An internet prankster and hacker known on LJ as tongodeon says,
For the last year or two, a friend and I have been giving our friends Casio F-91w wristwatches. They are cheap, reliable, and a reason why 28 prisoners have been held in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo. In late October I attended a rally in Reno, NV and gave an F-91w and letter to Barack Obama via a senior staffer on the national campaign team. Today Barack Obama issued an executive order closing Guantanamo. The wire photos don’t show him wearing my watch, but I still feel a little vindicated today.
Here’s his post about the affair, and here’s a snip from his letter to President Barack Obama (OMG that feels awesome to blog for the first time):
I’ve been volunteering for your campaign because of this watch, the Casio model F-91w. These watches cost $7.50 in quantity. They are cheap, waterproof, and reliable. They are common throughout the developing world. And they have been listed by the Department of Defense as a reason for the continued extrajudicial detention of the 28 Guantanamo detainees listed on the following page.
In 1995, US intelligence recovered a document in Manila by Ramzi Yousef describing how to use this watch as the timing device for a bomb. Ahmed Ressam, the “millennial bomber” was captured with two Casio F91Ws. As a result, when Pakistani police and the Northern Alliance turned over alleged Taliban members to the military, their ordinary watches were identified as evidence that they were terrorists.
How pathetic that such a return to sanity is such a big deal.
#1 well said.
I had one of those back in college. The display died in ’84, but the hour and daily alarms still worked, so we left it next to the apartment kitchen table. And I just noticed a couple of weeks ago that a friend still wears one. Twenty-five years is a hell of a production run for a piece of electronics.
I note Obama has succeeded in keeping an (encrypted) Blackberry
I’m wearing that watch right now. I bought mine about a year ago though.
BCJ: Terrorist.