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Malicious tweeted terror hoax gets Dr. Kruse booted off cruise ship
One of the weirder news stories I have read in a long time: Carnival Cruise Lines kicked off a passenger scheduled to given a speech on a cruise on suspicion that he was going to commit an act of terror on the ship.The bizarre case involves a neurosurgeon from Tennessee who is named Dr. Kruse (I'm not making this up). Jack Kruse is also a popular motivational speaker. He was suppose to speak on May 7th as part of the 5th annual "Low-Carb Cruise". Police became suspicious of Kruse due to a tweet posted May 6. It read security confiscated dynamite. talk won't be as explosive as one at PaleoFx. still have vial of Legionnaires for epic biohack. #lccruise12. The tweet appeared to come from Jack Kruse. Later it was discovered the tweet was posted by an imposter. Carnival was also informed by a caller who told them a doctor on board was planning to perform a "viral bio hack" aboard the ship. Before he could sail on May 6 out of Galveston, Dr. Kruse's cabin was searched and he was interrogated by Galveston police, Homeland Security, the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard. Then ship security removed his luggage and escorted him to the by then empty pier. Dr. Kruse told Nashville's News 2 he was eventually cleared by Homeland Security, but the Carnival ship captain would not let him continue on the cruise. In a letter to the passengers, Capt. Giovanni Cutugno apologized that the doctor would not be available to speak. "Since the safety and well-being of my guests and crew is my number one priority, every security threat is taken seriously and fully investigated," Cutugno wrote. "It is for this reason that I felt it was in the best interest of all my guests to err on the side of caution and not allow him to set sail as planned." Since returning home, Kruse says he's been in contact with the FBI agent who began the investigation. "And he goes, 'we take this very seriously. This carries a 15 to 20 year sentence," Kruse added. "It's amazing, the power of a tweet," he said. A physician I know staying in a cabin in Yellowstone National Park with his wife & children, about 30 years ago, was raided by the FBI one night on the suspicion he was a wanted felon. The cabin was ransacked, everyone lined up outside, he put on the ground & searched, the whole thing. He did resemble the wanted man. He told me this himself. The FBI didn't believe his story until they called the hospital director back home (in the middle of the night) to verify his credentials. At first the director thought he was being hoaxed. I expect baseless accusations combined with the anonymity of social media and identity theft will become a popular form of entertainment for those so inclined to mischief, vengeance, paranoia, postpone a final exam, etc. A flood of baseless accusations would at some point overwhelm investigators and could possibly serve as a smoke screen for a real terror attack. Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-05-14 |
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