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Comment by mathetic | Hacker News Reader

> "Do you know who did 9/11?" Taken totally aback, I answered: "Osama Bin Laden." Then she asked me if I knew what language Osama Bin Laden spoke. "Arabic," I replied. "So do you see why these cards are suspicious?" she finished.

As horrific as the situation, I think we can all enjoy the humorous nature of the conversation above. Lack of shame and intelligence is surreal.

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"Do you know who did the Oklahoma City bombing?

"Timothy McVeigh"

"Do you know what language he spoke?"

"English"

"So you see why talking in English is suspicious?"

That could make some sense if that exchange happened in Karachi, for example, and his flash cards had the words fertilizer, kerosene, explosion, supremacy, etc. It could, not that it does.

"Do you know who did 9/11? Osama Bin Laden! And did you know that Osama Bin Laden had shoes? So you see why your shoes are suspicious and we have to arrest you?"

Add one more step and it sounds like something out of Monty Python.

"It is cheap, basic and widely available around the world. Yet the Casio F-91W digital watch was declared to be "the sign of al-Qaida" and a contributing factor to continued detention of prisoners by the analysts stationed at Guantánamo Bay.

Briefing documents used to train staff in assessing the threat level of new detainees advise that possession of the F-91W – available online for as little as £4 – suggests the wearer has been trained in bomb making by al-Qaida in Afghanistan."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-file...

Available on Amazon for ten bucks:

http://www.amazon.com/Casio-F91W-Digital-Sports-Watch/dp/B00...

Looks nice enough for what it is and the price.

Read the 3rd review. "USAF approved". Apartment it's common for US military to wear.

The 4th review is amusing.

So if you have an enemy just buy him that watch as a gift. :) :(

There are online communities dedicated to modding and improving casio watches ... here is a modded F-91W:

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f17/casio-f91w-mod-negative-dis...

Heh, I had the same watch as a child and many of my friends did too. I don't think it's a sign of al-Qaida or any other particular group. These watches just were (probably still are) very popular in developing nations because they are cheap and trustworthy (unlike Chinese counterparts of the same price range).

Yes, that line sounds more fit for "The Simpsons" than real life.

60 countries, ~237,000,000 people and the United Nations ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_languages_of_the_Unit... ) ... that sure is a lot of people to call "suspicious"...

The lack of intelligence displayed here is a big reason why I don't place much of the blame on the TSA agent or police officer. There is something deeper that is the actual root cause of this behavior.

I've heard he drank water, we should look into banning water. It's the only way!

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