“I was sitting on the deck overlooking the Red Sea. Israeli security officers (most who looked around 18 years old) had completed around two hours of questioning and searching me. They had pressed every sock and scarf with a security device, ripped open soap and had me strip extra layers. They asked me tons of questions–where are you going? Who do you know? Do you have a boyfriend? Is he Arab, Egyptian, Palestinian? Why do you live in Egypt? Why not Israel? What do you know about the ‘conflict’ here? What do you think? They quized me on Judaism, which I know nothing about,” Lily Sussman reports via her blog.
“Then they asked me to wait. Since they had asked for friends and families phone numbers I assumed they might be calling to verify my answers to questions or confirm I really had extended family in Tel Aviv. An announcement played over the sound system, interrupting my break in the sunshine. First in Hebrew, then Arabic, then in English. It was something along the lines of, ‘do not to be alarmed by gunshots because the Israeli security needs to blow up suspicious passanger luggage,'” Sussman reports.
“I went inside to check on my bag. I had left it unattended, where they instructed. It was still there so I went back outside,” Sussman reports. “Moments later a man came outside and introduced himself as the manager on duty. And then, ‘I’m sorry but we had to blow up your laptop.'”
Sussman reports, “What….all my client case notes and testimony, writing, pictures, music and applications. Years of work. NO!!!! What?? Are you insane?? What were you thinking? THAT’S ALL MY WORK!?”
“After much yelling, crying and frantic phone dialing (don’t be alarmed if I called you repeatedly this morning), he took me outside to see the wreckage,” Sussman reports. “It turned out it hadn’t been quite blown up, but rather shot through with three bullets. We were able to extract the hard drive, seemingly unscaved. Thank goodness…”
Read more in the full article, along with more and larger images, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Let this serve as a lesson: You never know what’s going to happen, so remember to regularly back up your data and store it in a safe place!
[Attribution: Gizmodo. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bill in Sarasota” for the heads up.]
I know it’s rough over there but JEEZ that sounds like over reacting. I wonder if a true story?
Kenh
In theory you attempt to disrupt the firing chain. Remove one of three links and you stop a device from exploding. These particular security agents are related to Larry, Moe and Curly.
Shoot first, ask questions later?
What a stupid way to disarm a bomb in unattended bag at the airport: shoot it. Or did they actually expect that there is a terrorist hiding there?
I had a similar experience at the Ben Gurion airport. They took away the adapter of my PowerBook. They told me “if you didn’t like, you can sue El AL”.
They always put some kids to investigate you, and these kids love to play 007 and show you they have some “power”. I’m jewish but I’m pretty aware the youngsters in Israel are very sick and spoiled.
@Mac-nugget
First, the British and the UN established Israel, it’s not as if the Jews marched in and said “we’re taking this.” Second, weren’t the Jews “displaced and dispossessed” from Israel first? So what you’re really trying to say is that the Jews should be in a war with the Romans? Third, while it’s true that Jews and Muslims are fighting constantly, I’ve never heard of Christians being involved, where do you get that information?
Scott Rose has 2 great articles on backups on his blog here:
Online Internet backups:
http://scottworldblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/apple-backups-in-the-cloud/
ChronoSync and ChronoAgent backups:
http://scottworldblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/chronosync/
Off topic, but without the work of the Intel engineers in Israel there would be no Macbook Pro. Probably no Intel.
Keep in mind there may be more to the story.
Well, it could be the security officer had never encountered a Mac before. Apple has only a limited presence in the country, and Apple’s made no apparent effort to grow that presence. This, despite the fact that its Core processor was developed there (including the latest i5/i7), as was flash memory. Microsoft, in contrast, employs thousands there, and people think “Windows” when they think PC.
Don’t mock the youngsters who often man the security lines there. Those 20-year olds have a lot more experience dealing with this threat than you know. Just this week one 14-year old tried to cross with a knife and two pipe bombs (he admitted he wanted to do “jihad”) and a few days earlier someone was caught carrying *six* pipe bombs.
Me, I’ve gone through their security many times over the decades, most recently in 2008. Never had a problem.
Cloud computing could save all of this.
BTW, Israel is a liberal democracy, with a free press more vigorous than anything in the US. It’s just located in an impossibly tough neighborhood.
@macRick
That’s not Carmen SanDiego… That is Elektra.
And what the hell is scaved?
She sounds like she is a social worker or an attorney and she doesn’t know it is “unscathed”?
Haven’t Intel got a factory in Israel?
Wouldn’t it be way better for all parts if the state of Israel was established in the US? I think all parts would be way happier.
Not very bright, are they?
If it was dangerous, shooting it could/would have set it off.
If it had information that THEY really needed, could/would have been destroyed.
If it had been communicating with some device, loss of signal could/would have activated it.
They were just being dicks. There was not a valid, rational reason to shoot the computer.
Don’t know how accurate all the details are here, but I do know that the most apt comparison to the state of Israel in modern history was South Africa before the end of Apartheid.
I’m Jewish and not in the least self-hating but facts are facts. “Palestinians” were just sitting there minding their business until Israel decided to invade their country and take them hostage. It shouldn’t be that hard too understand. It’s a shame more people in this country don’t know their history.
And a bigger shame this country continues to support and prop up this “benevolent” dictatorship.
@Please
Man, you never heard of the crusades or of the holly inquisition. Dude, you need to recap on your history. What about the holocaust, didn’t the Germans systematically attempted to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe. What religious denominations did the Nazi regim endorse? Look it up. Learn a bit of history. Also, you state that the Israel belongs to the Jewish people because that is where they came from. So, what you have to say of the American Indian?? Off course, those that were not annihilated.
By the way, I support the existence of the state of Israel what I don’t support is the marginalization of the Palestinian people in to a subhuman status, just like I do not endorse the Nazi marginalization and systematic extermination of the Jews people during the Holocaust.
I happen to have very good jewish and palestinian friends.
I personally don’t believe in god, so to me, all this fruitless killing and power struggle seems quite a pitiful and stupid. It goes hand in hand with the divisive village mentality of nationalism and the like.
It looks like they missed the hard drive.
What? Someone hasn’t blamed President Obama for this yet?
MDN is slipping.
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@Israel has enemies
F-u-c-k y-o-u.
@Mac-nugget
Jews have been living uninterruptedly in the Land of Israel for thousands of years. Jews are the native people of the land.
The arab palestinians are just a tool and an excuse to attack israelis. And you love it!
OY VEY! KIDS!
Since Please isn’t responding, I suppose I’ll do it for him/her:
1. The Crusades were a retaliation against Muslim invasion of Europe. Yes, it was Christians fighting Muslims, but more broadly it was Europeans fighting Middle Easterners.
2. The Spanish Inquisition was a response to 700 years of war, again started by invading Muslims (via Gibraltar).
3. You are correct in that Nazi Germany was dominated by Christians, but the Jews were not killed because of religious intolerance, they were killed because of racism (Aryan vs. Jewish).
4. Why do you draw the conclusion about Native Americans? What does that have to do with anything? Completely different situation, in a completely different era of history.
5. Why is it only Israel that gets blame for “marginalizing” the Palestinians. I don’t see Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, or any other Arab country welcoming them with open arms.
So… we just take this writers “word” for it? Holy propoganda… that thing could be photo shopped, ccould be a prop from a movie, could be anything. Believe me, if the IDF wanted to blow that thing up, the hard drive would not have been recoverable. There is an insane amount of BS in these comments, and perhaps a completely fabricated article.
Looks fake, if the bullets passed through the tap as it appears then why cant we see through the holes???
LOL is this what premium CRAPPLE calls it when it’s broken in 3 shots.
After spending a lot of time in Israel, the security forces have to do what they have to do. When your citizens are constantly subjected to suicide bombers, racism, hatred, and attacks, civil rights aren’t high on the list of concerns.
And I’m sure there is more to this story. Since it makes no sense to shoot a computer for many reasons, I’m guessing something else happened. It’s kinda like Tiger Woods. First story he was in a traffic accident. Now, he’s had sex with everyone but Oprah.
This story is one person’s retelling with no supporting evidence of what happened other than a picture.