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[grahamb]

Connoisseurs of b*llsh*t will appreciate the website www.dontvisitoman.com/, the product of a gang of disgruntled meteorite collectors whose trip to Oman didn't go quite as planned. Great fun.

[Hector_Lector]

What a bunch of cry-babies!

[grahamb]

And all because those nasty Ay-rabs wouldn't let them take a few rocks home as souvenirs!

[veiledsentiments]

This is a couple years old and was discussed here before. My first impression looking at that group of sparsely clad ex-military looking sorts was that they were mercenaries who had suddenly developed an interest in rocks. Isn't it odd that all these fellows who share the interest of 'bird watching' and 'rock collection' have never managed to meet any women with the same interest? Neither hobby is exactly dangerous and Oman is so totally safe, where are the wives and/or girlfriends that normal proponents of these hobbies would be traveling with?

Gee... I can't imagine why the Omani authorities were verrrrry suspicious of their game...

VS

[abufletcher]

"Wild camels eating garbage in the streets of Muscat, the capital of Oman"

I'd say the above quote from the site just about sums up the veracity factor of this bizarre site.

Also from reading this guy John's account of their arrest it's clear that he doesn't seem to understand that there is a difference between "being a tourist" and "mounting an expedition." Tourists don't normally ride around remort desert regions in convoys of diesel trucks.

I'm willing to believe that these people are just what they say they are: avid rock hounds (albeit with bit of a macho-soldiers of forture weekend warrior thing thrown in). But they clearly don't have a clue about the way things work in this part of the world. Oman is indeed a safe place with a great deal of personal freedom but the "edges" of this freedom are substantially different than in the US, for example.

[veiledsentiments]

Rather obvious that they have never been anywhere near Muscat isn't it?

It is rather a perfect example of the mis-information that clogs cyberspace...

VS

[grahamb]

I like the photo of the poor souls languishing in detention in a hotel. Camp Delta must be paradise by comparison.

[abufletcher]

I'd be willing to bet that very few of those shirtless "captives" pictured are Americans. We're pretty prudish that way. Russian and Eastern Europeans? Absolutely.

Their ultimate undoing was not following the age old tradition of hiring a couple of local tribal guides.

[veiledsentiments]

More likely being around places that they were not supposed to be... too close to military or perhaps mining or borders or whatever... with equipment that is crossover military (their list of stolen property suggested that each of them had a fancy camera and the latest and greatest GPS stuff...)

I still think the lack of females is one of the most suspicious details...

[abufletcher]

Actually, I've got a pretty good idea of how things like this can go having been arrested and held overnight for espionage in Kuwait for the crime of "carrying cameras in the desert." I was out by the Mutlaq Ridge walking through the desert looking for landscapes when a truck full of soldiers pulled up and insisted that I get in. I was then whisked away to a little concrete bunker with a couple of holding cells and interogated by a Kuwaiti officer. I was not allowed to make any phone calls. While they sought clarification from headquarters (which since this was the weekend was slow in coming) I was invited to drink tea with my guards out front. Strange the way they all laid down their automatic weapons right in front of this dangerous spy! Had I really been James Bond, they wouldn't have stood a chance.

As the sun was going down and there was a beautiful glow on the horizon I kept trying to explain in my limited Arabic that THAT was why I was out in the desert with my cameras. My guards just starred out into the distance straining in vain to try to see "something" that could be photographed.

Eventually about 11:30pm I was transfered down to the anti-espionage headquarters in Kuwait City (near the palace) and again interogated about my job and my activities. Sometime around 3am I was again brought in to see a senior officer who presented me with a letter in Arabic that I was to sign. I didn't understand it and he wasn't in the mood to translate but the thrust of it was "if we ever catch you photographing again without government permission, your ass is grass."

And then, of course, there was the time I was arrested for "witchcraft" in Yemen and politely asked to "get out of town by sundown" on the next available share taxi.

[veiledsentiments]