In one of the weirder cruise stories I have read in a time, Carnival Cruise Lines kicked off a passenger scheduled to speak on a "low carb diet" cruise on suspicion that he was going to explode dynamite or release Legionnaires virus on the ship.

The bizarre case involves a neurosurgeon from Tennessee who, ironically enough, is named Dr. Kruse (I’m not making this up). Jack Kruse is a popular diet guru / motivational speaker and lost some 130 lbs himself.  He was suppose to be one of the speakers on a diet cruise aboard an the Magic cruise ship operated by Carnival.    

But instead of sailing last Sunday afternoon out of Galveston, Dr. Kruse found his cabin being searched and being interrogated by Galveston police, Homeland Security, the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard.  When it was all over, Carnival security removed his luggage from the ship and escorted him to the now empty pier.  He had to fetch a taxi and pay for an unanticipated flight back home.  

It turns out that Dr. Kruse has some mischievous enemies on Twitter.  A twitter user named @shitkrusesays (now deleted) tweeted: "Security confiscated dynamite. talk won’t be as explosive as at PaleoFx. still have vial of Legionnaires for epic biohack"

Dr. Kruse had no connection to that Twitter account, but that did not stop the police from searching his computers and turning his cabin upside down.

In addition, Carnival was contacted by a caller named "Lance" who informed them a doctor aboard the Carnival Magic was planning a viral bio-hack.

Dr. Kruse says that eventually the FBI, Homeland Security and the Coast Guard were convinced that the incident was a hoax, but the Captain of the cruise ship exercised his discretion to send Dr. Kruse from the ship. 

The following day Carnival contacted Dr. Kruse and offered to fly him to Montego Bay to meet up with the cruise he missed. The doctor declined the offer.  The captain of the ship also sent a letter to the pssengers explaining the situation (below).

Meanwhile, the FBI is supposedly investigating who was behind the malicious tweets from @shitkrusesays. 

Perhaps Carnival was a little jumpy after the news last week that al Qaeda had considered seizing a cruise ship and terrorizing the passengers.  But Dr. Kruse’s web site hardly looks like a front for an al Qaeda terrorist.

 

Sources: News Channel 5 – Tennessee;  News 5 – Nashville

Video: News Channel 5 

Photo: Dr. Jack Kruse

Letter: Scribd (cottrellrelocation)