The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 7 of 13)

"... any reasonably intelligent person could call himself an anti-terrorism expert." -- Mason & Felder

I was an engineer for the US Navy for ten years, 1988 to 1998, and I actually own a handbook on anti-terrorism techniques. It is pretty cool stuff actually. I, along with some other politically clueless civil service engineers, took a class on anti-terrorism and they gave us this nifty handbook on how to deal with terrorism scenarios. We were instructed to never take the same route to work two days in a row-we liked that since we were getting paid per diem for all our travel expenses. I really did learn a few things about "situational awareness."

Most of the material in the course was common sense. It was full of advice like what my Mom and Dad told me when I was a kid-don't talk to strangers, travel in large groups, get home before dark, don't take any wooden nickels. One piece of advice I remember very well was to be very afraid of the police in foreign countries. "Remember!" the instructor would say again and again, "you are not in America, you don't have any rights. In this country, it is assumed that if the police took the trouble to arrest you, you probably are guilty."

p>Maybe taking that course qualifies me as an expert on terrorism-sure beats slogging through design reviews twelve hours a day. br> -- Charles D. Sampson /p> p> Don't know how much of this was Jackie and how much was Raoul, but, please, may we have more? Apparently Mason, the consummate comedian and social critic, has a flair for communication in any medium. Write on Jackie!...and Raoul, too. br> -- Chuck Livingston br> Fort Worth, Texas /p> p> SURPRISE IS NO EXCUSE br> Re: Geoffrey Norman's

topics:
Bill Clinton, Islam, Environment, Constitution, Military, Iraq, Iran, Israel