Posted on 07/15/2004 6:19:30 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
A WWS Exclusive Article
Note from the Editors: You are about to read an account of what happened during a domestic flight that one of our writers, Annie Jacobsen, took from Detroit to Los Angeles. The WWS Editorial Team debated long and hard about how to handle this information and ultimately we decided it was something that should be shared. What does it have to do with finances? Nothing, and everything. Here is Annie's story.
On June 29, 2004, at 12:28 p.m., I flew on Northwest Airlines flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles with my husband and our young son. Also on our flight were 14 Middle Eastern men between the ages of approximately 20 and 50 years old. What I experienced during that flight has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats.
On that Tuesday, our journey began uneventfully. Starting out that morning in Providence, Rhode Island, we went through security screening, flew to Detroit, and passed the time waiting for our connecting flight to Los Angeles by shopping at the airport stores and eating lunch at an airport diner. With no second security check required in Detroit we headed to our gate and waited for the pre-boarding announcement. Standing near us, also waiting to pre-board, was a group of six Middle Eastern men. They were carrying blue passports with Arabic writing. Two men wore tracksuits with Arabic writing across the back. Two carried musical instrument cases – thin, flat, 18" long. One wore a yellow T-shirt and held a McDonald's bag. And the sixth man had a bad leg -- he wore an orthopedic shoe and limped. When the pre-boarding announcement was made, we handed our tickets to the Northwest Airlines agent, and walked down the jetway with the group of men directly behind us.
My four-year-old son was determined to wheel his carry-on bag himself, so I turned to the men behind me and said, "You go ahead, this could be awhile." "No, you go ahead," one of the men replied. He smiled pleasantly and extended his arm for me to pass. He was young, maybe late 20's and had a goatee. I thanked him and we boarded the plan.
Once on the plane, we took our seats in coach (seats 17A, 17B and 17C). The man with the yellow shirt and the McDonald's bag sat across the aisle from us (in seat 17E). The pleasant man with the goatee sat a few rows back and across the aisle from us (in seat 21E). The rest of the men were seated throughout the plane, and several made their way to the back.
(Excerpt) Read more at womenswallstreet.com ...
I just heard that this woman and her husband were on MSNBC last night--Scarboro Country. Stay tuned for more national exposure.
I wish that he'd have told them before 911, unfortunately, he only told the FAA and didnt report to fbi until after ward, then they investigated his story, only to find out that the four men he saw were indeed the 911 hjs. so thanks to the lack of enthusiastic scrutiny on the TSA and FAA, and not warning the FBI of this incident, thousands died. I fear that thousands will die again because the liberals want to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy, even the goons with razors in their pockets.
lets put em all in the Malocci crunch!
I agree, and the big question is, which will answer everything either way is WHERE WERE THESE "MUSICIANS" PLAYING? has the head of CIA or FBI or whatever confirmed that these guys were actually a band with a gig date at a casino in LA or was that not further investigated...our intelligence agency is so nerve wracking....
he told the FAA before, but didn't say anything to the FBI until afterward. SEE the interview with Bill O'Reilly in old archives on the net for more details.
the thing I want to know is why were these 14 men allowed to stand up during decent when everyone including the stew's were seated and buckled? if i did that with a bunch of my friends, we'd be thrown in prison and fined. this is a felony if im not mistaken...?? what gives, have we become so spineless in our attempts not to offend or overwhelm anyone from the middle east? they are going to kill us again...we're so stupid and they know it..thanks to most of our policy, we're already the laughing stock for most of the world, in addition, we let the trash come in from all of our borders and it shites on us like in 911! At least we have plenty of fruited plains as we will need the space to put all the corpses.
i think it's just you... the FAA didn't get excited about something that didn't happen when J.woods reported his experience to them. four men acting suspiciously, four men who flew planes into buildings in new york, four men who were not stopped because 'nothing happened' our country will kill itself from the inside out due to our overwhelming naivety. I don't think we need to run around like chickens with our heads chopped off (no pun intended), or live in fear of these guys, but we need to get tough and keep out the trash.
...time to take out the trash...
I confess to being riveted by the story to the very end, when it was revealed that nothing happened and they were just musicians. Jacobsen almost seemed disappointed, so she had to make the strange claim that al Qaeda doubles as a music school.
what good are odds to families who's unfortunates were the unlucky smoldering corpses at the base of the twin towers? Being hysterical at the prospect of one becoming the next smoldering corpse seems to me absolutely rational behavior. Nothing happened...keep saying that, something will happen very soon...and if some want hysteria to go through their mind as their last mortal thoughts, why deny them that without criticism? the author was not the only person on that flight getting emotional if you'll read it again, she is simply the only one with the seeds to bring it to the public realm. I only wish our security divisions would take as much passion about their jobs and actively root out these snakes.
i don't think Id breath a sigh of relief yet, at least in terms of our 'system' being functional and in place. I think we rely on a system of passivity or less is more rather than taking action. why were these guys allowed to stand up upon decent without the stew's getting in their face? don't get me wrong, it is great they landed without incident, but soon one of these birds will not and it will be due to our failed system.
you see, thats the problem. beauractats worry only about the bottom line...always with the nonsensical numbers and 'facts' and odds...etcc. blah. It's also been said by particular airlines that it's more cost efficient for them to have an airplane crash and the fam's of everyone aboard sue, than to spend and update to fix their flying coffins...no one is concerned about numbers, its the fact of killing americans no one likes. can you just be ok with the fact that some are concerned about that and not so much about facts and figures.
your profound insight is always so useful to us sheeple...(pulls up prayer rug to have a seat and listen to more pontificating)...however, i don't think what we are seeing here is panic. 'nothing happened' as you so redundantly remind us, on might think a panic would have triggered a more animated response from our 'worthy' air marshalls and stew's, possibly involving these towel heads or not...a panic this was not....(grin)
B70
Ive heard that the chief of airmarshals, dave something I think, you could look it up, spoke about the incident and was showing concern that the stewardess gave up the info about the marshall on board..
also, in a holding pattern in Lisbon in 757 i can see out the opposite window and look over the city, which doesnt have the overall height of LA, therefore I believe she could have seen what she said. all the plan needs to do is tip a little as they do often while slowing air speed to prepare for landing...the plane takes more care to balance at lower speeds. one dip would have given her a clear view..
Why? The only reason I can think of is that political correctness is not at all dead. It will not die completely until they hit us again, at least several more times, if then.
it so readily apparent that I am in the presence of a magnimous sparkling intellect.
/sarcasm
Let me assure you, I am no fool. You may regard me a fool, but do so at your own peril. If you take the time to peruse the history of FR you will find I have been right much much more than I have been wrong. Perhaps you use this forum to compensate for what you feel are your intellectual shortcomings, but, your comments alone do not elevate you to a level where you can pontificate and demean others thoughts and fears. It is my opinion that if ANYONE on this forum feels uncomfortable traveling in a means that could place them at risk from islamic terrorism, the, it is their right to express rtheir opinion and exercise their belief. Your "suck it up" attitude is not appreciated in the way that you expressed it. Perhaps you have testosterone poisoning that allows for you to bellow about how reduced the threat is, but, as one who is currently very active in law enforcenment (I am a cop), and who is distressed at the level of PC that is being foisted off on the scroats that mean to do harm to our country, I can readily sympathize with several of the comments expressed.
As far as I am concerned, and this is the only discourse you receive from me ever again, you seem to fall into the "Here, hold mah beer" segment of the population.
With that, I bid you adieu' and Bon chance..
Semper Fidelis
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1175917/posts Check this out. More to follow. I can't tell you everything, but watch.
Is GWB trying to cover this up?
Oh BTW change it to Whimper Vitalis. If you were a Marine, you were not much of one.
>>Why would they mouth "no" in English?
Actually, one word for "no" in Arabic is "na" so it is possible that they weren't using English.
Uh, not to sound rude, but do you REALLY want an all-arab all-Muslim aircraft flying not 2 miles from OUR flights?
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on burying the gun in LA (Lord only knows the laws you were probably breaking just possessing the thing) but I would be just as worried about leaving the thing behind for some thug to use and implicate you, leaving open the chances for a midnight visit from your local LEO which is never a good thing.
Hopefully you did your best to tear the gun up best you could before leaving it behind.
I also don't blame you for not mailing it back or stuffing it in your checked bag. You now have to declare firearms in checked bag which adds to the pain of flying. For that reason I rarely fly any more.
But when I think if what I used to take through gate security before 9.11 (knives etc) it still amazes me.
BTW a pretty good snake gun is a over/under 410 pistol that shoots 410s or 45 Long Colts. Not something for fun shooting but it did me well one summer I did surveying work. Of course the best defense is two instinctive steps back to safety but I could never resist popping a rattlesnake.
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