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Hands Up, Don’t Clock!

Hands Up, Don’t Clock!

Ahmed Mohamed’s story will end with: “Fake, But True”

I’m glad that I’m late to the story of Ahmed Mohamed, because others have done the work to debunk much of the media narrative of a young tinkerer and inventor wrongly singled out because he is Muslim and abused by police and the school for the crime of “being brown.”

The story has unfolded much like prior racial media and activist narratives.

Trayvon Martin was not shot because he was a black teenager wearing a hoodie by someone who “shot first and asked questions later.” That media narrative was demonstrably proven false through a lengthy public trial at which the evidence showed that Trayvon Martin was shot as he beat the crap out of George Zimmerman, Mixed Martial Arts style, as Trayvon had Zimmerman pinned to the ground, after smashing Zimmeran’s head into the concrete repeatedly. The eyewitness and forensic evidence (including ballistic analysis) fully supported that Zimmerman used legally justifiable deadly force.

So too, the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson was not as the media initially portrayed. An exhaustive investigation and analysis by Eric Holder’s Justice Department proved that Brown was shot while grabbing Officer Darren Wilson’s gun, after having assaulted Wilson as Wilson sat in his police vehicle. The Justice Department also concluded that Brown did now have his hands raised at the time of the shooting. The “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” narrative was pure mythology, yet it persists as a slogan of the Black Lives Matter movement.

So getting back to Ahmed, the original racial and religious narrative played out immediately, and is believed as the gospel truth by liberals.

Obama invited Ahmed to the White House, and Ahmed has been invited to Google and other places to celebrate his inventiveness. Ahmed is a media star. He is as celebrated in life as Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were in death.

But is the Ahmed narrative true?

It appears not. I don’t claim any technical expertise, but people who have that expertise have taken apart the “inventor” end of the story.

A true tinkerer reverse engineered the “clock” and found it indeed to be a clock, but the internal components of an existing clock, not one that was invented by Ahmed (emphasis in original):

I found the highest resolution photograph of the clock I could. Instantly, I was disappointed. Somewhere in all of this – there has indeed been a hoax. Ahmed Mohamed didn’t invent his own alarm clock. He didn’t even build a clock.

So there you have it folks, Ahmed Mohamed did not invent, nor build a clock. He took apart an existing clock, and transplanted the guts into a pencil box, and claimed it was his own creation. It all seems really fishy to me.

If we accept the story about “inventing” an alarm clock is made up, as I think I’ve made a pretty good case for, it’s fair to wonder what other parts of the story might be made up, not reported factually by the media, or at least, exaggerated.

This video explains it:

As does this one:

Bill Maher summed it up nicely:

Then there’s the racism/Islamophobia part of the story. We live in an age when schools are hyper-sensitive to the point of absurdity when it comes to school zero tolerance policies. From Pop Tart guns to Lego guns to drawing guns to day-dreaming about guns, anything that even remotely resembles a weapons is treated with nearly-insane overreaction regardless of race or religion.

And the thing looks strange, and well, like a bomb:

Was this all a deliberate provocation or hoax? I don’t know, but the immediate media roll out and the involvement of CAIR makes it suspicious. But whether a deliberate provocation or hoax, or just a school overreaction, it’s just too perfect a liberal narrative which flies in the face of known evidence.

So where does this end?

The same place as the hoodie and Hands Up, Don’t Shoot narratives. Fake, but true.

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/644989090853601281

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Comments

“Young Ahmed’s Clock.”

The throngs pedophiles mingling amongst the left seeking a Vanity Fair cover probably got very excited at first glance, but were obviously disappointed.

Oh well. Back to Hollywood.

No, it does not look like a bomb, and repeatedly saying it’s so doesn’t make it so. Nor does a video clip of a bunch of ignorant students who have no idea what a bomb looks like, saying it looks like a bomb, constitute any sort of evidence that it looks like a bomb. You regularly post exactly the same sort of video clips to show what idiots randomly selected people are, and what stupid things they say, so why is this clip any different?

You are wrong, Maher is wrong, and Maher’s guest who points out that what makes a bomb a bomb is the explosive is correct. If you don’t see any explosive then it doesn’t look like a bomb, and if the first thing you think of when you look at any random electronic device is “bomb” then you’re a paranoid freak. Maher’s other guest is correct that you couldn’t get it through the TSA, but what does that prove? We already know the TSA are a bunch of paranoid freaks. We regularly excoriate them for it. So how are they suddenly held up as paragons of rational analysis?

Ditto for the argument that if kids can be expelled for drawing pictures of guns, then they were right to arrest this kid. We regularly howl with derision and disgust at schools who do that, so how is that now held up as the correct standard?

No, there’s no evidence of racism here. The CAIR media exploitation is completely unjustified. Any kid bringing pretty much any electronics project to school would have been treated the same way. But that doesn’t make the problem smaller, it makes it bigger. It’s like hearing initial reports that some maniac is running around shooting Moslems, and then you hear an updated report that no, he’s not just shooting Moslems, he’s shooting everyone. Does that make it better?! Of course not, it makes it worse. Everyone being in danger is worse than only some people being in danger. “Zero tolerance” is a stupid paranoid policy, and the teachers and staff who panic at a few wires in a case, or at a pointed finger, a pop tart in the shape of a mountain, or a kid throwing imaginary grenades at imaginary monsters, are paranoid freaks. They should all be disciplined and retrained.

    I don’t understand your picking on kids who think it looks like a bomb. To someone who isn’t a bomb disposal expert, it looks like a suspicious device, with the saving grace that it’s not attached to an explosive material and a detonator. Even to experts, this could be turned into a timer for a bomb in extremely short order. Why should the layman’s reaction be discarded? A reasonable person standard is an important principle in law.

    tom swift in reply to Milhouse. | September 27, 2015 at 12:54 am

    You regularly post exactly the same sort of video clips to show what idiots randomly selected people are, and what stupid things they say, so why is this clip any different?

    What it demonstrates is that it wasn’t freakishly bizarre for someone at the school to suspect that they might possibly be dealing with a bomb.

    Now, if the suspicious person at the school was the only one in the world who thought that it looked like something which could be a bomb, that would be another story. But the videos strongly imply that is not the case.

    VetHusbandFather in reply to Milhouse. | September 27, 2015 at 4:01 am

    Keep in mind, the charges were having a hoax bomb, not having a bomb. Since we know he wasn’t actually assembling a homemade clock, it would logically lead to two other possibilities. 1) that he was making a bomb and the explosives were somewhere else (unlikely in this case, but investigators would need to do their due diligence). 2) he made something to intentionally frighten people. I suppose there is a third option, and that is he is dumb enough to think ripping the case off a clock would impress his engineering teacher/friends. Or his engineering teacher is too dumb to recognize the inside of a commercial clock.

      Jason Boisvert in reply to VetHusbandFather. | September 27, 2015 at 4:18 am

      ” Since we know he wasn’t actually assembling a homemade clock, it would logically lead to two other possibilities.”

      Or,

      3) He wanted to practice with and experiment with electronics, so he took something that already worked and changed some features. If it didn’t work, he’d know he had done something wrong.

        “changed some features”? Like taking off the plastic housing? Wow, really inventive. Let me guess how many “Participant” ribbons you’ve won…

        If I had known that MIT would offer a full scholarship to any teenager capable of removing the housing of a mass-manufactured alarm clock and sticking it in a pencil case, I would have been so there 20 years ago.

    InEssence in reply to Milhouse. | September 27, 2015 at 4:40 pm

    I thought that the kid also had the alarm go off during class. If that is true, then the kid was looking for trouble. So why feel sorry for him?

      I have a question on this very point. (The alarm went off in class) Was there a 9v battery backup connected? Or did Ahmed have to plug the “clock” into a 110v electric outlet?

      1. No picture of the actual devise shows a 9v battery attached.
      2. If there was no 9v battery, then the power source was the 110 volt plug.
      3. The science teacher told him not to show it to anybody.
      4. The alarm went off in English class.

      OK kiddies, what was the power source? If it was 110v, then the kid was seeking the confrontation that he ultimately received, as directed by his father.

      #Istandforthetruth

    heyjoojoo in reply to Milhouse. | September 28, 2015 at 5:46 pm

    The only exploitation occurring here is when the parents pull off a PR stunt using this Muslim student and something as provocative as a device that looks like a bomb. Thanks to CAIR influence. If that “clock” were found on a street corner somewhere, you can bet that there would be a local evacuation, and an area cordoned off so deal with this clock.

    Milhouse, you are exploiting nonsense (the worst kind of exploitation).

Oh, and that is not a brief case. Look at the size.

    tom swift in reply to Milhouse. | September 27, 2015 at 1:04 am

    That looks like a DVD case, like those sold under the Vaultz name. They’re about 14 inches square. A real briefcase is more like 14×18 inches.

    Not really an earth-shaking difference.

    Come on, Milhouse. It has been identified as a hard style pencil case. Nobody said it was a briefcase.

    For extra credit, Mil-baby, tell me how much C-4 plastic explosive could fit in a pencil case?

    An elemental fact known to anyone who spent more than 30 seconds reading about this fiasco.

    Also please recall the “zero-tolerance” atmosphere suffocating most schools these days. One girl got into trouble over a soap-bubble pistol. It doesn’t take much to trigger the Aunt Grundys of the world.

    …And if something had gone boom, how many would be screaming “WHY didn’t they DO something!!? It’s lose/lose for the school.

    The president once spoke wisdom: “Don’t do stupid $h!t.” This was a truly stupid thing to do.

Milhouse: “No, it does not look like a bomb, and repeatedly saying it’s so doesn’t make it so”

I find it amazing that you can detect IEDs from pictures on the internet, without even seeing the other side too!

Please enlist. You could replace an EOD platoon single-handedly. We will put you and your fellow “experts” in the same training battalion. One of you will saunter through a minefield while the other 20 “clear” you over the internet…

    DaveGinOly in reply to Fen. | September 27, 2015 at 1:40 am

    “I find it amazing that you can detect IEDs from pictures on the internet, without even seeing the other side too!”

    You have inverted the situation. Milhouse didn’t “detect” an IED “from pictures on the internet.” He identified something as “not a bomb” for lack of a crucial component (explosives), as reported by every story covering this incident. Unlike, say, a dummy hand grenade, which cannot easily be seen to not be an actual, live explosive device, Ahmed’s “clock” was obviously not a bomb because no part of it was hidden from even a cursory inspection, and said inspection revealed no explosive component.

      moonstone716 in reply to DaveGinOly. | September 27, 2015 at 10:40 am

      Those who are so dismissive of the ignorance of us who might think it looks like a bomb — how the hell do you know what it looks like to us? I have no idea what “explosives” look like, or what the internal workings of an IED should look like.

      To expect random high school authorities to be able to say, “Oh, don’t worry, it’s not a bomb — no explosives” and not call the cops is truly the ignorant position.

      “Obviously.” You keep using that word. I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

      From another wise man: “A word about the obvious; it is always obvious.” Think about it. 🙂

When the pictures of the “clock” first hit the internet, my question was….. where the hell are the explosives if this was thought to be a bomb? A bunch of electronic components that aren’t attached to an explosive element are just a bunch of electronic components. Do we as a people lack any and all critical thinking skills anymore? Never-mind… “we” elected Obama twice and there’s no greater indicator of complete and absolute stupidity on a national level.

    DaveGinOly in reply to Sanddog. | September 27, 2015 at 1:46 am

    Imagine the disappointment of Ahmed’s father and CAIR if the school administrators didn’t react as they had and if “zero tolerance” nonsense hadn’t kicked in (upon which their plan must have relied).

      tom swift in reply to DaveGinOly. | September 27, 2015 at 11:35 am

      What would be the cause of disappointment? In a long-term program—and the Islamic attempt to conquer the West is a long-term program—you keep trying until you get the effect you want. The cost of the attempt is low; Ahmed’s father doesn’t have to come up with money until after he gets a solid bite on the bait.

“if the first thing you think of when you look at any random electronic device is ‘bomb’ then you’re a paranoid freak.”

I see a triggering device. And guess what? It IS a triggering device. The clock doesn’t keep time, it counts down and beeps. All you need to go BOOM is a battery and some explosive. Do ya think maybe we should ask him some questions and search his locker for explosives?

“If you don’t see any explosive then it doesn’t look like a bomb”

How are you sure there is no explosive when you can only see one side of the pencil case?

Do you have xray vision? Again, please enlist. You could save thousands of lives.

…BTW, the school didn’t think it was a bomb, they thought it was a fake-bomb prank.

    DaveGinOly in reply to Fen. | September 27, 2015 at 1:58 am

    Every clock, watch, calculator, cell phone, laptop, and egg timer is a potential timer for an explosive device. In fact, because Ahmed’s “clock” has been identified as exactly that, the internals of a commercially-available clock, then it must be just a clock, and nothing more. Without having been modified to serve as a timer for an explosive device, none of the above-mentioned devices are actually timers for explosive devices.

    Missing from Ahmed’s “device” (aside from explosives) is a detonator (in an electronic explosive device, usually an electric blasting cap). Ahmed’s device is to a detonator what a battery is to a detonator. Are we going to panic over the appearance of batteries in school?

      DaveGinOly in reply to DaveGinOly. | September 27, 2015 at 2:25 am

      I see someone has a problem with facts. Or doesn’t like my question.

        tom swift in reply to DaveGinOly. | September 27, 2015 at 11:25 am

        It’s possible that it stems from what seems to be your primitive grasp of bomb technology. Perhaps you think that all bombs are obvious; like grenades or pipe bombs.

        You may recall an incident circa 1986 in which an Arab put explosives in the lining of someone’s luggage on an El Al flight. Apparently he’d managed to cram in seven pounds of real demolition explosive (not kid stuff like pipe bombs). And no, it was not visible to casual inspection.

          It is not easy to detect artfully-concealed plastic explosives. You could mold it into the shape of anything and paint it any color you like (or put a sticker over it). You could mold it into the shape of a stick of gum and put it in a gum wrapper. Put a thin sheet of it over the back of the LED display and hit it up with a black or silver permanent marker or kit paint.

          I don’t think it’s unusual that a group of students, or an English teacher, might not immediately recognize the innards of this Radio Shack digital clock as the innards of a Radio Shack digital clock and nothing more. The memory of the damage that a couple of innocent everyday kitchen appliances wrought on Boston is probably still too close to hand.

          It was always going to be very unlikely that this teen (or any teen) actually brought a bomb to school, but in a world where chewing a poptart into the shape of a gun is enough to get you hauled out of class and suspended, a stunt like Ahmed’s was always going to get him attention. And the point is, that that was the point of the whole exercise.

          Ahmed: the boy who trolled America.

        “I see someone has a problem with facts. Or doesn’t like my question.”

        Your “facts” are pointless.

        And your question is based upon ignorance. It is common to see batteries. It is uncommon for kids to carry around cases with disassembled clocks ticking away. Most of us just use a wristwatch if we need to tell time. Or a cell phone…

I mean, you weren’t even in the room. Maybe you are clairvoyant too?

Gee, that makes you a clairvoyant expert on IEDs with x-ray vision.

Just sit tight, I know a Marine Recruiter who would love to talk to you…

MouseTheLuckyDog | September 26, 2015 at 11:17 pm

Before I even read this completely I think that teachers should have known better. The thing looks exactly what a bomb looks like in the movies and on TV, Therefore it could not possibly have been a bomb

About ten years ago I was stopped at an intersection behind another car. I looked at the trumk an arm was sticking out. Like someone had thrown in a body and slammed the trunk with the arm sticking out. I called the police, telling them that 999 out of 1000 times that is a gag, but that meant 1 time out of a 1000 that is not.

I’m a EE, a tinkerer guy. To me, of course, it looks like the guts of a digital clock. But that’s not the point. What does it look like to Americans who watch TV and go to movies? This gets closer to the point.

Here’s the point: Ahmed knew it could look like a threat.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/21/ahmed-mohamed-implies-knew-clock-seem-like-threat/

In a telling admission on video, Ahmed Mohamed—the MacArthur High School freshman student in Texas who was arrested for bringing what school officials and police believed was a “hoax bomb” to school—implied that he knew that the clock he had built would look suspicious and threatening.

Ahmed asserted, “I closed [the ‘clock’] with a cable, I didn’t want to lock it to make it seem like a threat. So I just used a simple cable so it won’t look that much suspicious.”

So, why did he show it around if it could look like a threat? Allegedly, a teacher told him not to show it around. But Ahmed took it along to multiple classes. Finally, some kid said the magic word: BOMB. And the rest is history.

This smells. I’m of the mind that the activist Islamofascist dad called the shots. He knew that Americans see enough TV bombs that, showing around clock guts in a suitcase, eventually some kid would say BOMB. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Prof. Bill, we know yelling fire when there isn’t one is punishable. What about taunting someone else into saying BOMB?

While I don’t think the school needed to call the cops, they indeed need to punish whoever orchestrated this. Will Ahmed eventually crack?

MouseTheLuckyDog | September 27, 2015 at 12:11 am

I’ve taken a look at the videos. My visceral reaction, just the very first thing. Fissile material, uh Ronnie get a clue or have you contracted Alzheimer’s for you father ( with all due respect to to Ron Sr. . RIP and sorry you had to have such a moron for a son. )

First thing, the hoaxer didn’t design and build a “clock”. He just dis-assembled an old clock and stuck it in the case. Given that fact, then why did he do it? Also, it is now reported his sister was arrested for a bomb threat at the same school sometime in the past.

As for it appearing to be a bomb or not, no one could no if the case contained a bomb without examination.

That kid is a fraud, that much is certain.

    DaveGinOly in reply to Barry. | September 27, 2015 at 2:23 am

    No one could know a lunch box or a locker doesn’t contain a bomb without looking in it either. If you suspect one does, you call the police/bomb squad. When they discover that there is no bomb, you don’t arrest the kid whose lunch box or locker it was unless he represented to others that he, in fact, had a bomb in his lunch box or locker. Otherwise this is a just a misunderstanding. The wheels came off this situation (as far as the school is concerned – it played out exactly as Ahmed’s father expected) when the school administrators reacted according to zero tolerance protocols, and treated what was not a threat as if it were a threat (much like the famous Pop-tart). Zero tolerance treats non-threats that resemble threats as actual threats.

      ” Zero tolerance treats non-threats that resemble threats as actual threats.”

      BS. Not in this case. You do not know all the facts. Nor do I. What we do know:

      A kid of terrorist persuasion (yes, muslims are terrorists) packs a commercial clock into a case and parades it around at school. His sister has already been in trouble for bomb threats. Put 2+2 together.

      After it was determined there was no bomb, then arrest the kid for a hoax bomb threat since it seems clear that was his intention.

no one could KNOW. sheesh.

MouseTheLuckyDog | September 27, 2015 at 12:38 am

Where are the explosives? Four or five bic lighters soaked, wrapped with an alcohol soaked rag and a nichrome wire would do. Maybe a laptop battery with the wrong charging circuit. Which might be in his locker.

Lot’s of possibilities, I would google homemade bomb, but I don’t want the FBI knocking on my door.

I also realize that a wrist watch with an alarm could be used instead of the thing he brought to school.

ReallyVeryObnoxious | September 27, 2015 at 12:45 am

Thirteen is young enough to be ignorant of the proper meaning of the word ‘invent’, especially as he went to public school in our society.

Thirteen is also more than old enough to be used in an attack.

When you are trying to defeat security, you can’t avoid triggering one particular alarm, and you have enough time, one method is setting off a bunch of false alarms. People may turn the alarm off, or stop paying attention.

Is this a false alarm, or carefully intended to look like one?

The father would’ve had the technical ability to put this together. Unless he has no part in his son’s life, or routinely uses the word ‘invent’ to mean ‘assemble’, the son should have known better.

If the teachers had the background to know for sure that this wasn’t a bomb, they had the background to be certain he knew the difference between what he did, and an invention.

If the son had brought in Marzipan, the media would likely only describe it as candy, and then only if they were forced.

The police had to choose which error they would be willing to live with:
1) Treat this unknown device as a bomb and later find out/confirm that it is not a bomb.
2) NOT treat it as a bomb and later find out it was a bomb.

The mistake #1 results in nobody hurt. Mistake #2 could result in deaths.

The police made the right choice knowing what they knew at the time. Hindsight is not a sign of high intelligence. Imagine if the police had made choice #2? Based on risk management practices, the police got it right. Based on PC culture, they could never get it right.

Was this a setup as a payback to north Texas for the cartoon event that failed to end as planned? We must take down the police you know…

Wow. Trolling on this post is heavy.

I just had a quick, minor typo correction:

So to too, the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson was not as the media initially protrayed portrayed.

Excellent post, as usual. (I noticed the “now” to “not” correction, which of course is important to your points. 🙂 )

The face of the clock is big enough to conceal a small amount of explosive and detonator.

Lets do a trial for those who feel strongly that this should be considered harmless. One case without explosives hidden one with enough explosives to blow your hands off.

innocent bystander | September 27, 2015 at 8:40 am

There’s a lot of talk about how stupidly school officials acted. Maybe so, but we don’t know, because the family is preventing school officials from releasing records of the incident.

Think about the situation. A police officer, a principal, a few teachers — these are generally sensible people, so the chances of all four or five being “paranoid freaks” is small. Sure, it’s a stressful situation, but these people have time in in stressful jobs.

There’s too much story here, too few facts.

innocent bystander | September 27, 2015 at 8:44 am

BTW, if this story has gotten anyone interested in electronics, I’ve had a lot of fun w/ Elenco and Velleman kits.

    It might even get someone interested in explosives.

    I know of an online outfit which sells a training kit of particular interest. It’s an “empty” CD case (not the same brand as Ahmed Mohamed’s, but very similar) with simulated plastic explosives concealed in the lining. It also has a dummy detonator, but there’s no clock, as the bomb is set off by a photocell when the case is opened.

Scott Lattin a white disabled veteran made national news when he claimed his truck was vandalized by someone spray painting Black Lives Matter on the truck. Taking advantage of the resentment towards Black Lives Matter,Scott garnered national sympathy. Even got 6000 in donations to a gofundme page he set up. Lo and behold although no surprise to me,the gimp turned out to have spray painted his own truck. That’s right the lying racist gimp is now facing charges of filing a false report as well as insurance fraud.Ahmed is constantly attacked for doing nothing wrong. Meanwhile a white gimp who really committed a race hoax is less vilified.

The first person he showed it to, his engineering teacher, said “that’s nice” and then, recognizing that in a zero-tolerance school world where a poptart chewed into the shape of a gun can get a kid kicked out of school, something like this might be taken as a threat, advised him to put it away and not go around showing it to others.

There’s a reason this teen deliberately ignored that advice.

MouseTheLuckyDog | September 27, 2015 at 11:21 am

That’s sort of what happened. He carried it around for a while couldn’t get a rise. So in one class he set of the alram so a teacher would almost have to notice.

The point of a hoax is to scare not explode. So whether the average person might think it a bomb would be the point of a hoax. Whether someone thinks that makes people stupid or not doesn’t matter, he was just effective in pulling off a hoax!!!

A bomb hoax would get him trouble – black, brown, white, or purple!!!

Should we treat it as a dry run?

How this would have gone down with a white student:

Administration overreacts identically, calls police identically, student is arrested and suspended/expelled.

Entire country unaware. Local newspaper prints a story on page 12 and makes the obvious comparisons to the Columbine shooters and their (thankfully failed) attempts at making bombs. Student is declared a dangerous, antisocial loner and two weeks later the whole situation is forgotten about, student still expelled and now on a domestic terrorist watchlist. He is never invited to the White House.

I will always remember Ahmed as the kid that effed up a perfectly good clock!