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 ...
Everyone's gone back to sleep. The next wake up call will come, and then what?
Was it an ant farm?
Seriously, why did you bury "it"? You could've checked "it" for the flight home or FedEx'd it for $10.
Wow. I dont know what kind of flights you take but I fly quite a bit and if this happend on one of my flights I would be WAY more then a little "suspicious". If these guys were "musicians" then I'm a rocket scientist. Sounds to me like they got spooked at the last minute and decided to call things off.
This PC crap of not profiling peoplehas GOT to stop. If their "feelings" are hurt,tough.
But BE, you are a security guy. (if you're the same Badeye from PB) You have a different attitude toward the whole situation. Obviously. You are more familiar with procedures behind the scenes than a reporter for the WSJ. You're certainly more familiar than a housewife or non-reg'lar traveller. This reporter can only report what she saw and experienced and was told. The average reader responds to what they have read. We can be alarmed. We can be confident that someone somewhere is doing something to protect us. Or we can be skeptical. And I suppose there are a number of other things we can be. But, you must admit that your airport security experience is not the same as your average Joe. Post 9/11.
Are there holes in our airport security? Should we fear? What should the average person do?
As far as I know, there's no rule that air marshals can only watch suspicious activity. They just did that in this incident to maintain their cover and because this incident never reached the point of an actual hijacking. I believe our air marshals carry guns and are trained to use them in flight if necessary.
Cool, dude. How progressive. No problem here. Everyone knows musicans all have to pee at the same time.
Who was the actor that actually was on pre-hijack runs with the 9/11 terrorists? Chicken Little there as well, I'm sure.
A_R
heh heh heh
Not THIS particular little item.
Bump for reading of the full article.
Bump for reading of the full article.
Its okay. Some see the glass half full, others half empty.
I see it as half full.
Bottom line is still nothing happened, other than the author got very close to hysterical in my opinion.
I'll also note another "obvious"....20,000 flights per day, every day.
This was just one of them. Drawing conclusions based on 1 out of 20,000?
Sorry, the odds are in my favor.
This story, and others like it, need to be as widely distributed as possible.
Wondered that myself!
Not just any musicians, "Syrian" musicians. I wonder who sponsored their visas to enter this country? A charitable Islamic cultural center?
Scared the shit out of me.
I do not find anything wrong with this reporter reporting her experience. It helps to keep others alert. The last thing we need is complacency. So, she and her husband and other passengers and flight attendants and air marshalls and the pilot were all keeping their eyes open instead of sleeping on that four+ hour flight.
And James Woods was paranoid, too?
I don't even know why the idiot who posted this stupid article said it is a "MUST READ"! I wasted my time.
9/11 was 4 flights out of 20,000. So we can't draw any conclusions?
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