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 ...
Ding Ding! We have a winner.
Answer: the air marshals wouldn't have been able to do DIDDLY, once the bomb was ready to go kablooey.
It boggles my mind to see so many educated, conservative people here on FR of all places so apparently unconcerned about all of this. I expected to see outright RAGE on the thread here, and see that "political correctness" has also managed to infiltrate and infect some Freepers.
This is almost sadder than the story, for if the Freeper community (who I always think of as educated, conservative and very smart) don't see this as a problem, one can only wonder how absolutely beyond hope the REST of the country is. (We knew it was bad, but now I'm even more worried than ever that we'll NEVER pull back from the abyss of idiocy that we are in).
Have you ever been in an aircraft lavatory? There are three things in there, the sink, the toilet, and the smoke detector. It would be VERY easy to find something that looked out of the ordinary and not wired or attached directly to the aircraft, as it would need to be for several people to assemble it in stages.
When I return home from work I will send you a post that best describes our present situation. Your mindset on this issue is ignorant at best.
Note that previous threads stated that after dry runs (as in the situation), the lavatories stunk like you would not believe.
Is this a Wetback trick? Putting feces in the trashcan to discourage one from digging in and finding their stash?
And here's something ELSE to be worried about WRT this story..
Where did the plane you just got on arrive from? Were the ME types assembling a bomb in the lavoratory before your flight? Is it on a timer?
Many of us check out the passengers on our flight prior to going anywhere. But, what good does it do if your plane has been rigged AHEAD OF TIME by the LAST bunch of people on the plane?
I for one would feel a whole lot better knowing planes were "sniffed" between flights. But, I HIGHLY doubt the airlines or TSA bother to take the time as it's probably too much "trouble" for them to do so.
Why do some folks continue to say things like 'this woman went all hysterical just because she saw someone with different color skin' or 'I won't prejudge an entire group just because they look different than me?'
Why do people say something like that about THIS article, especially?
Her reaction is based on their suspicious BEHAVIOR on the flight.
somewhere up the thread, someone posted that this author is (was) a social worker? in any case, she's a liberal. she wants comments on her article? its simple - its people like HER that caused this situation in this country, this insane political correctness that has resulted in both an impotent populace, and impotent law enforcement. Remember the tape of the soothing words from Atta as he was flying the plane into the WTC - "sit down, everything will be OK". those are the comforting words the sheeple need to hear as they are being flown to their deaths, that makes everything OK, at least they died knowing they weren't racists.
Well, HMMMPH!!!
I just remembered that because it stuck in my mind during 2000, that for the first time the hispanic population, at 13%, was now larger than the black population, at 12.9%.
You're probably thinking of the actual figures, which are somewhere around 25 to 30 million for hispanics, and a bit less for blacks.
...however....some women-(or men) really can't wait 5 more minutes.....
...a lot of elderly folks take diuretics because of heart or high blood pressure problems, and they simply can't wait!
I tend to keep my eye on Nordic looking woman out of purely selfish interests.
Well, I guess I'll just take the little pittance I earn cutting coupons and selling the eggs down at the general store, and put it in some "women's" fund. I'm sure it'll do better. :-)
Bears repeating, js.
Not my solution.
He was worried about a felony in another state and possibly not seeing his family for a long while.
Good point. Now I'm going to want to check out the can the minute I get on the plane.....
Life would be much easier if we just kept the f-ers out of the country in the first place...
LQ
Excactly, we have people here demanding the stewardess be fired for telling the husband about the FAMs, but you don't hear them screaming bloody murder about the actions of the ragheads on the plan and the inaction by the flight crew, passengers, pilots and FAMs.
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