Dietl tells imam "the facts of life": "If you're on a plane with me ... you'll be looked at a little ... more carefully than me"
On the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto featured private investigator Richard "Bo" Dietl, a former detective with the New York City Police Department, and Imam Sayed Hassan al-Qazwini, leader of the Islamic Center of America, to discuss a recent case in which a group of 40 American Muslims, including al-Qazwini, were barred from boarding a Michigan-bound plane in Frankfurt, Germany. Al-Qazwini said that the incident was "a matter of discrimination," to which Dietl replied, "The fact of the matter is -- I mean, you don't watch 24 on Fox TV? [The terrorists are] out there. They're out there." Dietl then told al-Qazwini: "[I]f you're on a plane with me ... and you're sitting next to me, you'll be looked at a little ... more carefully than me. That's the facts of life. That's what we're living with today. I'm sorry to say, 9-11 changed our whole life."
From the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World With Neil Cavuto:
CAVUTO: But Hassan, your issue on this particular day was that the airline targeted your group, and I think Bo raised a point that others are raising in this country that, fairly or not, Muslim-looking men are going to be targeted. You don't like that.
HASSAN: Well, I don't see what does this have to do with Osama bin Laden? We came --
DIETL: Well --
CAVUTO: Wait. Let him answer. Go ahead.
HASSAN: -- we had enough time -- we had enough time to depart and we arrived at least an hour and 30 minutes before the departure; as a matter of fact, this is not a matter of racial profiling, this is a matter of discrimination. There was no other --
CAVUTO: All right, so you say -- you feel you were discriminated against; Northwest apologized. Bo, you have a problem with Northwest apologizing. Why?
DIETL: No, I have a problem because things have changed, Hassan. We have to -- lookit: a bunch of Irish guys are not going to get on a plane now and blow themselves up or put themselves into buildings.
The fact of the matter is -- I mean, you don't watch 24 on Fox TV? They're out there. They're out there. There are cells out there. We have to protect ourselves against it, as Americans, and you know something, if you're on a plane with me, Hassan, and you're sitting next to me, you'll be looked at a little careful -- more carefully than me. That's the facts of life. That's what we're living with today. I'm sorry to say, 9-11 changed our whole life.
I mean, you don't watch 24 on Fox TV??? -Dietl
Is he serious???? He's suggesting setting security policy based on a freaking TV show??????
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lookit: a bunch of Irish guys are not going to get on a plane now and blow themselves up or put themselves into buildings - Dietl
Hmmm so such thing as Irish terrorists, eh? Ever heard of the IRA??? I think they might have blown up a few people/buildings in their day???
Maybe the time has arrived to start profiling stupid people.
Let's start with Dietl.
I believe he was saying look, irish terrorists aren't blowing up planes, but arab men are. Therefore we will look harder at them.
but HOW do you tell who is a TERRORIST just by LOOKING at them?? Remeber Tim McVeigh?? HE blew up a building...should we all look at the white males a bit more often..?? Mighigan Militia, KKK, IRA, etc....and to just say Arabs did it is wayyyyy to general...thety were Saudi Arabians- and I don't know about your powers of perception, but how do you tell a non-terrorist Saudi from a terrorist Saudi..??
He's 100% RIGHT. If we are still around in 100 years we will be looking back at this time period wondering how the heck we could have been so stupid. While our country is jailing border agents for paperwork violations and letting terrorists enter our country unabated, the pansy left is worried about offending a SMALL percentage of our population.
Want to call it off? Want to stop the inhumanity of profiling? Here's how. SHOW US SOME MUSLIMS that OPPOSE the terrorist hijacking of their religion. WHERE is the Muslim support of the US? Where is the DENOUNCING of Radical Islam?
Here's an analogy: Pit Bulls have a history of killing/injuring. They are TRAINED to be that way and not all pit bulls are bad. However, I don't let my kids get anywhere near them, nor do I welcome pit bulls into my yard. BUT WAIT, says the left... you can't PROFILE Pit Bulls! They are dogs just like ever other dog.
Get the point? Until we see support of Muslims in our country we simply have to assume the worst. Unfortunately it will take a nuke in the US to prove this point.
Police state in 20 years, we will look back at this time and ask how we could have allowed the hysterical rhetoric of the Fascist rightwing dictate the losses of our freedoms because they are so cowardly, snivelling so loudly while hiding under their beds. Warrantless wiretaps who needs a fourth amendment? Racial profiling?sure as long as it doesnt happen to white guys, lets forget all about Timothy McViegh. Arresting people and not bringing them to trial, who needs a Sixth amendment in fact who needs a bill of rights the Presydent can do whatever he wants as long as those scary brown guys dont come and get me. Franklin was right and the wingnuts deserve neither freedom NOR security
Denouncing terrorism last time I read this remark I linked to a site that showed at least 50 examples of Muslims publicly and throught media outlets doing exactly that. Of course rightwingers dont CARE about facts so it got no responses and the propaganda is just repeated so I wont waste my time doing it again.
Pit Bull analogy
ALL dogs can bite. Frankly, if you're not telling your kids to stay away from any dog, regardless of breed, until they get to know them (get it?) and instead focus on the breeds that have a 'history', then you are doing them a disservice.
You said that "Irish terrorists" are not blowing up planes but rather "Arab men" are. So in your own little world groups like the IRA are no real threat to anyone because they would never blow up a plane but all (or at least a good deal of) Arab men are a threat since they do just that?
"24" Has a Reason behind it's Terror!
This show by Fox is to keep America scared as hell. That way we'll all vote for the Republicans. They will keep us secure. Democrats ain't good at it.
This guy is a walking, talking commercial for this "24" propaganda show.
This show by Fox is to keep America scared as hell. That way we'll all vote for the Republicans. They will keep us secure. Democrats ain't good at it.
ARE YOU SERIOUS? Take off your p.j.s off and get out of momas basement.
Not only are they trying to scare America but they also have promos for Fox News included right in the show itself.
That my good poster is adding insult to injury.
Maybe Dietl's mention of 24 is a similar promo. He even added "on FOX TV."
I can see it coming. A FOX News hack will say "we have to fight the terrorists over there so we don't fight them over here. Don't you watch The War at Home on FOX TV?"
I not defending this guy, but....
It has a lot to do with the current protest over the show 24. The first season (after 911), the show chose muslims as the evil doers.
This season they have gone back to that theme, and a new protest by the American Muslim community is starting, stating "fox's 24 is not original enough to come up with new plots, so they go back to muslims, again." On that point I agree, they need new writers.
New writters? What the hell is wrong with them using Muslims as terrorists? For gods sake, it is just a TV show.
Which ethnic group was responsible for the worst pre-9/11 terrorist attack on American soil again???? Maybe we should profile them too???
I agree, lets do that. If I get mugged by a guy in glasses wearing a hooded jacket, you know what, next time I see a guy coming up to me with glasses and a hooded jacket I am going to definately take a defensive posture or try to get the hell out of dodge and be no where near that person.
was not committed by, as you apparently think, the Unabomber (or at least his forensic sketch).
Might be a few more Timothy McVeighs out there too, ya know ... Not all right wingers foam at the mouth. Some of them look quite normal at first glance...
YOu can find all sorts of examples of white men that have done bad things in the US. They ARE NOT an organized religion of millions that have churches across the world publicly spouted hatred and murder. SHOW ME how Radical Islamists compare to freak-show redneck militia men. There is NO COMPARISON people... please exert some rationality.
What would happen if a Christian Minister started regularly telling thousands of paritioners every Sunday that they need to kill all homosexuals, beat their women if they don't wear a crucifix and that the only true way to meet god was to kill yourself while killing other non-believers. If they were white and Christian they would be monitored, jailed, and their church would be shut down.
Why is it so hard to understand this?
If there were MILLIONS of Islamic terrorists killing people then civilization as we know it would end. There are a whole bunch of nutbag fundamentalist Muslims, probably tens of thousands of them. If you have evidence that MILLIONS of them want to kill us cough it up. Otherwise its just propaganda designed to cause a Holy War. Sure there are nutbags saying things like we should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them, or we shoud drop daisy cutters at random in the Middle East or we should kill one hundred MILLION Muslims. OOOPss thats my bad those are OUR nutcases and we give them nationally syndicated media outlets to spew their venom. Both sides are guilty of rhetoric that is dangerous, and unproductive. YOUR post is a perfect example. Islam is not the problem HATE is the problem and YOU are engaging in it.
your hypotheticals, deliberately extreme as they are, aren't that far from what Fred Phelps requires from his followers.
I am so sick of this! Why do you people make statements like
"YOu can find all sorts of examples of white men that have done bad things in the US. They ARE NOT an organized religion of millions that have churches across the world publicly spouted hatred and murder."
Without any reseach beforehand? Read a little about McVegh, he was a member of radical groups who wanted to overthrow the government. And yes they have churches too....I would include the link, but I know from past experiences your type never reads the material provided. But a good place to start is the Southern Poverty Law Center, they did a lot of research on this issue. (Oh no look, I'm profiling idiots now! "your type")
"What would happen if a Christian Minister started regularly telling thousands of paritioners every Sunday that they need to kill all homosexuals,"
Do I even need to dispute this rant? Dobson, Farwell, Phelps, the Christian churches in africa, etc.
"only true way to meet god was to kill yourself while killing other non-believers."
The crusades, the inquasition, the church in rome collaborating with the nazis, witch trials, etc.
"If they were white and Christian they would be monitored, jailed, and their church would be shut down."
No in the U.S. they get tax exempt status and boycott american factories (know anything about Ford?)
...is a clown. Unlike other clowns he doesn't wear makeup and a red nose. But he is a clown anyway.
Cagoofo gets racist morons to tell other dark skinned people they are going to be profiled because of a fictional tv show....Faux Snooze is sure doing a number on the american people...
...or does "Bo" look like a total Ay-rab?
I'm just sayin'...
the one comment he got right in there: "I'm sorry to say that 9/11 changed our whole life."
9/11 gave people like Dietl the opportunity to publicity practice there personal brand of prejudice and bigotry under the convenient saying "everything if different after 9/11"
after 9/11 to people who hadn't been paying attention to our government and the rest of the world up until then.
Fortunately, they're catching up by watching a tv show about their biggest fears. On Fox.
Yikes.
BTW, I watched 24 for the first time this week, and found it entertaining enough to watch the second hour. I did not, however, decide to run my life according to the show. I hope I'm never that much of a wuss.
I've learned that this board contains lots of people that like to jump on a single word or comment and take it literally. I think we can all agree that the 24 comment was sarcasm. Nobody really believes that decisions are being made based on 24, right?
Right?
I just can't figure out how Dietl's comment was meant figuratively, but feel free to explain.
Don't forget to stretch first.
How does this moron get on these programs. Imus,Cavuto . Does he pay them ? Has he got something on them?This is the 'Peter Princeple' at its finist.God Bless America. JHickey
How does he get on these programs, you ask? The answer: he's simply trying to jump-start his stalled acting career, the one that ended after his 30 seconds on screen in "GoodFellas", nothing more. Thus, he should not be taken seriously on anything . . .
Apparently conservatives cannot distinguish fiction from reality, therefore they will refer people to "24" as evidence that "the terrorists are out there."
Aparrently liberals can't identify sarcasm and irony.
Do you really think someone is making decisions based on 24? If so, you need help.
The level of reality denial I see consistantly from the right doesnt make your argument compelling. I cant read the mans mind so I will just confine myself to what he SAID. YOU cant read his mind either, and I think its YOU that needs help...with reading comprehension
Well Solon,
Granted you can't read the man's mind, but you can judge his intentions from his "line readings." I went back and watched the tape. Sarcasm, irony, sardonic humor, were nowhere in evidence. The guy was, as you said, seriously exhorting (did you take both Greek and Latin in school) the viewer to wake up and smell the coffee as served by Keefer.
Rummy and Cheney LOVE 24. The Heritage Foundation had a roundtable discussion (moderated by Rush Limbaugh) on the show and its applicability to "real" counterterrorism. I wouldn't go so far as to say that current policy is based on the show, but it's taken quite a bit more seriously in neocon circles than it deserves to be.
(That said, I've gotta admit that I'm a committed liberal who also LOVES the show. It's taken me a few years, but I'm okay with it now...)
I believe it was Truth Detector, on some thread or other a while back, who actually DID cite 24 as some sort of realistic template for counterterrorism strategy. If you're smart enough to take it as fiction and treat it accordingly, good for you. But not all of your conservative confreres have that sense of perspective.
Dietl says""The fact of the matter is -- I mean, you don't watch 24 on Fox TV? [The terrorists are] out there. They're out there." What arent you understanding? This is an exhortation that we should take this fictional show as an example about how we should view the world.
You all may remember the 6 Imams that where forced off the plane for suspicious behavior. Soon after, a national Islamic civil rights group starting screaming we need to be more tolerant.
Well, over a couple years Muslims in Minneapolis-St. Paul airport have not been picking up passengers that carry booze, and even kicking Blind Seeing Dogs out the the cabs. It is forbidden in Islam to consume or transport alcohol.
Well, a national Islamic civil rights group stood up and thought WE should be tolerant of THIER religious beliefs.
Now, what is wrong with that picture?
Laura Ingraham claimed that the popularity of the show was a "referendum on torture."
As to whether the Decider-in-Chief is actually making decisions based on the show, that's obviously an unanswerable question. However, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, had a panel discussion with the creators and stars of the show, hosted by the Heritage Foundation and moderated by none other than the illustrious Rush Limbaugh. So it appears that the Bush administration has endorsed the show.
The general strategy of the right-wing media in this country has been to systematically destroy the distinction between fact and fiction. Thus the claim that Fox News is a "fair and balanced" news station when much of its content is no more than the personal opinions of its various commentators. The "docudrama" The Path to 9/11, whose creator was so proud of its historical accuracy that he claimed to have researched the matter further back than the 9/11 Commission (he lied). At the same time he claimed dramatic license to deviate from the historical record--to make up from whole cloth scenes that slandered the Clinton administration.
24 is perhaps the most successful of these attempts to "dislocate the sense of reality", as Orwell put it. It seeks to distract us from the dark realities (Gitmo, warrantless wiretapping, an endless war in Iraq) of our "war on terror" with the seductive fantasy of a parallel universe where a lone warrior single-handedly defeats terrorists in just one day, without the loss of innocent lives. Judged as a piece of storytelling, it's terrible. But judged as propaganda, it's frighteningly effective.
Steve,
Kudos on a powerful post. I think Ingraham is wrong, at least I hope she is, however. While 24 is wildly popular, I don't think it's taken as anything more than fantasy by any Americans outside of the "Rambo Right." Just as every actor who's ever lived loves to play bad guys because it gives you freedom to do things you'd never think of doing in real life, we get an emotional charge from throwing away the rules and giving the bad guys what they deserve on the tube. Turn the TV off and start thinking about it, and you feel a little slimy.
I've watched the show more times than I care to admit. It's pretty addictive, once you realize that what you're watching doesn't have the slightest connection to reality. Each minute of the show is more preposterous than the last; before you can fully process what's just happened, they've long since moved on to the next absurdity. And at the end, you're left with that horrible (but oh-so-satisfying) feeling in your stomach like you've eaten a whole bag of potato chips.
I agree with you that most reasonable people are capable of realizing that the show is pure fantasy, but I can't get rid of the nagging suspicion that the show is not-so-subtly influencing the public's thinking on the "war on terror." In much of the recent discussion of torture, the "ticking time bomb" argument repeatedly came up, i.e., if a bomb were set to go off soon and we had the culprit in custody, the imminent danger would justify torturing him to get information on how to stop it. Even someone as intelligent as Alan Dershowitz pushed this idea!
This scenario is obviously just what occurs on every season of 24. Many of these articles mentioned the show by name. Most of them carried the disclaimer that it was fiction, but I think they doth protest too much...
Maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't think that argument would have had nearly as much currency if 24 hadn't existed. The recent election seems to show that more people are wising up to the Republicans' fearmongering, but it seems that a lot of people are still buying into the "the terrorists are lurking under your bed!" mentality of the show.
there
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During the first season, the hero crosssed Los Angeles in 15 minutes during rush hour. Yeah, RIGHT!
Good one- from a man who got suckered into going to Sherman Oaks on a Friday recently, on a day i needed to get back to the office- in Costa Mesa. Yikes!
People like Dietl are saying "don't you watch 24, there are terrorists out to get us and we have to be all paranoid!" because, as the years go by, it's becoming less and less persuasive to say "don't you remember 9/11, there are terrorists out to get us and we have to be all paranoid!"
To the people who think that "Islam" is out to kill us Americans, I ask this: why no attacks on us since 9/11? There are a billion Muslims in the world. There are millions in the U.S. Whassup?
What starting to freak me out Rusty, is some of the Muslims here in America are already putting thier religion over America's Civil Liberties. You read my thread above about the cab drivers? What is next?
EL, I think if a Muslim wants to drive a government-licensed cab, he should be prepared to pick up passengers with alcohol and seeing-eye dogs or have his license revoked. They should not be allowed to refuse service to customers for religious reasons any more than government-licensed pharmacists should (for refusing to provide the "morning after" pill).
What gets my gut is the fact that some in C.A.R.E. felt we should have somehow accomodated the taxi drivers. There is a problem there. This is only the begining I feel.
Yeah, well, CAIR has the right to advocate for its members just like any other special-interest group. They don't really have much influence anyway; practically the only place you ever hear about them is on the right-wing blogs.
As for the Minnesota cabbies, I believe they are being penalized for this, as well they should be.
Aren't they where the same group that started yelling when the 6 Imams where thrown off the plane. Yelling America needs to be more tolerant. They are Hypocrites. That can not be ignored.
Yep, same group.
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