Flight Sim enquiry raises terror alert

[45th Med]

A mother's enquiry about buying Microsoft Flight Simulator for her ten-year-old son prompted a night-time visit to her home from a state trooper.

Julie Olearcek, a USAF Reserve pilot made the enquiry at a Staples store in Massachusetts, home to an earlier bout of hysteria, during the Salem witch trials.

Flight Sim enquiry raises terror alert

[Caution]

1. Sick and wrong (eom)

[Bozita]

2. Good thing she didn't have an almanac in the house

I put mine through a crosscut shredder.

[lostnfound]

6. Do you think maps in general are suspect?

I've got a big satellite-image map of the world on my wall at work -- it shows no state borders, so it might be considered the most dangerous of all kinds.

[Fleshdancer]

3. Damn those 10 yr old terrorists!!!!

Kinda makes me want to go to Staples and ask about the Microsoft Flight Simulator program. :evilgrin:

[45th Med]

5. LOL. I bet the Staples Gestapo have standing orders.....

to report any and all inquiries and purchases of Microsoft Flight Simulator. I bought this program for X-mas.....now, I'm paranoid to boot it up. Maybe, I should bury it in my backyard.

[Thor_MN]

18. Under a rose bush? No good, it will still be used as proof

of an on-going program of intentions of thinking that you have terraist materials.

[Wwagsthedog]

4. Sure hope this makes her unfit to go to Iraq

nt

[demdave]

13. Read the article, she is totally behind their actions.

[DK666]

7. I gonna

Get on the phone right now and call all of the Staples and Office Depots in my area (theres about 30 of them) and ask if they carry the Microsoft Flight Simmulator and Pimsleur Eastern Arabic.

Gotta love pay phones.... LOL

[45th Med]

8. LOL! That's pure evil! nt

nt

[bicentennial_baby]

9. OMG! This is my town!!!

I live about 5 min. from the Staples in question, and I blew my top when this was in the local paper earlier this week. I'm in the process of writing letters to both the store and the local paper, b/c I am so fucking disgusted. I saw my friend Alan yesterday who works there, and I told him I wouldn't be shopping there anymore. He agrees with me, and said the morans over there are all treating the guy who called the cops like he's some kind of fucking hero. :mad:

[BiggJawn]

10. in Jane's Fighter Anthology....

Well, let's just say that among all the A/C you could pick was one with the radio call "AF-1"....

I'm going to Gitmo, aren't I?

[DK666]

14. Thats Ok

Ill be driving the bus....

[GregW]

11. OMG - I just joined a terra group! (Geocachers)

Those Tupperware containers everyone is hiding must contain SOMETHING evil!

http://www.geocaching.com/ for the uninitiated

[Buns_of_Fire]

15. I've got some Tupperware in my refrigerator

that's probably growing something lethal inside. (I'm afraid to open it to check. Last time I looked, I think it was moving.) (On edit: I guess I should just send it straight to Washington... Only kidding, nice DHS people! :hi: )

P.S. Geocaching sounds like fun. If I can ever afford a GPS unit... :shrug:

[TrogL]

12. OK, so that's why I've got black helicopters looking in my windows

I bought it just before Christmas.

[damnraddem]

16. Witch hunts de jour.

They better go back to orange alert -- Flight Similator sales are up!

[rexcat]

17. What Constitution?

I read the article and was dumbfounded by the women's attitude. I guess she doesn’t think the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are valid today. If someone were lurking outside my house in the dark I might be tempted to retrieve my 9mm pistol and protect my family and property. The police officer was totally out of bounds on this one but so was the idiot at Staples (from the article he did not report wat actually happened).

The part about “the FBI issued a terror alert to beware of drivers with maps, or reference books.” Damn, I drive to a lot of my sites if they are within 4-5 hours from my home because is not worth the hassle of flying (arriving early and then being harassed by incompetent TSA agents). I have a Road Atlas in my car. If I get stopped by a policeman it looks like they will think I am a terrorist and arrest me. Imagine someone driving and having a map in their car! It looks like the FBI are complete idiots!

[45th Med]

19. Watch out! Flight Sims are dangerous now!

Like a 10 year old is going to master flying an airliner and try to hijack one and fly it into a building or something. How ludicrous.

[TrueStory]

20. What about FPS games - Quake? Half Life? Delta Force?

...and what about the most dangerous games of all - the strategic games?

I think only the Sims is not suspicious, but I'm not shure anymore :)

The "nicest" story from the Stalinist era: a student once said the french parfum smells better than the Soviet one - and after a few days he was thrown out from the University.
US is not far away anymore from these practices...

[Kinkistyle]

21. Counterstrike lets you fight as a terrorist!

Of course Counterstrike was programmed about 3 or 4 years before 9/11, it lets you play either as a Terrorist or Counterterrorist. Scary stuff eh! :eyes: