January 30, 2010
Im Hussein - Smile You're in America
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airplane
Arabic
class
January 25, 2010
Ethiopian women, relatives of passengers of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the sea, react upon their arrival at Beirut airport, Lebanon.
Lebanese Red Cross workers move a body retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea.
Pieces of the plane and debris were washing ashore in the hours after the crash, including passenger seats, a fire extinguisher and bottles of medicine.
Lebanese soldiers gather debris from the crash on the shore near Beirut airport.
Families of the passengers, some of them weeping uncontrollably rushed to the Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut to await news of their loved ones.
The Boeing 737-800 disappeared off the radar some five minutes after taking off from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.
Chopper carrying corpses from the crash site to UNIFIL ships.
Ethiopian Plane Crash Tragedy in Photos
Ethiopian women, relatives of passengers of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed in the sea, react upon their arrival at Beirut airport, Lebanon. Lebanese Red Cross workers mo…
Prime Minister Hariri consoling victims' families and friends after news of the plane crash.
accidents
airplane
Beirut
January 25, 2010
واوضح العريضي للصحافيين اثر اجتماع عقده مع المسؤولين في المطار ان "العمل بدأ للبحث عن ناجين وذلك بمساعدة
وكان رئيس الجمهورية اللبناني ميشال سليمان عقد مؤتمراً صحافياً استبعد خلاله وجود "عمل تخريبي" وراء سقوط طائرة تابعة للخطوط الجوية الاثيوبية.
لبنان في حداد وطني بعد سقوط طائرة تقل 90 شخصاً بينهم 54 لبنانياً
Translation: Lebanon in national mourning after plane crash carrying 90 passengers, of which 54 are Lebanese. (see article below for English) بيروت - ا ف ب - سقطت فجر الاثنين طائرة…
Translation: Lebanon in national mourning after plane crash carrying 90 passengers, of which 54 are Lebanese. (see article below for English)
بيروت - ا ف ب - سقطت فجر الاثنين طائرة تابعة للخطوط الجوية الاثيوبية بعد دقائق من اقلاعها من مطار رفيق الحريري الدولي في بيروت وعلى متنها 90 راكبا وبدات على الفور اعمال البحث عن ناجين وسط احوال جوية سيئة للغاية كما اعلن وزير الاشغال اللبناني غازي العريضي.
واوضح العريضي للصحافيين اثر اجتماع عقده مع المسؤولين في المطار ان "العمل بدأ للبحث عن ناجين وذلك بمساعدة
بحرية وطوافات الجيش اللبناني وقوات الطوارىء الدولية (اليونفيل) البحرية واجهزة الصليب الاحمر الدولي".
وقال "حتى الان ليس ثمة نتائج ملموسة" موضحا ان الطائرة هوت "غربي بلدة الناعمة (12 كلم جنوب المطار) على بعد 3.5 كلم من الشاطىء".
وقال "الطائرة تقل 90 شخصا: 83 راكبا وطاقمها المؤلف من سبعة اشخاص" ومن بين الركاب 54 لبنانيا.
وفند العريضي جنسيات الركاب وقال انهم "54 لبنانيا, 22 اثيوبيا, عراقي واحد, سوري واحد, كندي واحد من اصل لبناني, روسية واحدة من اصل لبناني, فرنسية واحدة, بريطانيان اثنان من اصل لبناني".
واضاف "على الفور شكلنا لجنة تحقيق تضم خبراء مختصين من بينهم مكتب التحقيق الفرنسي المختص بهذا النوع من الحوادث".
والطائرة هي من طراز بوينغ 737 اقلعت في رحلة تحمل الرقم 409 عند الساعة 2.30 بالتوقيت المحلي (12.30 ت غ) وسط احوال جوية سيئة, كما ذكرت
مصادر ملاحية.
وقالت قيادة الجيش "شوهدت تندلع فيها النيران ثم ما لبثت ان سقطت في البحر".
وجاء في بيان صادر عن مديرية التوجيه انه "على الفور تدخلت وحدات تابعة لكل من القوات البحرية والقوات الجوية اللبنانية وفوج مغاوير البحر بمؤازرة طوافات وزوارق بحرية تابعة لقوات الامم المتحدة المؤقتة في لبنان".
واضاف البيان "تستمر القوى المذكورة بعمليات الاغاثة والانقاذ فيما تقوم وحدات اخرى بتفتيش الشاطىء".
وطلب العريضي من الصحافيين "عدم الدخول في تكهنات حول اسباب الحادث" مشيرا ردا على سؤال الى ان "الطقس كان سيئا للغاية".
وقال "بقي التواصل مستمرا بضعة دقائق بين برج المراقبة وقائد الطائرة لمساعدته على تحديد المسارات المطلوبة ثم انقطع الاتصال واختفت الطائرة عن شاشات الرادار".
ومن بين الركاب عقيلة السفير الفرنسي في لبنان كما اكد مصدر للسفارة الفرنسية في بيروت.
وكان مصدر ملاحي طلب عدم كشف هويته افاد
وكالة فرانس برس في وقت سابق ان "على لائحة الركاب توجد مارلا سانشيز بيتون عقيلة السفير الفرنسي في لبنان" دوني بيتون الذي تسلم مهامه في بيروت في ايلول/سبتمر الماضي.
وفي مطار رفيق الحريري الدولي توافد العشرات من اهالي الركاب من نساء ورجال وهم يبكون او في حالة من الصدمة كما افادت مراسلة فرانس برس.
وشوهدت امرأة تنتحب وهي تردد بصوت عال "لماذا لماذا؟".
وعمل عناصر الاجهزة المختصة على احاطة الاهالي بالرعاية وتقديم المياه لهم ووضعوهم في قاعة بعيدا عن الصحافيين.
وكانت مصادر ملاحية افادت في وقت سابق وكالة فرانس برس بان على متن الطائرة 92 شخصا: 83 راكبا من بينهم 51 لبنانيا اضافة الى طاقم من تسعة اشخاص وفق المصدر نفسه.
وذكر شهود عيان انهم رأوا كتلة من النار تهوي في البحر. ووردت معلومات عن وجود طفلين بين الركاب.
ومنذ بعض الوقت، أفادت قناة ال بي سي اللبنانية، من وزارة الدفاع إلى انتشال 10 جثث حتى الساعة.
وقال الرئيس سليمان في مؤتمر صحافي وردا على سؤال عن هذا الاحتمال "حتى الان استبعد عملا تخريبيا والتحقيق يكشف كل
شيء".
شيء".
واعرب سليمان عن امله "بانقاذ احياء او مصابين رغم صعوبة عمليات الانقاذ بسبب الظروف المناخية الصعبة والبحر الهائج".
وقال "نحن بحاجة لتحضير مستشفيات وطواقم متخصصة لاخلاء من يتم العثور عليهم" وكذلك بحاجة "لتحضير استقبال الاهالي في المطار بشكل جيد".
وأعلن رئيس الحكومة سعد الدين الحريري اليوم يوم حدادٍ وطني على ضحايا الطائرة الأثيوبيةوتعطيل كل الدوائر الرسمية، كما تم الغاء جلسة مجلس النواب التي كانت مقررة اليوم.
accidents
airplane
Arabic
January 25, 2010
The grim task of searching the turbulent seas off the coast of Lebanon goes on following the crash of the Ethopian airline. As the hours have ticked around 20 bodies have so far been recovered.
Relatives watch on. With their pain there is anger that the jet was allowed to take off during a thunder storm.
The airline’s chief executive has confirmed there is no word of any survivors. 83 passengers and seven crew were on board the Boeing 737-800. Among them was the wife of the French ambassador to the Lebanon. The Lebanaes President has said an act of sabotage is unlikely.
One eye witness described the inferno as the plane burst into flames.
“At about 2.30 there was big ball of fire it was as big as a tent. I watched it fall into the sea between these two buildings, it landed in the sea perhaps about one kilometre from here,” he said.
Throughout the morning people have been gathering at the hospital clinging to hope and desperate for any news.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri mixed with the grieving familes. His government has declared a day of mourning as experts piece together the final minutes of the jet. Ethopian airlines have a good safety record. This crash has left a nation in shock.
Lebanon grieves for the dead from plane crash
The grim task of searching the turbulent seas off the coast of Lebanon goes on following the crash of the Ethopian airline. As the hours have ticked around 20 bodies have so far b…
The airline’s chief executive has confirmed there is no word of any survivors. 83 passengers and seven crew were on board the Boeing 737-800. Among them was the wife of the French ambassador to the Lebanon. The Lebanaes President has said an act of sabotage is unlikely.
One eye witness described the inferno as the plane burst into flames.
“At about 2.30 there was big ball of fire it was as big as a tent. I watched it fall into the sea between these two buildings, it landed in the sea perhaps about one kilometre from here,” he said.
Throughout the morning people have been gathering at the hospital clinging to hope and desperate for any news.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri mixed with the grieving familes. His government has declared a day of mourning as experts piece together the final minutes of the jet. Ethopian airlines have a good safety record. This crash has left a nation in shock.
accidents
airplane
Beirut
November 22, 2009
We might forget how much fun a search engine is, and how much time it saves us in doing everyday things, until the internet connection is interrupted and we’re left without Google. (Or, and this happens more rarely, when Google itself is down.) But usually after some minutes, things are back to normal – and we got our extended memory, our library of more books we could ever read, our information center, and our universal answer machine. And now, for just a moment, I would like you to imagine what today’s life would be without all that. What life would be without Google... and how much more time we’d be spending on solving our problems.
Finding Your Lost Keys
With Google: You enter “How to find lost keys” into Google, and the pages you find suggest to search every place again. Time spent: 10 minutes.
Without Google: You search your rooms. You start to get angry, then desperate. You search for a second time, and find your keys. Time spent: 10 minutes.
Time saved using Google: none.
Opening a Coconut
With Google: You search for “How to open a coconut.” A video tutorial explains you should hold a coconut over a bowl, and use the blunt side of a cleaver to whack the coconut until it cracks open in two halves. Time spent: 5 minutes.
Without Google: You ask your neighbor, and she tells you she doesn’t know either, but invites you to check her cookbooks collection. On that day, you fall in love with her, and she with you. You discover the solution to the coconut problem in her books the next morning. Time spent: 1 day.
Time saved using Google: around 1 day, but love life suffers.
Checking If Tonight’s Date Is Trustworthy
With Google: You enter “Frank Simmonz” into Google. His criminal records turn up, and you stay away from him. Time spent: 5 minutes.
Without Google: You meet Frank Simmonz. He seems to be a nice guy, not poor either, and he’s elegantly dressed. You meet him again at a restaurant a week later. Another week after that, you notice Frank has
blood on his shirt but you try to not mention it. Later, while you two watch a mafia movie together, Frank says, “People in that business talk differently, and I should know!” You leave the cinema in a hurry. Time spent: 2 weeks.
Time saved using Google: 1 week, 6 days, 23 hours, and 55 minutes.
Creating a Revolutionary Method of Transportation
With Google: You enter “how to speed up transportation” into Google and stumble upon a tutorial on wheels construction. Time spent:1 minute.
Without Google: You go out and watch nature. You also analyze people, and animals, trying to figure out how and why they move. You make sketches, you observe, and you remain patient. You dabble with
rocks, wood, and water. You teach your children about what you learned during your lifetime, sparking their curiosity. After that, your children take over the task you began and try finding a revolutionary method of transportation. And their children, too. The idea spreads to neighbors, friends and family, and it spans generations. Then, a whole culture becomes infested with the problem, and everyone everywhere is trying to crack their head solving it. Many, many years later, the wheel is invented. Time spent: 12,600 years.
Time saved using Google: Around 12,600 years, give or take a minute.
How Much Time Google Saves Us
I have been reading a book called 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google and found the section below under chapter 9 and I thought I'd share it with you guys. You can download the wh…
I have been reading a book called 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google and found the section below under chapter 9 and I thought I'd share it with you guys. You can download the whole book here.
We might forget how much fun a search engine is, and how much time it saves us in doing everyday things, until the internet connection is interrupted and we’re left without Google. (Or, and this happens more rarely, when Google itself is down.) But usually after some minutes, things are back to normal – and we got our extended memory, our library of more books we could ever read, our information center, and our universal answer machine. And now, for just a moment, I would like you to imagine what today’s life would be without all that. What life would be without Google... and how much more time we’d be spending on solving our problems.
Finding Your Lost Keys
With Google: You enter “How to find lost keys” into Google, and the pages you find suggest to search every place again. Time spent: 10 minutes.
Without Google: You search your rooms. You start to get angry, then desperate. You search for a second time, and find your keys. Time spent: 10 minutes.
Time saved using Google: none.
Opening a Coconut
Without Google: You ask your neighbor, and she tells you she doesn’t know either, but invites you to check her cookbooks collection. On that day, you fall in love with her, and she with you. You discover the solution to the coconut problem in her books the next morning. Time spent: 1 day.
Time saved using Google: around 1 day, but love life suffers.
Checking If Tonight’s Date Is Trustworthy
With Google: You enter “Frank Simmonz” into Google. His criminal records turn up, and you stay away from him. Time spent: 5 minutes.
Without Google: You meet Frank Simmonz. He seems to be a nice guy, not poor either, and he’s elegantly dressed. You meet him again at a restaurant a week later. Another week after that, you notice Frank has
blood on his shirt but you try to not mention it. Later, while you two watch a mafia movie together, Frank says, “People in that business talk differently, and I should know!” You leave the cinema in a hurry. Time spent: 2 weeks.
Time saved using Google: 1 week, 6 days, 23 hours, and 55 minutes.
With Google: You enter “how to speed up transportation” into Google and stumble upon a tutorial on wheels construction. Time spent:1 minute.
Without Google: You go out and watch nature. You also analyze people, and animals, trying to figure out how and why they move. You make sketches, you observe, and you remain patient. You dabble with
rocks, wood, and water. You teach your children about what you learned during your lifetime, sparking their curiosity. After that, your children take over the task you began and try finding a revolutionary method of transportation. And their children, too. The idea spreads to neighbors, friends and family, and it spans generations. Then, a whole culture becomes infested with the problem, and everyone everywhere is trying to crack their head solving it. Many, many years later, the wheel is invented. Time spent: 12,600 years.
Time saved using Google: Around 12,600 years, give or take a minute.
airplane
boys
cars
October 28, 2009
2- Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty (50) years of age or older.
3- American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one (1) olive from each salad served in first-class.
4- Venus (right) is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
5- Six of the 10 fastest elevators in the world are located in Asia.
6- The longest speech at the United Nations lasted almost eight hours.
7- Alfred Thayer Mahan - a US navy officer and geostrategist - invented the term "Middle-East" in 1902
7 Things I did not know last week
1- Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes or shark attacks. 2- Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty (50) years of age or older. 3- American Airlines s…
1- Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes or shark attacks.2- Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty (50) years of age or older.
3- American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one (1) olive from each salad served in first-class.4- Venus (right) is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
5- Six of the 10 fastest elevators in the world are located in Asia.
6- The longest speech at the United Nations lasted almost eight hours.
7- Alfred Thayer Mahan - a US navy officer and geostrategist - invented the term "Middle-East" in 1902
7 things
airplane
Asia
September 29, 2009
7 Things I did not know last week.
The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets . (right) The word "nerd" was first coined by Dr. Seuss in "If I Ran the Zoo." There are twice as …
- The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. (right)
- The word "nerd" was first coined by Dr. Seuss in "If I Ran the Zoo."
- There are twice as many kangaroos in Australia as there are people. The kangaroo population is estimated at about 40 million.
- According to suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction.
- There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long: eye, hip, arm, leg, ear, toe, jaw, rib, lip, gum.
- The largest number of children born to one woman is recorded at 69. From 1725-1765, a Russian peasant woman gave birth to 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets.
- Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.
7 things
airplane
Australia
September 12, 2009
EIGHT YEARS after 9/11, we're used to changes in our routines. We show ID to get into office buildings, and take off our shoes at airports.
But should a college student flying back to school be handcuffed and held for five hours because he has Arabic flash cards in his backpack?
That's the way Nick George, a senior at Pomona College, in California, sees what happened to him at the Philadelphia airport two Saturdays ago.
George, of Wyncote, Montgomery County, was about to catch a Southwest flight back to school when stereo speakers in his backpack caught the eye of screeners at the metal detector.
When they looked though his bag, George said, they found his Arabic/English flash cards, and escorted him to a side screening area.
He figures it didn't help that his passport had stamps from Jordan, where he'd studied a semester, and Egypt and Sudan, where he'd gone backpacking.
And among his 200 flash cards were words like "terrorist" and "explosion." He was learning to translate the Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera.
"I understand I might warrant a second look," George told me. "They should have taken me aside, seen I had a legitimate explanation and a student ID and that I was carrying nothing illegal, and waved me on."
They didn't.
George said that Transportation Security Administration officers kept him in the screening area for what seemed like 45 minutes. Eventually a woman from the TSA arrived and began asking more questions, like how he felt about 9/11.
"Do you know who did 9/11?" he said that the woman asked.
George said that he told her that it was Osama bin Laden, and that she responded smugly, "Do you know what language Osama bin Laden spoke?"
Soon after that a Philadelphia police officer arrived and told George to put his hands behind his back. Without explanation, he slapped handcuffs on him and led him away.
George was taken to the airport police station, where he was locked in a holding cell with the cuffs still on. I guess that's what you do with a high-value physics major.
George said that he tried to be a model prisoner, and after about two hours a police supervisor removed the handcuffs. After a couple of more hours two FBI agents appeared and took him to another room for questioning.
They were polite, George said, and asked why he studied Arabic, why he'd been in the Middle East, whether anyone had ever asked him to join a terrorist group, whether he was "Islamic," whether he'd joined any Islamic or Communist (yes, Communist) groups on campus.
"They told me their job is more an art than a science," George said. "They come in and decide whether there's a legitimate threat, and in my case, they decided I was not a threat."
So, many hours after his backpack entered the metal detector, George was released with a ticket to fly the next day, but without an apology or explanation.
If there's one thing we know that the government needs in the post-9/11 era, it's more college students interested in learning Arabic.
George feels that he was treated like a criminal because somebody didn't like the flash cards. He wasn't injured or psychologically scarred, just ticked off.
"I didn't have a weapon or anything seditious, just words on paper," George said. "As an American citizen, I think I'm allowed to learn a foreign language and have flash cards."
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis tracked down a report on George's encounter, and said that it wasn't the flash cards that got him flagged.
Davis said that George had been selected for screening before he even reached the metal detector by TSA behavioral-detection officers, personnel trained to screen passengers for "involuntary physical and physiological reactions that people exhibit in response to a fear of being discovered."
Davis said that the report indicates that in the screening area, George's "behavior escalated to a point where our officers deemed it necessary to contact the Philadelphia Police Department."
Davis couldn't say what behavior had caught the officers' eye or what escalating behavior he exhibited. She said the report did note that George had Arabic flash cards, but "that's not why we would call law enforcement."
The police story is a little different.
Lt. Louis Liberati said, just as Davis did, that TSA personnel initially selected George because of something in his behavior.
But Liberati said that it was the stuff that the TSA found in George's backpack and wallet that really aroused their suspicion: the Arabic flash cards with troubling words, a card that had George's name and Arabic script, and the longer hair in George's driver's license and passport photos than his current clean-cut appearance.
That's "an indicator sometimes that somebody may have gone through a radicalization," Liberati explained.
Liberati said nothing about "escalating behavior." Liberati said police checked with the FBI, and the feds decided that they wanted to come and interview George.
I reached George, now back in school, and told him the authorities' version of the events.
He said that it's "crazy" to think that he was acting suspiciously in line or that he had exhibited "escalating behavior" while being questioned.
He insists that he patiently explained everything, including the card with Arabic writing - his student ID from Jordan - which he keeps as a souvenir.
"I never raised my voice," George said, "but I did ask once or twice how much longer this was going to take because my flight was about to leave."
Liberati also said that he's certain that George had not been left handcuffed in his cell.
George is equally certain that he was. His wallet was taken, and he remembers an officer coming into his cell to give him the $30 they'd found inside. The officer stuffed the money in his pocket, George said, and left with the cuffs still locked tight.
Our lives have changed since 9/11, and mistakes will happen. But when government personnel put an innocent person through something like this, it would be nice if someone offered an explanation, or showed just a touch of humanity.
Until then, check your flash cards with your luggage.
Dave Davies: Student air passenger handcuffed to echoes of 9/11 fears
EIGHT YEARS after 9/11, we're used to changes in our routines. We show ID to get into office buildings, and take off our shoes at airports. But should a college student flying …
EIGHT YEARS after 9/11, we're used to changes in our routines. We show ID to get into office buildings, and take off our shoes at airports.But should a college student flying back to school be handcuffed and held for five hours because he has Arabic flash cards in his backpack?
That's the way Nick George, a senior at Pomona College, in California, sees what happened to him at the Philadelphia airport two Saturdays ago.
George, of Wyncote, Montgomery County, was about to catch a Southwest flight back to school when stereo speakers in his backpack caught the eye of screeners at the metal detector.
When they looked though his bag, George said, they found his Arabic/English flash cards, and escorted him to a side screening area.
He figures it didn't help that his passport had stamps from Jordan, where he'd studied a semester, and Egypt and Sudan, where he'd gone backpacking.
And among his 200 flash cards were words like "terrorist" and "explosion." He was learning to translate the Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera.
"I understand I might warrant a second look," George told me. "They should have taken me aside, seen I had a legitimate explanation and a student ID and that I was carrying nothing illegal, and waved me on."
They didn't.
George said that Transportation Security Administration officers kept him in the screening area for what seemed like 45 minutes. Eventually a woman from the TSA arrived and began asking more questions, like how he felt about 9/11.
"Do you know who did 9/11?" he said that the woman asked.
George said that he told her that it was Osama bin Laden, and that she responded smugly, "Do you know what language Osama bin Laden spoke?"
Soon after that a Philadelphia police officer arrived and told George to put his hands behind his back. Without explanation, he slapped handcuffs on him and led him away.
George was taken to the airport police station, where he was locked in a holding cell with the cuffs still on. I guess that's what you do with a high-value physics major.
George said that he tried to be a model prisoner, and after about two hours a police supervisor removed the handcuffs. After a couple of more hours two FBI agents appeared and took him to another room for questioning.
They were polite, George said, and asked why he studied Arabic, why he'd been in the Middle East, whether anyone had ever asked him to join a terrorist group, whether he was "Islamic," whether he'd joined any Islamic or Communist (yes, Communist) groups on campus.
"They told me their job is more an art than a science," George said. "They come in and decide whether there's a legitimate threat, and in my case, they decided I was not a threat."
So, many hours after his backpack entered the metal detector, George was released with a ticket to fly the next day, but without an apology or explanation.
If there's one thing we know that the government needs in the post-9/11 era, it's more college students interested in learning Arabic.
George feels that he was treated like a criminal because somebody didn't like the flash cards. He wasn't injured or psychologically scarred, just ticked off.
"I didn't have a weapon or anything seditious, just words on paper," George said. "As an American citizen, I think I'm allowed to learn a foreign language and have flash cards."
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis tracked down a report on George's encounter, and said that it wasn't the flash cards that got him flagged.
Davis said that George had been selected for screening before he even reached the metal detector by TSA behavioral-detection officers, personnel trained to screen passengers for "involuntary physical and physiological reactions that people exhibit in response to a fear of being discovered."
Davis said that the report indicates that in the screening area, George's "behavior escalated to a point where our officers deemed it necessary to contact the Philadelphia Police Department."
Davis couldn't say what behavior had caught the officers' eye or what escalating behavior he exhibited. She said the report did note that George had Arabic flash cards, but "that's not why we would call law enforcement."
The police story is a little different.
Lt. Louis Liberati said, just as Davis did, that TSA personnel initially selected George because of something in his behavior.
But Liberati said that it was the stuff that the TSA found in George's backpack and wallet that really aroused their suspicion: the Arabic flash cards with troubling words, a card that had George's name and Arabic script, and the longer hair in George's driver's license and passport photos than his current clean-cut appearance.
That's "an indicator sometimes that somebody may have gone through a radicalization," Liberati explained.
Liberati said nothing about "escalating behavior." Liberati said police checked with the FBI, and the feds decided that they wanted to come and interview George.
I reached George, now back in school, and told him the authorities' version of the events.
He said that it's "crazy" to think that he was acting suspiciously in line or that he had exhibited "escalating behavior" while being questioned.
He insists that he patiently explained everything, including the card with Arabic writing - his student ID from Jordan - which he keeps as a souvenir.
"I never raised my voice," George said, "but I did ask once or twice how much longer this was going to take because my flight was about to leave."
Liberati also said that he's certain that George had not been left handcuffed in his cell.
George is equally certain that he was. His wallet was taken, and he remembers an officer coming into his cell to give him the $30 they'd found inside. The officer stuffed the money in his pocket, George said, and left with the cuffs still locked tight.
Our lives have changed since 9/11, and mistakes will happen. But when government personnel put an innocent person through something like this, it would be nice if someone offered an explanation, or showed just a touch of humanity.
Until then, check your flash cards with your luggage.
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