The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is investigating last year’s series of fervent campaign “robo-calls” by Haitian presidential candidate Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, which led to evacuations at the Fort Bragg military base…
In the weeks prior to Haiti’s November election, anyone who had ever placed a call to Haiti received a string of pre-recorded calls from Martelly. After the Jan. 12 earthquake, the list included countless Haitian Americans, journalists, non-profit groups and the U.S. military.
They heard Martelly shouting in Creole, urging the Diaspora to support tet kale – the bald-headed one. His frantic tone even spooked the U.S. Army.
“There were people who didn’t understand what it was and speculated it was a terrorist threat in a foreign language,” said Fort Bragg spokesman Ben Abel. “Two or three buildings where the calls came in were evacuated.”
On Nov. 17, the Army criminal investigations team swept the cleared buildings for explosives and listened to recordings left on voice mailboxes, Abel said. “I listened to it and thought: ‘That’s not Arabic. That’s not Pashto. That sounds like French,” Abel said…
The terrorists have won.
SO, let me get this straight: A call comes in – in a foreign language. It’s voice mail, so it’s on record. It’s angry. So, before you get anyone to decipher it (shouldn’t be all that hard to recognize it as French – even the Haitian patois – and find a translator) you call for a major evacuation and spend tens of thousands of dollars mounting a search. Ok. Let’s say your heart is in the right place. WOuldn’t you want to know what the voice was saying before you sent people into harm’s way? If you think there’s a bomb (and there’s no reason on earth to think so from what I read above) wouldn’t you hope to get a clue as to where it was? Or maybe WHAT it was? Explosive? Chemical? Nuke?
Cripes.
Ooops! I hope no one hears that voicemail I left for an old girlfriend. I was raising my voice. And it was in Spanish.
Osama! We give up already. You’ve won!
What has become of us? Are we that timid? Are we that ignorant? Are we that myopic?
We are certainly Rome anew, with citizenry so distanced from their origins that they have no comprehension or proper response patterns to address reality.
Someone answers a phone hears a language he doesn’t understand the caller hangs up. Ya got two choices. Ignore it. Do something about it.
They evacuated three buildings on a 251 square mile fort. They swept three buildings. Probably with people on duty at the time. A militarily appropriate response.
Two privates with an SCR-270 were misundertood back in 1941.
That pic’s a classic…Stand Down Kitteh!
How did Martelly get their number?
#6 they filled in the warranty card on the last tank they bought – they’ve been getting junk mail ever since.
Fort Brag should have just get on the do-not-call list. Terror est threat neutralized.
#5 McCullough said, “Stand Down Kitteh!”
Hey, you can’t be too careful. At least not until after we finally catch Mohammad Puss al Kitten. Harder to pin down than the Jackal. The world will not be safe until this infamous feline is dealt with.
#4 “Ya got two choices.”
Yep, press 1 or 2.
In many ways the terrorist have one. They have us acting like a dog chasing its own tail.