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Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentenced

By Jeralyn, Section War on Terror
Posted on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 11:23:53 PM EST
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CrimProfBlog reports that the Pakistani man who videotaped U.S. skyscrapers has been sentenced to six months in jail:

Kamran Akhtar, 36, from Pakistan, was arrested in July after the police found him videotaping the FBI headquarters in Charlotte. When the police reviewed the tape in his camera, they found it full of other shots of skyscrapers and other American landmarks across the country. He has been jailed since July, but after the government was unable to prove that he had any connection to terrorists, he was charged with five immigration offenses, including false possessing identification cards. This week he was sentenced to six months impisonment on those charges, in effect time served, and will be deported shortly.

News article here.

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    Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentenced | 14 comments (14 topical)
    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 09:16:24 PM EST
    Good thing, lets just hope we dont see this guy in the news for anything else again.

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 09:35:28 PM EST
    So that is the best that homeland can do? we are all doomed. good god help us all from our insane government. oh hell i have over 1000 videotapes will i get 100 years for that?

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#3)
    by scarshapedstar on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 10:03:51 PM EST
    Well, I certainly feel safer now; who knows what might happen if people had access to pictures of New York City skyscrapers?

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 07:17:40 AM EST
    scar lol. great post!

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 07:18:35 AM EST
    While I generally agree with the premise that this is Bad, I have to say that the headline is not exactly fair. He wasn't sentenced for Naughty Photography, he was sentenced for immigration violations. Suppose cops stopped someone for jaywalking, then found out he was wanted for murder. Would the appropriate headline after his trial be "Jaywalker Sentenced to Death"?

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#6)
    by kdog on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 01:06:29 PM EST
    Quick...pull all of those Empire State Bldg. postcards off the shelves!

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 01:47:18 PM EST
    Yes, but it's not illegal to videotape skyscrapers, even under the Patriot Act. That whole warning was designed to drum up fear, villainizing something that thousands of tourists do every stinking day in this country. It's idiotic to think that by going after guys with cameras who video bridges and buildings will stop terrorism. Sure, terrorists might engage in that behavior, but they also go to restaurants, rent cars, and do just about everything else that someone visiting a city would do. If we really want to protect the U.S. we have to stop all tourism, afterall, it almost rhymes with terrorist, and in some parts of the country they are indestinguishable in the local parlance.

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 01:50:33 PM EST
    What I was getting at but forgot to say is that he was stopped for video taping skyscrapers, questioned and searched for videotaping skyscrapers and only after that was he charged with immigration violations. Unlawful search and seizure in my view.

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 04:11:46 PM EST
    "He wasn't sentenced for Naughty Photography, he was sentenced for immigration violations." "You don't go to trial with the charges you want, you go to trial with the charges you've got." -- Donald Rumsfeld His case is simply immigration, like almost all of Aschroft's other prosecutions. Millions spent on Homeland Security units (mainly for political repression and dirty tricks), and all they find is some guy with a fake ID who (previously) loved American architecture. What are you supposed to take pictures of? Bush's corporate b*tt-licking smirk? That's OK. Tourism is officially illegal. Scr*w the economy.

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 26, 2005 at 05:58:31 PM EST
    Since I live in Charlotte, I can speak with some veracity on this topic. Charlotte may be the second biggest banking center in the United States, but there are so many pictures of the city available through public means as to render that man's taking pictures of them moot. What concerned me even more was, at the same time this man was being arrested, a teenager from the Raleigh suburb of Fuquay-Varina was caught with half a dozen pipe bombs in his car after a hit-and-run in another Raleigh suburb, Cary. When they searched the kid's house, they found another half-dozen pipe bombs. Granted, they weren't very powerful, but it makes you wonder where the real threat to homeland security lies--in a foreigner who happens to be doing touristy things, or an undisciplined teenager who grew up here all his life. Anyone beside me think the Oklahoma City bombing was worse than 9/11?

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 11:55:10 AM EST
    The man had several fake drivers licenses on him, was surveilling public buildings, and had definitive ties to terrrorist organizations, and lied to investigators about his story. Oh yeah, he's a tourist. Maybe we should have bought him some more film for his camera before we sent him on his merry way.

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 02:07:14 PM EST
    claxton... Anyone beside me think the Oklahoma City bombing was worse than 9/11? Are you serious???? Or just crazy? SOOO typical of you libs.... shame on us for picking on this poor tourist. All he was doing is taking pictures. Yeah...you'd all be screaming the loudest about how inept the government was if they let him go and he did do something. Speaking of inept government...wasn't that the issue in OK city bombing... didn't thses guys hate the government? Much like most of the libs on here? It's you nut bags that we should also be concerned with isn't it.

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 07:42:54 PM EST
    Uh, dagma? You say this: "The man...had definitive ties to terrrorist organizations...." From the talkleft blurb: "the government was unable to prove that he had any connection to terrorists..." From the CNN story: "Federal authorities are not known to have uncovered ties between Akhtar and terrorists." You might want to try reading sometime. It's amazing what it'll do for your reading compreh- Oh. Um, forget it.

    Re: Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentence (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 10:11:27 PM EST
    Hey Skeptics 'R Us...you present yourself as well informed given the fact that you read/watch the likes of TalkLeft and CNN. Do you realize how ridiculous your message is!! Oh. Um, forget it

    Pakistani Who Took Skyscraper Photos Sentenced | 14 comments (14 topical)