Texas oil refineries, a White Van, and Al Qaeda
http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/415877|top|07-19-2004::15:07|reuters.html Jul 19, 2:57 PM (ET) HOUSTON (Reuters) - Law enforcement officials said on Monday they are looking for a man seen taking pictures of two refineries in Texas City, Texas. Texas City, located on the Texas Gulf coast about 30 miles south of Houston, has three refineries including the largest U.S. plant operated by BP Plc., which is the third-largest U.S. refinery, processing 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The man, described as white with dark hair, was seen taking pictures outside the refineries, all located on the same highway, at about 5 p.m. CDT on Saturday, said Bruce Clawson, emergency management and homeland security director for Texas City. While it is not illegal to take pictures of a refinery from a highway or street, officials would like to talk to the man to find out his reason for taking the photographs. "This is based on the idea that al Qaeda does its homework," Clawson said. "That's not to say we don't have enough home-grown idiots already who might want to do something." The man was seen driving a white van. Valero Energy Corp. operates a 243,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Texas City. Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, a joint venture between Marathon Oil Corp., and Ashland Inc., operates a 76,000 bpd refinery in Texas City. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has repeatedly warned refiners that they are possible targets for would-be terrorists. U.S. refinery security officials say their security guards regularly report people observing or taking pictures of refineries. During the Independence Day holiday, ExxonMobil Corp. tightened security at the largest U.S. refinery, the 538,000 bpd plant in Baytown, Texas, 30 miles east of Houston, because of general warnings about possible terrorist activity. -- "When in our age we hear these words: It will be judged by the result--then we know at once with whom we have the honor of speaking. Those who talk this way are a numerous type whom I shall designate under the common name of assistant professors." -- Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (Wong tr.), III, 112
On Tue, 20 Jul 2004, Justin wrote:
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Law enforcement officials said on Monday they are looking for a man seen taking pictures of two refineries in Texas City, Texas.
How difficult it is to wait for a sunny day, wire a digital camera to take two pictures per second with very short exposition time, ducttape it on the dashboard or at the side or the back window in suitable angle, and then drive by in normal speed? If you screw up the angle, you can do it again (and again, and again...), because nobody pays attention to the "normally" behaving vehicles. That way, no suspicion is ever aroused. Or, use a big-lens camera from long distance. The person in question was just somebody with a weakness for industrial architecture.
On 2004-07-20T21:47:31+0200, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
The person in question was just somebody with a weakness for industrial architecture.
You're missing the big picture: A light-skinned person with dark hair, a camera, a white van and an oil refinery, all in Shrub's home state. That's a bona fide threat to national security if I've ever heard one, yet people like you are suggesting we let it slide! Viper! Getteth thee back to the deserts of the middle east where you belong. The DHS has done a lot to make me ashamed of being an American. I can't believe how stupid my new guardians are. It was probably some photo-journalist working on an expose of Shrub's crooked/failed oil dealings. -- "When in our age we hear these words: It will be judged by the result--then we know at once with whom we have the honor of speaking. Those who talk this way are a numerous type whom I shall designate under the common name of assistant professors." -- Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (Wong tr.), III, 112
Justin <justin-cypherpunks@soze.net> writes:
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Law enforcement officials said on Monday they are looking for a man seen taking pictures of two refineries in Texas City, Texas.
At Usenix Security a few years back, we [a bunch of random security people, most of whom were foreign nationals] drove around Buckley AFB taking photos of the radomes, SCIF, etc etc. As we were doing this, we noticed a Chinese national doing the same thing. We wondered what the etiquette for this was, do we exchange business cards, offer to trade photos, etc etc? This was before 9/11, no-one took any notice of us at the time. Peter.
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Justin -
pgut001＠cs.auckland.ac.nz -
Thomas Shaddack