Student detained 5 hours for having Arabic/English flash cards

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We’re getting a headstart on the Stupid Thing of the Week, offering it a day earlier than usual. We couldn’t wait when we heard about Nick George, a California college student. George was boarding a plane to California in Pennsylvania last August when TSA agents noticed he had Arabic-English language learning cards in his luggage. They arrested him and detained him for five hours, asking him brilliant questions such as, “Do you know who did 9/11?” and "Do you know what language Osama bin Laden spoke?" All because the guy had some Arabic/English flash cards on him. Q: Is the TSA really this stupid and incompetent? A: You bet.

Later, George was also interrogated by the FBI, whose agents asked him if he had converted to Islam or — get this — joined a communist organization. Needless to say, George is now suing the hell out of the TSA and the FBI, with the help of the ACLU, for violating his First and Fourth Amendment Rights. George told the New York Daily News, “As someone who travels by plane, I want TSA agents to do their job to keep flights safe, but I don't understand how locking me up and harassing me just because I was carrying the flashcards made anybody safer. No one should be treated like a criminal for simply learning one of the most widely spoken languages in the world." Here is a video of Nick George explaining what happened: