So Ahmed Mohamed made a clock that wasn’t a bomb. Then, someone with intent to defame the kid created a meme of Ahmed’s clock and “an actual suitcase bomb.”
The problem is this: Ahmed’s clock wasn’t a bomb, and the “actual suitcase bomb” isn’t a bomb either.
The only similarities between the two are a bunch wires, computer boards, and power cords. Because every “movie bomb” has a power cord.
Conspicuously missing from each photo is C4, blasting caps, dynamite, nitro glycerin, or gunpowder. The stuff that goes “BOOM.”
How do we know the meme is not a legitimate comparison? Because the image on the right is of a Honeywell demo case. In 2007, an author at Symbiotic Publishing chronicled his trip to Malta and said,
I assume that if you buy a ticket at the last minute in Frankfurt traveling alone to a foreign location that you get a little extra attention from the Bundespolizei. I just hope that they will have all the the time they need to search my bag and still get it on the flight. I’m also happy I didn’t bring the Honeywell demo kit with me it since it is full of electronics and switches and I’m sure it would have raised some questions. [Emphasis mine.]
The section included this photo tagged “Malta, photos, suitcase”:
Here’s another configuration of that same case.
Ahmed’s pencil case is 8.5 x 5.5 x 2.5 inches as determined by this writer who reverse engineered the clock. (He’s no defender of Ahmed, but proves all the parts are clock-related since they came from another clock.) Scaling from the size of the Novell tag and travel tags on the demo case handle, it’s easy to see a width of 16-18 inches, a depth of 4-5 inches and 10-12 inches from hinges to clasps. These cases are not remotely the same size.
And, neither are bombs. The meme is erroneous where it matters most, and that fact may reveal the intent of its creator.
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