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 ...
If a group of Islamic fanatic suicide bombers wanted to blow up a plane of passengers and no one intervened until it was absolutely clear there was a bomb, then the passengers can all kiss their asses goodbye. They and the suicide bombers are all going to be dead unless the agents on board can overwhelm them and prevent them from detonating the bomb.
It would be foolhardy for air marshals to identify themselves unless they are ready to make arrests. Recently, a Russian woman struck a male flight attendant before takeoff because she wouldn't turn off her cellphone on the tarmac. What resulted was all three air marshals getting up from their seats to arrest her.
Fine, except it makes for a great diversion to identify where the air marshals are sitting.
Of course nothing else happened on that flight, but we have to think out of the box if they're thinking out of the box.
Why would they mouth "no" in English?
This was either a dry run or an attempt to scare the bejeemus out of everyone on the plane. Either way. it is terrorism.
Profiling only goes so far.
>>After reading the entire article, I realize that nothing actually happened on the flight. Suspicious activity? Perhaps. But the flight went on, landed safely, and nothing untoward happened.
I think you may have missed a point in the article. This appeared to be a practice/trial run. Not a bad process, they will simply need to get more of the "lily whites" recruited to make it work. Too many folks are now walking around in condition yellow (see Cooper conditions, not DHS) for swarthy ME types to pull it off (hence the article).
>>I refuse to live in fear of everyone who doesn't look like me.
It isn't fear, but alertness and recognition that there are, in fact, evil people out there. So, don't live in fear. Hopefully there will be enough people out there with training and determination (I don't mention means because that has been totally taken away by the "fly naked" rules in place now), to try and minimize the impact of any attacks by people who may or may not look differently but absolutely, think differently.
Stay alert,
I have long believed that. It's stories like this that keep me from losing sleep over whether Bush is re-elected or not. If one of these "dry runs" ever becomes the real thing, then it will have happened on his and Ashcroft's watch.
The courage Bush showed in pressing on against Saddam and his evil henchmen needs to be shown here against the equally insidious forces of political correctness. Every time he refers to the "religion of peace", he shows me that he doesn't "get it" any more than Karry.
I suspect they're trained not to give away their identities until an attack is in progress. These blatantly suspicious activities may well have been an attempt to draw out the marshals prior to the attack.
The article said the guys were let go as they weren't on any 'no-fly' list or terrorist watch list. The sure as h-ll had better be on ALL the lists now! If not, it's only a matter of time before they pull something else off. This was a probe mission, no doubt about it. It might even have been a aborted strike by the sounds of it. The alphabet agencies better have these guys on the radar screen. If not, I would consider it dereliction.
I travel alot. I've never seen an aircraft with more than three mid-East men on board. Had I been on a plane with 14 middle Eastern men on board and seemingly knowing each other, I would have made it known before takeoff the situation was uncomfortable and I would ask to either remove the men, assure me of the safety of the aircraft, or provide me a different flight(if my schedule allowed.) If none of these were options, I would make sure I talked with my fellow passengers around me and made it known, loud and clear, that we were watching and if anything extra-ordinary were happening, that I, and my fellow passengers would take action with out regard to the consequences.
These men were acting in ways which they knew would attract attention and create fear. There was nothing subtle about their actions. So I'm wondering - what does that tell us? That they know that they are protected by PC attitudes? Was this whole episode just a case of taunting? Are they thumbing their noses at us because they know that even after 9-11 we are still not taking the necessary steps to stop them?
Very overactive imagination.
Great, I fly tomorrow.
The easy answer to this problem is to allow a couple of them in one lavatory, then declare it out of order and force the rest to use the other. Half a bomb in each lavatory is better than a whole one in one.
Printed for after I eat(no drinking on an enpty stomach ;-)
But these A-rab musicians were probably just a'smokin' a little dope in the boys room. Geez, even I don't believe that. ME guy tries to take a bag to the bathroom on a flight I'm on - from now on I will grab the bag as he comes down the aisle, inspect it, and return it to him if just food. Not food? Time to pile-on the perps.
Banning all carry-on luggage would destroy the airlines financially. No way I travel on business as much as I do if it requires checking luggage all the time. I had to check my luggage last month when I was on business for a week, and it was awful.
Many other business travelers feel the same. I need to get in and out of the airport - not stand around a luggage carousel with 48 screaming 3-year olds waiting on the 80% chance my bag actually arrived. And I certainly don't need my laptop sitting on the tarmac in a driving rainstorm, waiting to get tossed into the luggage compartment by a $7/hour nitwit.
Aren't cell phones being used to detonate bombs? The writer spoke about a guy taking his cell phone into the bathroom.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.