Software

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Why would a diplomat . . . . .

0 helpful
16 replies

by maxwell edison

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

.... who could be presumed to have a reasonable amount of intelligence and international savvy, do such a thing as smoke in an airliner lavatory while flying over the United States, and then when questioned about it by the flight crew, joke about lighting his shoe on fire?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/08/AR2010040805826.html

My answer: Knowing he would be afforded diplomatic immunity, he was testing response times and methods.

Is there any other reasonable conclusion?

[i]Officials said he had been smoking a small pipe in the plane's bathroom.[/i]

Then again, there was no mention of what was actually in the small pipe.

16 replies

by ron k.

...was on his way to make a consular visit to Ali al-Marri, a Qatari national serving an eight-year sentence for terrorism offenses at the "supermax" prison in Florence, Colo.
That's a bit suspicious. There are some people imprisoned that still run criminal enterprises. I wonder if Ali is doing that.

by av .

No. He wasn't a terrorist, but he is pushing the limits. He's testing our security. He's a privileged diplomat, so anything he does is swept under the rug. No consequences. If you or I even mentioned the shoe bomber, we'd be in jail.

Yes, he was on a Consular visit to an al-Qaida operative in the Supermax prison, but its common for those visits to happen, regardless of what the prisoner did. I'm not happy with that, but thats how it is.

AV

by nicknielsen

Knowing his diplomatic immunity would protect him from consequences, he decided he wanted to indulge his habit in flight.

The mistake was not the smoke, but the joke. That there were also air marshals aboard his flight compounded the error.

by jamesrl

I think he thought there would be no consequence on the flight other than a dressing down from the stewardesses, and when they touch down he waives his diplomatic ID and walks away.

He probably will get discaplined by his country.

James

by .martin.

obviously he didn't have any 'intelligence' or else he would have known it was a bad idea to make that sort of joke on an airliner.

by hal 9000

That may be a bigger giveaway for this action than anything else. ;)

None the less it's fairly stupid thing to do.

Col

by jamesrl

Qatar was one of your strongest friends in the middle east, home of the whole C&C for the Iraq war, base for many soldiers, etc. Unless you think they are playing games.

James

by notsochiguy

...Saudi Arabia is considered a 'friendly' of the US, and the list of 9/11 hijackers were all Saudi.

That said, I don't think this was a test of defenses. Anyone with a room temperature IQ could have predicted exactly how this would have played out; which doesn't seem to be much of a test.

by jamesrl

Its true that many of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, but its also true that many if not all of them lived in Saudi, as they would have faced arrest, torture and execution. Osama and his cronies have renounced the system in Saudi.

I agree its not much of a test, the guy who lit the bomb in his underwear provoked the same response, so what could be learned from another example.

by gsg

I figured that he was trying to judge the response, or else was trying to set up a false alarm so that when someone tried for real there wouldn't be a good response.

by jamesrl

If you want to point out a typo and then add your own opinion, thats constructive.

I was probably thinking of waives, and then recomposed the sentance. Sorry I multitask.

James

This discussion is closed to new replies.