Posted on 06/09/2008 4:17:23 AM PDT by Badabing Badablonde
Reporters from the Al Jazeera television network were questioned by Matagorda County Sheriff deputies when they were found filming near the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company plant site Tuesday, June 3.
The reporters were from Al Jazeera English’s Washington D.C. broadcast center.
Al Jazeera English is a television network — headquartered in Doha, Qatar — that purposes to be the English-language channel of reference for Middle Eastern events.
According to Captain Stephen Crow, Matagorda County Sheriff Department spokesman, three individuals were spotted filming on the public road right-of-way just outside of the one-mile buffer zone in front of the STP plant site.
The deputy patrolling the STP perimeter questioned the three reporters who told him they were doing a story on uranium mining and its effects on Kingsville farmers.
“They told the deputy the reason they were filming at this site is because it was the only one they knew of who had recent hearings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for plant expansion,” said Crow.
Other deputies were dispatched to help with questioning and to run background checks on the reporters, said Crow.
“We ran extensive background checks on each individual and found no criminal history or other problems,” said Crow.
“Two were Canadian nationals and one was based in Washington D.C.”
According to Crow, there was no breech of security and the reporters never approached the plant.
“They did a brief filming off of the public roadway and they left,” Crow said.
Sheriff deputies notified STP officials with everything they discovered after questioning the reporters.
“We also learned that they notified the plant on different occasions trying to set up an onsite interview and STP officials declined to meet with them,” said Crow.
Matagorda County Sheriff Department will be working with state and federal law enforcement agencies to keep them briefed on the incident, said Crow.
“Our office is going to continue to monitor this situation,” said Crow.
According to Crow, the cooperation between the Matagorda County Sheriff Department and STP security worked well when tested today.
“We test and we train on instances like this and the speed and cooperation with which our deputies responded to the situation proved how well the coordination efforts work,” said Crow.
Uh huh....uranium mining.....Kingsville.....that's why they were way the heck up in Matagorda County.
What’s incredible is the reporter’s English.
“......purposes to be the English language channel of reference...” What does “purposes” mean in this sentence?
Yeah, that’s the really important part of this story, MadJack.
There is a reason why she’s not reporting for WaPo.
ON THE INTERNET:
www.youtube.com/user/aljazeerachannel
www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEnglish
LLS
I said “incredible,” “important.”
The importance of this event - I won’t call it an incident because on the surface it doesn’t make the cut - is yet to be determined. Was that Al Jazeera crew doing pre-mission reconnaisance for some group? I doubt it - believe it or not AJ actually does legitimate news stories, depending on your point of view - but you never know.
Anyway, what I was commenting about was the somewhat humorous, to me anyway, context of that sentence. Enjoy your morning coffee, I’ve got a briefing to get ready for.
oops! forgot to put “not” between incredible and important
Looks like I need a cup of hot joe myself.
Its Monday. :)
I guess they meant “purports”. Which would have been a very strong thing to say, shame the article-writer used “purposed” instead.
Someone is relying too much on their spell checker.
I believe the correct form in this context is "purports": http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=purport
Could they have actually meant “porpoises”? Perhaps they’re actually Atlanteans who’ve allied themselves with the Dolphin King to overthrow us and reestablish their Dominion over the Land.
Or “purports’ probably works, but there’s no fun story. We need fun stories.
Cut their heads off.
“...were doing a story on uranium mining and its effects on Kingsville farmers.”
What is the interest of this story to American muslims and people back in the Middle East?
Propaganda effort to show the “evils” of American efforts at reduced dependence on Middle Eastern oil?
Newspapers no longer have human proof readers or copy editors, so bizarre things happen. I go through my morning paper looking for bizarre homonyms, since many writers now dictate their stories into a voice recognition program (I’m a translator, and I often do the same with my translations). But believe me, you’ve got to be really, REALLY careful to check it over afterwards, and a reporter usually doesn’t have time.
Actually, they were spying on the nuclear installation, and that was clearly their cover story. Their cover stories are always sooooo lame.
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