rupchand, Mohsin, Majnu and Jubayer.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2007 00:00 ||
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...and 87 others including his brothers, cousins and nephews to rigorous imprisonment for seven years.
"Rigorous imprisonment"?
Does that mean that they, like, make 'em memorize all these names?
A tribunal designed to try the graft cases yesterday sentenced former state minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir to 13 years in prison and fined him Tk 10 lakh. It also ordered the government to confiscate the assets that do not tally with the known sources of his income. MK Alamgir, also a presidium member of Awami League (AL), was given 10 years' rigorous imprisonment under section 27 (1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Act, 2004 for amassing around Tk 3.27 crore through misuse of power. The special court also fined him Tk 10 lakh and in case of a default in payment he would have to serve one more year of rigorous imprisonment. Alamgir was sentenced to three years in prison under section 26 (2) of the ACC Act, 2004 for concealing in his wealth statement the information about six fixed deposits worth Tk 1.17 crore.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2007 00:00 ||
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1) First year, invite a bunch of indy filmmakers, while loudly deriding commercial films and other film festivals as "sellouts". If any film critics show up, drown them in free liquor, drugs and hookers.
2) Give the awards to the most depressing and pretentious movies. Grand prize to some Hollywood director's low budget vanity film that stinks on ice and will not earn $100 of US box office.
3) Bribe a few celebrities to show up for red carpet shoots, and bribe them again to say snarky things about other celebrities they hate. Pay a few models to wear outfits that would get them arrested anywhere else on the planet.
4) Make a big deal about how impossible it is for anyone to meet the great leader, king or whoever, in his palace. Then invite two up-and-coming starlets in for a photo op, while making it a point to snub several of the over-the-hills actresses.
5) Let the police know that anything goes in the festival area. That the hoi polloi are to be kept out, and that the secret police be ready to get and leak juicy scandals with prior coordination with the celebrities agents, for the publicity.
6) The second year, the hell with indy films. Sell out as much as possible.
#4
While waiting for his train on the platform, Marovitch apparently fell onto the tracks moments before the train pulled into the station, hitting the popes representative and leaving him seriously injured
¿While standing/waiting on the platform waiting for the next train doesn't everyone pull back just a bit as the train pulls into the station?
Villepin has been officially indicted for using falsified documents while trying to smear Sarkozy in the Cleasrtream case. He has been forbidden to meet Chirac.
#1
Normally, the thought of such a miscreant bending over for the soap in prison would warm the heart, but OTOH, villainpian would probably enjoy it...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/27/2007 11:48 Comments ||
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#10
For those of us whose high school french isn't quite up to the Figaro article JFM noted, there's a bit of a write up in English at NoPasaran: http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/
Posted by: La Plume de Ma Tante is out of ink ||
07/27/2007 16:45 Comments ||
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#11
There's a link in the NoPasaran article to the internation Herald Trib which has an (English) write up with more detail
Posted by: La Plume etc. ||
07/27/2007 16:48 Comments ||
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India's pledge to set up a ``state- of-the-art'' reprocessing site for spent atomic fuel led to a breakthrough in stalled talks on a civilian nuclear energy agreement, first proposed two years ago, a top U.S. negotiator said.
The reprocessing will be subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary for political affairs, told reporters in Washington today after a joint announcement that the two countries had completed the agreement. India proposed the reprocessing site, which was crucial to both sides concurring on terms, in early June when Burns was in New Delhi, he said.
Burns said that ``by removing the real barrier that has separated us for more than 30 years, we're about to liberate our two countries for a new engagement.''
The plan has further steps to clear. India, which hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has to reach an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog for international inspections, on safeguards.
The Nuclear Suppliers Group, a 45-nation forum dedicated to limiting the spread of atomic weapons, must also approve the agreement. After that, the U.S. president will submit the text to Congress for approval, attempting to overcome concerns that India's nuclear weapons program would benefit.
`Strategic Partnership'
``I look forward to working with Congress to realize this important initiative,'' U.S. President George W. Bush said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. ``This marks another step in the continued progress that is deepening our strategic partnership with India, a vital world leader.''
The conclusion of negotiations on the so-called ``1-2-3 agreement'' paves the way for and other U.S. companies to participate in the South Asian nation's nuclear power program.
``It opens up support for India to pursue expansion in nuclear power because we were seriously running into a constraint as far as fuel supply is concerned,'' said R.K. Pachauri, director general of the Energy & Resources Institute, in a phone interview today.
Indian utilities, which are straining to supply power to industry, homes and farms, would be allowed to buy equipment, fuel and reactors from firms such as Fairfield, Connecticut- based General Electric Co. and Monroeville, Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse Electric Co. In exchange, the South Asian nation would open some of its plants to international inspections to ensure that the fuel isn't being diverted for weapons.
Energy Needs
India, the world's second-fastest-growing major economy, needs atomic power to supplement conventional energy resources. Atomic power now accounts for about 3 percent of the country's total electricity production.
The agreement is an important objective of Bush's foreign policy because it symbolizes deeper ties between the two most populous democracies amid China's economic and military surge. It was held up by differences over whether India would get a perennial supply of nuclear fuel, be allowed to reprocess spent fuel and have the right to conduct nuclear tests.
``It's going to certainly increase the Chinese perception that the deal is part of an attempt to contain China by improving relations with India,'' Adam Segal, who follows China for the Council on Foreign Relations, said.
The text of the agreement will ``soon'' be available, India's National security Adviser M.K. Narayanan told reporters in a televised news conference in New Delhi. ``We have got a very good deal,'' he said, referring to the terms of the accord.
Iran
The India accord is in the ``unquestioned'' interest of the U.S., and Iran can draw lessons from it, Burns said. The accord with India will open the way to wider defense cooperation and ``unlocks the promise'' of strategic ties, he said.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said there were no conditions attached to the accord.
``This agreement has a finalized text which meets the concerns of both sides and serves the interest of both sides,'' Menon said. ``There is no conditionality and we did not negotiate anything else.''
The U.S. is convinced that India will keep any nuclear fuel that's governed by the agreement from the arms program, Burns said. The U.S. believes that India is improving nuclear export controls, though some Indian companies have been sanctioned by the U.S. for nuclear proliferation, the official said.
India has the right to reuse the reprocessed spent fuel, said Anil Kakodkar, chairman of the country's Atomic Energy Commission. ``It allows us to derive the full benefit of the cooperation.''
`Fine Print'
U.S. lawmakers were consulted before the India accord was finished, first outlined by Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2005, Burns said. The U.S. Congress will want to see the ``fine print'' of the agreement, he said, adding that any exceptions made for India won't be a precedent for other countries.
The agreement's safeguards should persuade the nuclear group, Burns said.
Narayanan said there is no reference to nuclear tests by India in the text of the agreement.
``We have not mortgaged any right. If anything, we have only enhanced our right.'' Narayanan said. ``This agreement is intended primarily for civil nuclear cooperation. We are not using it as an excuse to enhance our strategic capabilities.''
`Problematic' Concessions
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said he thinks the Bush administration made concessions to India in the agreement's language ``that are problematic'' and ``inconsistent'' with past U.S. policy and the intent of Congress.
``Other countries are going to look at this, like Pakistan, and either want the same treatment, or they're going to be less interested in working with the U.S. to enforce the same rules against countries that are seeking to challenge them,'' Kimball said.
On July 25, two Indian cabinet panels endorsed the draft of a nuclear cooperation agreement with the U.S. that had been stalled by differences over the supply and reuse of fuel, saying it ``adequately addressed'' the nation's concerns.
The U.S. Congress in December passed legislation to allow the agreement to go forward. The legislation reversed decades of U.S. policy that barred nuclear exports to India after the South Asian country tested an atomic bomb in 1974 without signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Posted by: John Frum ||
07/27/2007 14:14 ||
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Posted by: John Frum ||
07/27/2007 15:46 Comments ||
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Posted by: John Frum ||
07/27/2007 15:47 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Nasa is investigating the apparent sabotage of a computer due to be flown to the International Space Station on the Endeavour space shuttle next month. The US space agency said the damage to wiring in a network box was intentional and obvious, but said it could be repaired before take-off on 7 August. Nasa stressed that the lives of its astronauts had not been put at risk. 
(SomaliNet) 200 Somali immigrants convicted of crimes have been deported from Yemen to Somalia, Somali councilor in Yemen Hussein Haji said on Thursday. Before expelling from the country, all the deportees were accused of robbery and drug dealing while some of them had been in Sanaa jails. 
(SomaliNet) China is Zimbabwes top co-operation partner, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe pronounced, Harare's Herald newspaper reported on Friday. "Currently, we are being driven by our Look East policy and our first country for co-operation is China." Harare's Herald website quoted the unpopular leader as saying. 
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - A judge ruled police faked evidence against opposition activists accused of mounting a gasoline bombing campaign and freed them after five months in jail, the activists' lawyer said Thursday.
