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 ...
No. It won't happen even then. We'll have outright liberals like Boxer/Feniswine/Schumer telling is why, in no uncertain terms, we had it coming.
And we'll have compassionate conservatives exercising their own brand of political correctness to prove they can out-compassion the Libs.
And that will hold true regardless of the severity of the next attack.
Agreed. Did you hear the one about hijackers taking control of planes and flying them into buildings? That one was a doozy.
Precisely...the terrists want to do a complete dry run and find out everything they can about our air marshals: their appearance, how and when they react to a terror threat, the kind of weapons they're carrying, and whether they will use hot coffee as as a weapon (just kidding on the coffee.) But the marshals did the right thing and maintained their cover while giving away no information, just as they're trained.
Round 'em up. Give 'em a polygraph. If they fail, put 'em in Guantanamo. If they're naturalized citizens, pass a law to revoke that citizenship and then imprison them. Throw the bums out of our society.
So will the next 9-11.
I was a planner for mass emergency (post-attack) smallpox immunization. We were stuck for large undercover spaces useable in the winter. My suggestion was to requisition the local mall.
"Oh, no! Our guidance from Washington is that nothing is allowed that will interfere with the economy!"
People who do not think that a mass-casualty smallpox attack will not interfere with the economy should not carry exceutive responsibility.
The airlines are extremely vulnerable to a redo of 9-11, and when it happens they will cease to exist in their present form.
Ban the carryons.
I seem to remember that it was structural failure due to an inherent design flaw in the Airbus 300. Funny how none of those Airbuses were grounded in light of such a discovery.
I think this was an aborted attempt and their obvious actions were not going to be reported from the smoldering heap.
Nice warm fuzzy touchey feeley politically correct mantra ya got there. Shame that chant gets your head chopped off nowdays by those people that don't look like you.
Nah. They refuse to believe that "people who don't look like them" can do them any harm.
Now you get two or three 19 year old white guys holding pocket calculators and they will tackle them to the ground!
What is the deal here? I've been trying to send this via email for an hour and it won't let me. Anyone else having problems?
It's worse than you could ever imagine. I know one of the founders of the modern Left. He's a 60ish professor at UT. He likes to say he hates politics but he is extremely political.
He hates humanity. He views humanity as a plague upon the earth and hopes one day for the microbes to mutate and take us all out.
Hate is the heart of the left. They live on the dark side and death is their goal. Most of them are unconscious about it but the leaders know exactly what they want to bring about. That's why they are against the war on terrorism. Terrorists are their friend.
This sounds simplistic I know. It is the simple truth.
Hi ya' Lady!
I considered the "rehearsal" aspect. I think its more likely this group decided to have a bit of fun at the expense of the passengers, nothing more.
I too would have taken note of what was happening, to be sure. But I would have kept in mind that there were Air Marshall's onboard, and that this "group" was of interest, based on the flight attendent's comments about "air marshall's are all around them".
I also think this woman would have "locked onto" anyone that was swarthy, to be honest.
Its comparable to looking up at the sky, seeing a dark cloud, and damning the rain that has not yet fallen. Then complaining after the day is done "It looked like rain, so I didn't cut the grass. Damn that cloud, my grass is longer now!"
Maybe its just me, but getting excited about something that didn't happen is a waste of time and effort.
I would submit that the cure would be worse than the disease...you'd make air travel so infeasible that few businesspeople would choose to use it.
There has to be a balance - IMHO such action would be going too far.
Denial isn't just a river in Egypt, is it?
I refuse to live in fear of everyone who doesn't look like me.
Reread the article. She had just spent a lot of time in the company of people who didn't look like her, and was comfortable. Your self-righteous sentiment has nothing to do with reality.
Yes, I am right, nothing happened. You can give into fear of the unknown, or fear of what might be.....sorry, not my style.
ping
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