London: Man Held As Terrorist For singing along to "The Clash"

[kpete]

Man held as terrorism suspect over punk song
Wed Apr 5, 2006 09:15 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday.
Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected."

Mann told British newspapers the taxi had been fitted with a music system which allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had been playing The Clash, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to the driver.

"He didn't like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don't think there was any need to tell the police," Mann told the Daily Mirror.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=11758929&src=rss/Entertainment

[Squatch]

1. What do you mean I can't say "bomb on an airplane"

:shrug:

[400Years]

8. that didn't happen

[Squatch]

13. No shit, Sherlock.

I take it that you've never seen "Meet the Parents"

[400Years]

21. sorry, I guess your "joke" was just too lame

[Squatch]

22. Snap

[boobooday]

11. Once when I was at the airport

The screener took off with my bad to open it and look inside. In a panic, because I had barely gotten the zipper closed when I packed it, I said, "don't open that, it'll explode!"

Duh.

Luckily it was a really small airport, and I don't fit a racial profile, or I'm sure I would have been 'detained.'

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. You're lucky they didn't take the bag out to the tarmac

and blow it up.

[boobooday]

23. I know.

You should have seen my husband's face when I said it.

[hootinholler]

28. I did the same thing.

Inspector gadget asked me if I wanted to rephrase that comment.

-Hoot

[Greeby]

2. Nice to know our law enforcement are focusing on the right priorities

:eyes:

[Soloflecks]

3. That's what happens

when you encourage every tom, dick, and harry to get all paranoid and report their irratiobnal fears after you've catapulted the propaganda. :eyes:

[Goblinmonger]

7. that's also what happens

when you let shitty musicians like Britney Spears become popular so that people forget what good music really is.

[converted_democrat]

4. Wow.. Unreal.. Held as a terror suspect for sing along to a song..

Wow.. We live in a scary world..

[Goblinmonger]

5. Holy Crap

I have that whole CD on my MP3 player. I better not let Big Brother know about it. Shit, I have the Sex Pistols, too. They sing about Anarchy.

[Up2Late]

6. Good thing he didn't sing any Sex Pistols (Anarchy in the U.K.)

England is becoming a Police State even faster than the U.S.:evilfrown:

[Goblinmonger]

9. You and I tied

on the Sex Pistols' reference

[KurtNYC]

10. I can only imagine if he had sung along to TH's "Life during wartime"

Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons, packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway, a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance, I'm getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstore, lived in the ghetto, I've lived all over this town

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco,
this ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain't got time for that now

Transmit the message, to the receiver, hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas, you don't even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading, everything's ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime, I might not ever get home...

!!!

[bunkerbuster1]

17. "We're tappin' phone lines/I know that that ain't allowed..."

Well, that used to be the case, David.

[Up2Late]

18. Or how about "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" by Bruce Cockburn?

Lyrics: <http://cockburnproject.net/songs&music/iiharl.html>

Here comes the helicopter -- second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay

I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation -- or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate

I want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die

BTW, I'm having trouble finding this song on one of the Corporate websites for purchase and download.

[LaPera]

12. "Happiness is a Warm Gun"...did he like Beatle tunes?

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Lucky he wasn't playing "Spanish Bombs" or they would have

deported him for the Madrid bombings...

:rofl:

[LionInWinter]

15. Just imagine

what would have happened if he had been listening to:

The Guns of Brixton
Spanish Bombs
Tommy Gun

[bunkerbuster1]

16. When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come

with your hands behind your head
or on the trigger of your gun?

...figured that'd be the Clash song that would stir things up.
But London Calling? humph!

[warrens]

19. This is the sort of thing that will make the safety nazis laughingstocks

Like those idiots who busted a guy for telling a joke about a "burning bush." They make themselves look like the biggest pansies in the world, little chickenshit cowards, the kind of people who in the 1950s saw a commie under every bed.

They're idiots and natural born fascists, and the best weapon against them is brutal mockery.

[lastliberalintexas]

27. Unfortunately those people caused a lot of damage

before they came to be considered "laughingstocks." People's lives were destroyed because of the fear of those laughingstocks, so I'd prefer not to think of them as goofballs merely worthy of scorn. They're actually more dangerous than that.

[Rocknrule]

24. So I can't joke about having a "dirty bomb in my pants?"

[file83]

25. ...the taxi cab driver sounds as paranoid as Mel Gibson's character in

the movie "Conspiracy Theory".

[cureautismnow]

26. Better not sing along to The Jam's ’a’ Bomb in Wardour Street

Sadly. It's quite a catchy tune.

______________________________________________________________

’a’ Bomb in Wardour Street

Where the streets are pave with blood,
With cataclysmic overtones
Fear and hate linger in the air
A strictly no-go deadly zone
I don’t know what I’m doing here
’cause it’s not my scene at all
There’s an ’a’ bomb in wardour street
They’ve called in the army, they’ve called in the police

I’m stranded on the vortex floor
My head’s been kicked in and blood’s started to poor
Through the haze I can see my girl
Fifteen geezers got her pinned to the door

There’s an ’a’ bomb in wardour street, it’s blown up the city
Now it’s spreading through the country

Law and order takes a turn for the worst,
In the shape of a size 10 boot
Rape and murder throughout the land,
And they tell me that you’re still a free man
Well if this is freedom I don’t understand
’cause it seems like madness to me.

’a’ bomb in wardour street.
Hate bomb, hate bomb, hate bomb, hate bomb!

A philistine nation, of degradation,
And hate and war. there must be more.
It’s doctor martin’s a p o c a l y p s e - apocalypse!

[baby_mouse]

29. Some people shouldn't be allowed.

That's all. They should just never happen. >shakes head and sighs....<

[kpete]

30. Speaking of Taxis

The Big Dick Video

http://bigdick.cf.huffingtonpost.com/