Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Neil Beddoe exclaimed: >>> Ted pulled one out of the air: <<< Neil only one comment! Bull shit mon ami it didn't come out of the air, it came right from Barcelona and the Olympics! Were you there? If not, then don't make stupid comments. A short time before the Games were to open in 1992, please note the date it has nothing to do with 9/11 it was discovered by European security forces, someone had been working with film cassettes and loading them with explosives of some kind. And if it happens there are any other pros who worked the '92 Games on the list maybe they'll confirm the horrendous scanning techniques of the Spanish police who caused no end of grief for photographers due to the discovery of the explosives in film cassettes. It was so bad, one day I happened to have .....one roll of exposed film in my trouser pocket, walked through the body scanner and triggered it. Of course I was immediately checking all my pockets and out came one roll! Jeeeesh I might as well have had an UZI! Very carefully I had to place the roll in a plastic container and the roll went through the scanner three times while I watched with two cops, one on each side waiting to see if the roll was clean. Obviously it was. You see Neil what folks in North America forget is Europeans have been dealing with terrorist elements for years and in particular the Spanish and the Basques who want their own country, whatever. So when an international event like the Summer Olympics occurs it's a great time for terrorists elements to make a big bang with the world media right there to cover the story. So the discovery of any form of possible danger to the Games, athletes / media and locals is taken very seriously. You might re-call the Munich 1972 Summer Olympics, I do, I was shooting it, when the terrorists killed the Israeli athletes and the fun went right out of the Olympics then and since! Now they're like armed camps no matter where they're held! No Neil, not out of the air, facts as presented to the world media in the first briefing at the 1992 Games. > This whole crap is just an exercise in arse covering by the airports who > need to show they are doing something, anything about security no matter how > irrelevant. I walked onto a flight from JFK with a four foot wire cable > release in my bag that would make an excellent garrote and the guy in front > of me had his plastic Bic razors confiscated. > > I feel no more or less secure flying than I did on September the 12th it > just takes me longer to get off the ground.<<<< I can't agree with you more, and like you, I've watched some really stupid things being done in the name of making the plane and passengers more secure. And it truly does take longer to get off the ground and it's a big pain in the ass in the name of giving some folks a false sense of security. ted - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html