IP: last comment until I get a credible yes or no .. Atrocities in American Airports

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jose M Guardia <joseg () guardiasociados com>
Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2002 19:22:56 +0200
To: farber () cis upenn edu, ip <ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com>
Subject: Re: IP: Atrocities in American Airports

At 11:19 07/08/02 -0400, Dave Farber wrote:
> I have no idea how true this is but it is  getting a lot of play in SA and
> the UK. Try putting Ricardo Abude into goggle for references. If true it is
> a serious problem.

Dave,

Yes, there are lots of references in google, although they seem to circle
around the same 2 or 3 sources. I guess the key is whether it is possible
to have an independent verification. Besides of what my gut says about
this, and my genetic tendency towards skepticism, I can't help to be
intrigued by a few things:

- he talks about 'a constant flow of tourists coming into [our] cell', so
if this narration is indeed true it shouldn't be too difficult to find more
cases

- he refers two names of INS officers dealing with him in LA airport
-Officer Sanchez, and Officer
Lee-; for obvious reasons I can't check from where I am (Barcelona) but I
wonder if it would be too difficult for a reporter in the US to check with
the INS if these officers do exist and/or if they are on duty in LA
airport. The trouble is, the INS could be reluctant to give this kind of
information, so it would be difficult to check. Which leads me to the next
point:

- for all the details provided (he even provides his personal email
address, besides all the details of times and dates) if find it intriguing
that he doesn't mention the very one detail that would allow for some very
quick verification: the name of the lawyer he finally reached in LA (and
who addressed him as simply 'Ricardo', which seems to indicate there was
some familiarity between them). I'm not saying that this is
necessarily  the case, but a usual technique in the narration of hoaxes and
urban legends is to provide lots of minutiae in aspects that can't be
easily checked -or that can't be checked at all-, as to indicate they are
very detailed people, but strangely then avoiding the details that would
allow some easy verification.

- I'd feel more comfortable if there were more details of the formal
complaints already filed (at the American Embassy in Brasilia and the
Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry): text of complaint, date of entry, and
perhaps some confirmation by these organizations. I can understand that
perhaps it's not an easy task from the US State Dept. given the current
conditions, but I think that if these complaints have been indeed filed, at
least Brazil's Foreign Affairs Ministry would be willing to confirm.

Just my 2 cents.

BTW, I have checked with Snopes.com and there's no information available
about this, at least not yet. I'll keep looking and if I learn anything I
will let you and IPers know.

Of course, if in the end this is true, it's chilling.

Best regards,

Jose




***************************************************
Jose M Guardia
Internet, Media & Technology Analyst
Barcelona, Spain
Ph. [++34] 629-74-26-24
E-mail: joseg () guardiasociados com | AIM: jmguardia
www.guardiasociados.com
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