Extortion scam at some Intl airport -

---sent in by : Jayonto Choudhuri on 10 April 2010 07:27

An Indian was detained in Bangkok for stealing a box of cigarettes in a duty-free shop in Bangkok International Airport . He had paid for chocolates and a carton of cigarettes. The cashier put a packet of cigarettes extra into his bag and he thought it was a free pack. He was arrested for shop-lifting and the Thai Police extortion price was 30,000 Baht for his release. He spent two nights in jail and paid 500 Baht for an air-conditioned cell, 200-300 baht for each visitor and 11,000 baht for his final release. The Police shared the money in front of his eyes. On top of that, he was charged in court and fined 2,000 baht by the magistrate and handcuffed and escorted to his plane. His passport was stamped "Thief". While there, his relatives requested help from the Indian Embassy and was told that they are helpless, many Asians are victimized similarly daily and letters and phone-calls to the Thai authorities are ignored. He shared a cell with a Singaporean the first night who paid 60,000 baht for his release. The second night was a Malaysian national who paid 70,000 baht.

Mind you this was not in a shanty shop in downtown Bangkok but in a duty free shop at the Bangkok Int'l Airport . BE WARNED.  

The above is 100% correct information because Mr.Rajan Khera's customer from India faced exactly the same scenario mentioned above when he was in transit at Bangkok Int'l Airport coming to Taipei .

Someone who went through the same ordeal in Dubai . He bought stuff at the Duty Free upon entering. The girl at Duty Free put a bottle of cologne in his shopping bag (he did not even see it happen). He was arrested for stealing (this is before he even picked up his lugg age). He sat at the airport jail where he was harassed for the whole day. NO FOOD, NO WATER for one day and only after he paid a fine (bribe of US 500...). That is all the cash he had in his pocket at the time. They let him go. These are scams that are happening all over the place. Please BE CAREFUL! All of this is pre-planned and the people who work at the airport know who to target.

Unbelievable but apply caution.... the duty free employees intentionally put extra items to scam the passenger and we think that our country is the most corrupted one.....

ALWAYS TAKE A RECEIPT FOR ANY FREE GIFT THAT THE DUTY FREE SHOP GIVES. PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND WATCHFUL WHEN YOU ARE BEING BILLED AND ITEMS PACKED IN INTERNATIONAL AIR PORTS (DUTY FREE SHOPS).

US Justice is Fast - Unlike India.

This is a dream judgement, especially the judge's observations. the US justice system certainly has its priorities right, giving a befitting outcome to the blood, sweat and tears of police investigators.

 

Richard Colvin Reid, aged 37, commonly known as the shoe bomber, is a self-admitted member of Al Qaeda who was convicted by a U.S. federal court of attempting to destroy a commercial aircraft in-flight by detonating explosives hidden in his shoes. His motive was terrorism. He is currently serving a life sentence without parole in a super maximum security prison in the United States. His crime led to the new requirement of U.S. airline passengers having to remove their shoes for inspection before boarding.

 

Richard C. Reid

 

I wonder how many remember this person who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and tried to light it?

 

Did you know his trial is over?

Did you know he was sentenced?

Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or Radio?

Didn't think so. A few people do know about it !!!

Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.

 

Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.

 

Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant if he had anything to say. His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the record, Reid also admitted his 'allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the religion of Allah,' defiantly stating, 'I think I will not apologize for my actions,' and told the court 'I am at war with your country.'

 

Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted below:

January 30, 2003, United States vs. Reid.

Judge Young:   'Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now to the sentence the Court imposes upon you.

'On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the  United States  Attorney General.  On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutively.  (That's 80 years.)

'On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed.  The Court imposes upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 that's an aggregate fine of $2 million.  The Court accepts the government's recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.

'The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment. The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it.. But the life sentences are real life sentences so I need go no further.

'This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes.  It is a fair and just sentence.  It is a righteous sentence.

'Now, let me explain this to you.  We are not afraid of you or any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid.  We are Americans.  We have been through the fire before.  There is too much war talk here and I say that to everyone with the utmost respect.  Here in this court, we deal with individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals.  As human beings, we reach out for justice.

'You are not an enemy combatant.  You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war.  You are a terrorist.  To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a soldier, you are not ----- you are a terrorist.  And we do not negotiate with terrorists.  We do not meet with terrorists.  We do not sign documents with terrorists.  We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.

'So war talk is way out of line in this court.  You are a big fellow But you are not that big.  You're no warrior.  I've known warriors. You are a terrorist.  A species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders.  In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and the TV crews were, and he said: 'You're no big deal.'

'You are no big deal.

'What your able counsel and what the equally able  United States  attorneys have grappled with and what I have as honestly as I know how tried to grapple with, is why you did something so horrific.  What was it that led you here to this courtroom today?

'I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing?  And, I have an answer for you.  It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.

'It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom..  Our individual freedom.  Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we individually choose.  Here, in this society, the very wind carries freedom.  It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea.  It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom, so that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discretely.  It is for freedom's sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other judges.

'We Americans are all about freedom.  Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake though.  It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to Preserve our freedoms.  Look around this courtroom  Mark it well.  The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here.  The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.

'Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across  America  , the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, individual justice is in fact being done.  The very President of the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.

'See that flag, Mr. Reid?  That's the flag of the  United States of America  . That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag Stands for freedom.  And it always will.

'Mr. Custody Officer.  Stand him down.'

 

AND WE ARE STILL TOILING WITH KASAB WHO IS JUST ANOTHER COWARDLY RICHARD REID!

How valuables are stolen at the airport from Check-in Baggage

....sent in by Anil Agrawal to IndiaTopCop on 10 April 2010 10:00

HOW EASILY THEY OPEN AND STEAL FROM YOUR SUITCASE WHICH LOOKS PROPERLY LOCKED WHEN YOU REGAIN IT FROM THE BELT

"If you are travelling, with zippered suitcases, think again. Watch the attached video to see how loaders can steal from your locked zippered suitcases without even opening the lock. At some airports there is an option to shrink wrap the bag. I wish it was available everywhere".

After you watch this, you will not leave anything valuable in your suitcase anymore.

This is the way a bag is opened at the airport without your knowledge...
Many people would have things missing from their baggage, even when they received them at the arrival port UNOPENED and UNTOUCHED!

How did the thief (at the airport) do it? ..... Just watch the video

Don't leave your gold ingots and diamond necklaces in your zippered bags, okay?
They don't have to open lots of bags.
Only those with valuables, as told to them by the X-ray machines!

20100221: Echoes of injustice

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/53799/echoes-injustice.html

 

Sunday 21 February 2010

 

Echoes of injustice

Prasenjit Chowdhury

Jarnail and his family barely managed to survive the horror. But his account is replete with accounts of how police, save some gutsy officers like Maxwell Pereira, became complicit in acts of butchery.

I ACCUSE...THE ANTI-SIKH VIOLENCE OF 1984 Jarnail Singh Penguin, 2009, pp 165, Rs 350 It was Milan Kundera who in his book The Book of Laughter and Forgetting said that a totalitarian state wants its people to be forgetful. But forgetting as horrendous a crime as the anti-Sikh carnage is a crime and a greater crime if one urges to forget it. Jarnail Singh, who shot to fame for having flung his Reebok runner at the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram — he waxed eloquent on the CBI's clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler accused as a prime instigator — at a press conference in New Delhi and came to be riled and adored in differing circles though he missed his target, manages to hit his target on the dot this time. He pores deep into the skulduggery of covering up the truth, in apparent quest of which one government after another set up various committees and commissions — the Marwah Commission, the Mishra Commission, the Kapur Mittal Committee, the Jain Banerjee Committee, the Potti Rosha Committee, the Jain Aggarwal Committee, the Ahuja Committee, the Dhillon Committee, the Narula Committee and the Nanavati Commission — one after the other. It was an instance of a state-sponsored, state-directed and state-supported violence. There was something crudely comical about the whole exercise because the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 on the streets, roads and bylanes of Delhi still awaits redressal and justice, and rankles the collective memory(26 years down the line). In the intervening years, the ardour for justice has been blunted by the State. Surely the memory has dimmed for those who needed to move on and the call for justice has been made far less strident. Some intractable souls like Nirpreet Kaur whose father Nirmal Singh was burnt alive still grope for justice.  Recalling the charged times of the 1980s, Khuswant Singh in his book, The End of India, rightly notes that "the Bhindranwale chapter in Indian history is a perfect illustration of the disastrous results of not keeping politics separate from religion." The Congress under Indira Gandhi, the then President Zail Singh and the Akali Trinity, consisting of Harchand Singh Longwal, the party leader and 'dictator' of the agitation, Gurugharan Singh Tohra, who controlled the Sikh shrines including the Golden Temple, and Prakash Singh Badal, a former chief minister of Punjab were all responsible for the situation of volatile Punjab to worsen further and Bhindranwale to hold sway for their narrow political ends. To my mind, the cult of hatred must be traced long before Indira Gandhi authorised Operation Blue Star, by doing which, as Inder Malhotra says, "she knew she had also signed her death warrant." Jarnail and his family barely managed to survive the horror. But his account is replete with accounts of how police, save some gutsy officers like Maxwell Pereira, became complicit in acts of butchery. The army was not deployed, the then President Zail Singh turned out to be a milksop, the then Union Home Minister Narsimha Rao played dud, a role he repeated during his prime ministership during the Gujarat riots, the Doordarshan tried to inflame base passions by pointing out ad nauseam that Indira Gandhi was killed by his two Sikh bodyguards, the print media chose largely to give a sparse coverage to the killings, and the main accused — H K L Bhagat rose to become a cabinet minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government — the list of omissions and commissions is endless.   Unfortunately, there is no writer of Orhan Pamuk's standing in India — recall his gall to remind Turkey of its past riddled with Armenian genocide — to remind us of the sin of our own genocides. And Jarnail Singh is no Raj Kamal Jha either to weave a gut-churning masterpiece like his Fireproof. But he speaks straight from the heart and brings alive the horror so graphically that for three days in November 1984, some parts of Delhi became virtual Mano Majras — a small Indian frontier village in Khuswant Singh's novel Train to Pakistan — with all the killings, flames, raping and pillaging. In effect, Jarnail's tale is one of not only the murder of over 3,000 Sikhs, but also of justice for those who "exist in a twilight of bitterness and despair."

Let's blame the damned cops for everything

Anshul Chaturvedi Tuesday August 04, 2009

(Kudos to Anshul Chaturvedi for this piece posted on the Times of India Blogs. For once, someone has called a spade a spade. The police in India are not paragons of all virtue. But so are not many others placed above them on the hierarchical rungs. Hang them first, before yo start attacking the only ones delivering goods in India today).

Chaturvedi's article:
"India's status as the world's largest democracy is undermined by a police force that thinks it is above the law," says Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, in a recent report.
I disagree.
I think India's status as a democracy - irrespective of size - is firstly undermined by a political class that thinks it is above the law, by an administrative machinery that thinks it is above the law, and - going by how upset they are at being asked to divulge their financial assets - a judiciary that thinks it is above the law, too. The cops are way, way down the line. And, oh, incidentally, along the way, they get shot, too. None of the others run that risk.
We have made a culture out of branding men in uniform. The local police, the central paramilitary forces, and whenever we get a chance, the army. And anybody who thinks otherwise risks being promptly branded a right-winger or a closet BJP sympathiser (some blog commentators seem to be in an endless pursuit of hidden clues to expose all writers as such!).
Anyways, leaving that aside, I am not in the least saying that whatever the police do is right. I am also not in the least denying that the degree of corruption at the grassroots in the local police across the country is simply unacceptable, with perhaps the traffic cops ahead of the rest by a fair margin. I also think our reaction as a society to many things the police do is a combination of mixed reactions and double standards - as in the case of police 'encounters'.
What I am saying is that we seem to look at our police forces the way the Sri Lankan population looked at the IPKF - a force which worked with one hand tied behind its back, did some things wrong and many things right, was handicapped by policy and structural drawbacks, fought pitched battles against well entrenched opposition, and, at the end of the day, earned nobody's sympathy.
Officers who were heroes and took immense personal risks when the anti-Khalistani battle was being fought in the fields and towns of Punjab were sidelined, shunted or locked up when peace was established. Some spent time in jails, some committed suicide. It was reduced to a pathetic Congress vs Akali issue. We will be fools to forget the difference between Operation Bluestar and Operation Black Thunder, the difference between letting loose tanks to handle internal security and letting a coordinated Centre-State policing operation sort out complex issues.
Punjab was won back from a period of endless violence by the police - brutally, yes, but if anyone had any other way to do it, I don't remember hearing much about it in those years, when everyone would shut the doors at night, and CRPF gypsies with an LMG on top and thick wooden panels as improvised bullet-proofing would be the only vehicles for endless miles on the lonely Punjab roads. The local police - a very high proportion of which was Sikh - fought a bloody battle for years. The price they paid ranged from attacks on the then DGP Ribeiro, to dozens of officers killed, to the long night when militants in a coordinated manner selectively killed 40-odd relatives of policemen, across villages. Yet, the force displayed the spine to keep the fight going. The fact that the Punjab Police is today back to being a relatively easy, not-too-averse-to-financial-perks sort of mindset does not change the reality of the bloody mess from which Punjab came back to what it is today. And how.
In J&K, a lot has gone wrong. But what went wrong in J&K didn't go wrong because the men in uniform went to set Kashmir alight. Once it went wrong, they were sent in to salvage it, and the familiar cycle of operations in insurgency-hit areas played itself it out. There is no hundred per cent clean, sanitised, and friendly way to handle situations once they reach those levels when AK-47s are in free circulation. No country in the world has been able to do that. Questions will arise, action will need to be taken, and if men cross the lines they shouldn't, action will need to be taken against them too. But there is more to the issue and the Forces than the headline-grabbling episodes of misbehaviour.
The CRPF seems to have been getting tagged as some sort of a bunch of deranged mavericks in hormonal overdrive, and faces the bulk of the current flak in Kashmir. "Send the CRPF back" is currently a very popular sentiment. However, not too long back, it was "send the BSF back". Come to think of it, hasn't it been "send the Army back" for some time? Ergo, send them all back? And it will be peace and harmony - courtesy the Lashkar?
Now, while the men in the CRPF are no better or no worse temperamentally than those in any similar force, the branding has been quick. And the horrendous PR machinery of the uniformed forces means that there is hardly any counter-move. But when two uniformed men are killed in the heart of Srinagar this Saturday, that is fair game. Coincidentally, they reflect the way men in khaki, across faiths and across their taglines, are fair game so often - the CRPF's BB Ghosh and the state police's Mohammed Shafi Bhat were the two men shot sans provocation, to make a point. In 24 hours, their names have no recall value for anyone. There will be no bandh or rally. There will be no write-ups in the local press expressing anything. This is just information. New road inaugurated by Minister. Flights cancelled due to bad weather. Two jawans killed in militant attacks. What's the difference?
And the same CRPF which is supposedly a bunch of maniacs in J&K is the first lot sent ahead to clear the way when West Bengal needs to reclaim "liberated territory" from the Maoists. The CRPF alone has lost 40-odd men killed in the interiors of the country - Chattisgarh and Jharkhand - this year alone. It's bizarre. The numbers of men killed just don't seem to register on us in terms of magnitude. The massacre of 36 policemen including the district SP of Rajnandgaon less than a month back is just a blip on our radar screens - we're probably back to watching Rakhi's swyamwaar with much greater focus.
As they say, the policeman's lot is not a happy one. The Indian policeman's lot is generally a miserable one, more so, if he isn't the sort who wants to stash himself with notes and believes in the old-fashioned world of duty unto death. Pity him.
So when Human Rights Watch says that the Indian police culture breeds brutality, it is no surprise. Yes, it does. It, however, despite the system and the culture, breed better things too - if only we would stop to give the devil his collective due.
If our status as the world's largest democracy is under threat, Mr Adams, I really don't think the neighbourhood cop is the first guy I think of as being responsible for that, at least not yet. He has a long way to catch up, so far as that list goes.

Cell phone Guns... !!!!!

The mobile phone gun...!!!
Most of us see airport security as a pain..
Some of us even feel violated.
Perhaps when one sees the pictures below,
one can see the reason why cell phones
need to be sent through the x-ray machine.
If you get asked to test your cell phone at the airport,
do cooperate.
Cell phone guns have arrived.
AND they are real.
Beneath the digital phone face is a .22 caliber handgun
capable of firing four rounds in rapid succession
using the standard telephone keypad.
European law enforcement officials are stunned
by the discovery of these deadly decoys.
They say phone guns are changing the rules of engagement in Europe.
Only when you have one in your hand do you realize
that they are heavier than a regular cell phone.
Be patient if security asks to look at your cell phone
or turn it on to show that it works.
They have a good reason!
Wake up to our NEW WORLD!!
We shouldn't complain about airport security 'invading our privacy.

.............sent in by Rakesh Vaid: New Delhi

Driving in India

..............received from Suman Dubey: New Delhi
(....just another perspective to the post: Laws of Delhi !)

For the benefit of every Tom, Dick and Harry visiting India and daring to drive on Indian roads, I am offering a few hints for survival. They are applicable to every place in India except Bihar, where life outside a vehicle is only marginally safer.

Indian road rules broadly operate within the domain of karma where you do your best, and leave the results to your insurance company.

The hints are as follows:

Do we drive on the left or right of the road? The answer is "both". Basically you start on the left of the road, unless it is occupied. In that case, go to the right, unless that is also occupied. Then proceed by occupying the next available gap, as in chess. Just trust your instincts, ascertain the direction, and proceed. Adherence to road rules leads to much misery and occasional fatality. Most drivers don't drive, but just aim their vehicles in the generally intended direction.

Don't you get discouraged or underestimate yourself except for a belief in reincarnation; the other drivers are not in any better position. Don't stop at pedestrian crossings just because some fool wants to cross the road. You may do so only if you enjoy being bumped in the back. Pedestrians have been strictly instructed to cross only when traffic is moving slowly or has come to a dead stop because some minister is in town. Still some idiot may try to wade across, but then, let us not talk ill of the dead.

Blowing your horn is not a sign of protest as in some countries. We horn to express joy, resentment, frustration, romance and bare lust (two brisk blasts),or just mobilize a dozing cow in the middle of the bazaar. Keep informative books in the glove compartment. You may read them during traffic jams, while awaiting the chief minister's motorcade, or waiting for the rainwater to recede when over ground traffic meets underground drainage.

Occasionally you might see what looks like a UFO with blinking colored lights and weird sounds emanating from within. This is an illuminated bus, full of happy pilgrims singing bhajans. These pilgrims go at breakneck speed, seeking contact with the Almighty, often meeting with success.

Auto Rickshaw (Baby Taxi): The result of a collision between a rickshaw and an automobile, this three-wheeled vehicle works on an external combustion engine that runs on a mixture of kerosene oil and creosote. This triangular vehicle carries iron rods, gas cylinders or passengers three times its weight and dimension, at an unspecified fare. After careful geometric calculations, children are folded and packed into these auto rickshaws until some children in the periphery are not in contact with the vehicle at all. Then their school bags are pushed into the microscopic gaps all round so those minor collisions with other vehicles on the road cause no permanent damage. Of course, the peripheral children are charged half the fare and also learn Newton's laws of motion enroute to school. Auto-rickshaw drivers follow the road rules depicted in the film Ben Hur, and are licensed to irritate.

Mopeds: The moped looks like an oil tin on wheels and makes noise like an electric shaver. It runs 30 miles on a teaspoon of petrol and travels at break-bottom speed. As the sides of the road are too rough for a ride, the moped drivers tend to drive in the middle of the road; they would rather drive under heavier vehicles instead of around them and are often "mopped" off the tarmac.

Leaning Tower of Passes: Most bus passengers are given free passes and during rush hours, there is absolute mayhem. There are passengers hanging off other passengers, who in turn hang off the railings and t he overloaded bus leans dangerously, defying laws of gravity but obeying laws of surface tension.

As drivers get paid for overload (so many Rupees per kg of passenger), no questions are ever asked. Steer clear of these buses by a width of three passengers.

One-way Street: These boards are put up by traffic people to add jest in their otherwise drab lives. Don't stick to the literal meaning and proceed in one direction. In metaphysical terms, it means that you cannot proceed in two directions at once. So drive as you like, in reverse throughout, if you are the fussy type. Least I sound hypercritical; I must add a positive point also. Rash and fast driving in residential areas has been prevented by providing a "speed breaker"; two for each house. This mound, incidentally, covers the water and drainage pipes for that residence and is left untarred for easy identification by the corporation authorities, should they want to recover the pipe for year-end accounting.

Night driving on Indian roads can be an exhilarating experience for those with the mental make up of Genghis Khan. In a way, it is like playing Russian roulette, because you do not know who amongst the drivers is loaded. What looks like premature dawn on the horizon turns out to be a truck attempting a speed record. On encountering it, just pull partly into the field adjoining the road until the phenomenon passes.

Our roads do not have shoulders, but occasional boulders. Do not blink your lights expecting reciprocation. The only dim thing in the truck is the driver, and with the peg of illicit arrack (alcohol) he has had at the last stop, his total cerebral functions add up to little more than a naught. Truck drivers are the James Bonds of India, and are licensed to kill. Often you may encounter a single powerful beam of light about six feet above the ground. This is not a super motorbike, but a truck approaching you with a single light on, usually the le ft one. It could be the right one, but never get too close to investigate. You may prove your point posthumously.