Independent Perspective News

NEW YORK.- The White House's growing war rhetoric and the FBI's constant alarms for possible terrorist attacks have only created such a high degree of paranoia among Americans that even a joke on the Talibans can be interpreted as a threat for public security.

Anyway, that's what happened the night before yesterday on a bus heading to New York, which arose fear of a suicide attack and gave way to a police and media operation - as seen in Hollywood.

It all started soon after a bus of the Greyhound company left Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, heading to New York with 30 passengers on board. Due to the Thanksgiving celebrations, the traffic on the bus' traditional road to Manhattan was too heavy and the driver decided to take an alternative way. "Many people were angry and making fun of the driver -one passenger said. They would scream things like "Do you know what you're doing?" and "You're going to have us all lost". The man was clearly irritated."

Then, Mickens had the bad idea to grab the microphone and answer back: "Don't worry, I'm taking you to the Talibans", making a reference to the deposed Afghan leaders who sheltered terrorist Osama ben Laden.

Too sensitive when it comes to terrorism, several passengers took out their cell phones and called 911, who alerted the police of the State of New Jersey.

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This is not the first time ordinary people, under the influence of the rise in the number of alert codes established by the FBI, have warned the police about some suspicious attitude, package or vehicle. On September 10, during a state of alert because of the anniversary of last year's attacks, two men who were having coffee on a van parked one block away from the Brooklyn bridge were arrested after a pedestrian mistook their thermos flask for a missil and called the police, who blocked the bridge and surrounded the suspects.

A few days later, a woman from Georgia provoked an interstate hunt when she alerted the police about three Arab-looking men who had been talking about the September 11 attacks at a restaurant and who, according to her, were planning a new attack in Miami.