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It Just Looks Like a Penis Pump Mom
08.24.2006, 06:17 PM

A Cook County judge has decided there is enough evidence to prosecute
a man who says an airport security guard misheard him when she
thought he said that a sexual device in his backpack was actually a
bomb.

Mardin Amin claims he actually told the guard the small, black object
was a "pump" - as in a penis pump.

Amin's attorney said her client was embarrassed to explain the object
in front of his mother, who was traveling with him, so he whispered.
The guard misunderstood, and thought he said "bomb," according to
defense attorney Eileen O'Neill-Burke.

"His mother is standing there so, under his breath, he says, 'It's a
pump. Put it away. Put it away,'" O'Neill-Burke told The Associated
Press on Thursday. The guard asked him again and he repeated that the
object was a pump, the attorney said.

O'Neill-Burke added that Amin, an Iraqi, has a thick accent and she
herself had trouble understanding him until he brought the pump to
her office and showed it to her. She said she recently learned that
Arabic speakers sometimes have trouble distinguishing the sounds "p"
and "b."

However, Judge Gerald Winiecki decided there was sufficient evidence
for the case to move forward after the female security guard
testified that she heard Amin "clearly" say the word bomb on Aug. 16
at O'Hare International Airport.

Amin, 29, of Skokie, is charged with felony disorderly conduct and
faces up to three years in prison if convicted. He was released on
$75,000 bond and is due back in court Sept. 13. O'Neill-Burke said he
will plead not guilty then.

Amin told the Chicago Sun-Times after the hearing that security
officials did not give him a chance to explain the misunderstanding,
that he would never use the word "bomb" while going through a
security checkpoint, and does not consider a penis pump an unusual
object to own.

"It's normal," he said. "Half of America they use it."

"Half of America uses it ?????"

I don't think so

Not sure about the guy in the article.... but like many Arabs, my husband also mixes up the "b" and "p" sounds -- when he says he needs to stop at the "gas pump," it sounds like he's saying "gas bomb" -- so I can see how this could possibly happen.

My husband also gets his p's and b's mixed..even when he writes or types english. the bolice for the police

Mohammed sometimes struggles with this too. In his letter to the Consul regarding his intentions towards me he wrote "I feel like I have known her since I was porn." Ohhhhhh k. I wonder how times she reread that line.

The other thing we laugh over is his study is in hotel and tourism. Well, when an Egyptian says "tourism" it sounds an aweful lot like "terrorism". We have had some real hoots over that but he is always VERY CAREFUL to annunciate that one properly.

Mohammed if you read this... Honey I'm not making fun at you. You just tickle me. Remember when I butchered Arabic so bad instead of saying "I love you" I said "doorknob"?