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 ...
On a flight in from Detroit the plane may have approached on a path to the north of downtown LA, then flown out over the Pacific Ocean and made a sweeping left turn to land from the West. In that case she could see downtown from the left side windows. I used to live in the LA area and I watched planes land from the West on several occasions. You see four or five planes lined up approaching from the west seperated by 1-2 miles. They look like beads of light on a string. So that part of her story is credible. I don't think flight attendants normally tell people about air marshals, but maybe she looked petrified with fear and the attendant bent the rules to make her feel better. (Although that information may have made her feel worse...)
I think they still would very much like to take out the Capital dome in DC. The symbolic effect of that would be devastating, probably more so than the fall of the Twin Towers. So although I agree that they would like to do more than blow up planes, I wouldn't rule out blowing up planes as part of their game plan.
Are terrorists now actively recruiting and training "clean" candidates for these missions? You can be pretty sure they will cover as many bases as possible. The fellow that emerged from the head with the cell phone and ran his finger across his throat, mouthing the word "No" to the others, did he realize that they had been made or was he getting direction from someone on the ground at the airport? Maybe they had their own intelligence on the ground that noticed the greeting party waiting for them at the airport?
So many scenarios and questions...
Glad you can be so cocky.
1) She mentioned that the attendant knew she was making a faux pas by telling her their were air marshals on board.
2) You can easily see out the other side window, across the aisle, but also, I don't think she necessarily meant just the 7 or eight blocks of skyscrapers.
>> She does not mention that she stared right at him while looking at DT LA.
That is a good point, though I've never had to stare at someone to my right to see out the window. But considering her early mention of the locations of the men, she probably would have to look right at them. I'm not that familiar with LAX. Can holding patterns provide a view of downtown from the right side?
>> Do you really think Airline and TSA policy is to have flight attendants tell passengers when Air Marshals are on board
Which would explain why the flight attendent said "I might get in trouble for this". I'm pretty sure it is against policy (and probably fed law) to say sky marshalls are on the flight.
I find it interesting that some people think "nothing happened on this flight." I would hardly call being terrified "nothing." This was as frightening as any Koontz or King novel. The lady had her child with her, which I am quite sure added to the horror of it.
Were they engaged in chinese firedrills by the bathrooms, in choreographed precision, going throught the obvious motions of assembling something in the bathrooms -- and, violating the "be seated and belted in" directives from the cockpit, in an obvious test of their ability to "do their thing" in the minutes between the announcment and landing?
Are you for real?
You don't have to live in fear but not being aware of those in your surroundings is foolish.
Take note that their intention was most likely not to take over the plane but to destroy it in mid-air over LA.
Good Lord... don't miss this post.
Looks like we prevented Syrian Islamists from bombing a domestic flight :-(
First hand account of a reporter who was on the flight with her family... passengers and flight crew petrified, but marshall's on board, attack aborted by terrorists, all swept up by Feds upon landing.
Tell that to James Woods...
Funny how you're more suspicious of the author than of the 14 Syrian "musicians" traveling on one-way tickets.
Laugh - yep it looks funny to me too. The things that ran through my head were:
- 14 musicians what in the world type of music has 14 musicians - only things I can think of is Big Band .. unlikely from a group from Syria.. or classical ensemble of some sort.. at a CASINO?
- Who in the world would hire a group from Syria for a one to two day gig? Some in first class? ( of course if this is some hot Syrian group, the I suppose they could have frequent flyer miles to upgrade..)
- Who in the world would be going to a "casino in the desert" to hear these guys?
Now - if these questions raised a few red flags in a housewifes mind - I would imagine ( hope - pray ) that it raised more than a few red flags with those that protect us from these things. Obviously they were detained... I really wish we could know the end story of a lot of these things we read, but imagine we never will.
"PC is going to kill us all."
I've been saying just that for years. PC is the most oppressive and most dangerous bit of foolishness that liberals have come up with yet, and they've come up with some doozies over the years.
"The government CANNOT protect you"
unless they give up their PC ways......
UNFRIENDLY SKIES ARE NO MATCH FOR EL AL
By Vivienne Walt, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/10/01/elal-usat.htm#more
.....Americans also might balk at El Al-style ethnic profiling. Staff scrutinize the passengers' names, dividing them into low-risk (Israeli or foreign Jews), medium-risk (non-Jewish foreigners) and extremely high-risk travelers (anyone with an Arabic name). These people automatically are taken into a room for body and baggage checks and lengthy interrogation. Single women also are considered high-risk, for fear they might be used by Palestinian lovers to carry bombs.
To sift out who is who, screeners usually begin by asking passengers whether they understand any Hebrew, which most Jews do. Officials argue that such blatant discrimination is necessary.
"We don't ask the same questions to everyone; there's a surprise element so people can't prepare their answers," says El Al spokesman Nachman Klieman, adding that they don't reveal many of their security secrets publicly.
In fact, El Al's security kicks in long before the passenger will notice. Call an El Al office in any city to book a ticket, and your name will be checked against a computer list of terrorist suspects compiled by Interpol, the FBI, Shin Bet (Israel's intelligence service) and others.
My Paris travel agent insisted that the El Al flight on which I had reserved a seat did not exist. That is because El Al changes its schedule so frequently — to foil terrorist planning — that some agencies find it hard to keep up.
Once you board, up to five armed undercover agents will travel with you in strategic aisle seats, ready for attack. Furthermore, like many Israelis, cabin crews are former soldiers in the Israeli military who have received combat training. The cockpit door, of reinforced steel, is locked from the inside before passengers board and is opened only after everyone has disembarked at their destination. No matter what's going on in the rest of the plane, it is never opened during flight.
"Our pilots go to the bathroom," says Klieman, without confirming whether bathrooms are inside the cockpit.
Perhaps surprisingly, El Al's pilots are not armed. "I hear the American pilots want to have arms now, which I think is a bad idea," Tal says. "They could go outside the cockpit and hurt people. You cannot fly a plane and carry arms."
Even for regular El Al customers, the security process never feels comfortable, and the pre-flight probing is sure to make you feel somehow suspect. Watching closely for contradictions, the screener dissected my typically haphazard travel plan as though it were a lethal conspiracy.
"Why did you buy your ticket at the last minute?" the screener asked. "I changed my plans," I said.
"Why are you carrying wrapped boxes?" "I like to bring chocolates when people invite me over for dinner," I said.
"Who chose them in the store?" she asked. "I did," I replied.
By El Al's standards, my screening was light — only 10 minutes of questioning by two well-paid officials with full military training. It ended with one of them locking all the zippers on my suitcase with plastic ties. "Open these when you get to your hotel," she instructed before sending me to the check-in desk.
El Al's process is so time-consuming that passengers are required to arrive three hours before all flights. Passengers can be interrogated separately by three different screeners.
And questioners ask passengers where they purchased their tickets to compare their answers with ticket codes representing the purchase location.
A lot happens behind the scenes, too. Once luggage moves from the check-in desk to the conveyer belt, it is put in a pressurized box that detonates any explosive before the bag is loaded on the plane, Dror says. No unaccompanied bags are allowed. Those bags remain behind.
Bags transferring from another airline to El Al have to be checked through security again.
Security officers watch over cleaning crews while they service the aircraft in foreign airports.
After the intense security, once on board I felt some relief, knowing that I could drop off to sleep without a care while plainclothes agents with firearms sat nearby, wide awake in the dark.
"Tell that to James Woods..."
Get him to log in, and I will.
Perhaps fiction writers cannot help but embellish but it tend to deminsih the credibilty of her story.
BTW-I am in the air at least eight times in a month going from Austin to New York, Chicago, LA and have seen strange activity on several flights. I do not doubt the meat of her story.
Plan to collect flier data canceled Color-coded system seen as privacy threat
By Mimi Hall and Barbara DeLollis
USA TODAY
A controversial government plan to collect personal information from airline passengers and rank travelers according to terrorist risk level is being dismantled because of concerns over privacy and effectiveness, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Wednesday.
Ridge said security leaders have all but scrapped plans for the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, known as CAPPS II. The program was never officially begun, even though the government has spent more than $100 million on its planning.
Once touted as a key tool for keeping U.S. skies safe from terrorists, the system has been under relentless criticism from privacy advocates and some members of Congress who called it an unwarranted intrusion into passengers' privacy.
Asked Wednesday whether the program could be considered dead, Ridge jokingly gestured as if he were driving a stake through its heart and said, ''Yes.''
He cited the privacy concerns, particularly those arising from recently proposed regulations that would have required airlines to hand over information about passengers as part of a test of the program. Critics in Congress also complained that terrorists using fake identities could easily evade the system.
Under CAPPS II, each passenger would have been required to give an airline or travel agent his or her full name, date of birth, address and telephone number. The government would verify a passenger's identity through a database of terrorist watch lists, as well as public records and mail marketing lists.
Each passenger would be assigned a color to indicate the potential threat level. A ''red'' rating would mean the passenger would not be allowed to fly; ''yellow'' would mean extra security at the airport; ''green'' would mean a trip through regular security.
Ridge said a new program with a different name might be developed to take the place of CAPPS II. But if enough people volunteer to provide personal information through a new ''registered traveler'' program, that alone could replace CAPPS II.
The Transportation Security Administration had budgeted $60 million for CAPPS II next year alone. ''It was falling under its own weight -- not just the privacy concerns, but the sheer impracticality of it,'' said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union. ''It was always a question of when they were going to pull the plug.''
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