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 ...
Ditto to that. My 16 year old daughter is flying to Phoenix with her youth group for a youth conference and then on to San Salvador for eleven days for a short-term missions trip toward the end of the month. She has never flown a commercial airliner, and despite her fear of flying, felt strongly about going on these trips.
Yet the fact that the whole world apparently knows about this non incident doesn't mean anything.
DO NOT miss this.
btt
"As for claims of racial profiling, Phuck the rags. Give them their own airline and then everyone will be a whole lot safer."
I like that idea.
Absolutely!!!!
Wow! That story should be published in every newspaper in the States. Or for that matter, the world. But it never will be ... we're too PC for that to ever happen.
I just linked this article on the Threat Matric thread. Thank you for posting.
James Woods was on a "rehearsal" flight like this with some of the 9/11 hi-jackers.
Arab ground crew in Detroit need to be thoroughly re-screened so they don't sneak something aboard. That's what worries me.
God forbid that we have another 9-11 in this country, but if that happens I for one would not object if we had a wholesale roundup of Arab nationals living in this country and deport the lot.
Thanks. Good article.
If the FBI had taken James' Woods account of the dry-run he witnessed on a flight from Boston to L.A., 9/11 would not have occurred. It's patently ludicrous to call vigilance "silly" when it's the first line of defense against repeating that terrible day.
I also suppose the flight crew over-reacted to the shoe-bomber when they tackled him for trying to light a match. I guess they should have just asked him to put it out since he was obviously trying to flaunt the "No smoking" regulations...
I blame her husband. If I had been in his shoes with my wife and 3 yr old son on board I damn well would not have sat there like a sheep. I would have got up and sat right next to one of those #$%^&, especially the $%^&&# who glared at my wife. I, for one, am going down swinging.
This PC crap is going to get a lot of people killed. While I will vote for Dubya and contribute to the RNC, I pray for a real conservative to win in '08.
We are already under a limited form of martial law. Try asserting a right not to be searched on demand within 50 miles of the DNC in Boston.
Suspend the Constitution completely, and give and end-date to the state of emergency. At that point, end ALL emergency declarations and let's go back to real COnstitutional government.
I have something to add to this that none of you are going to want to hear.
A few months ago I traveled from the 'central South' to LA. I took my large camera bag full of digital SLR gear. Camera, lenses, flash, batteries, etc.
I used a bag I don't normally use. It fits in the overhead. I had forgotten when last I used it. Evidently it had been while I was out in the country. Snake country.
I had left something in a side compartment that I did not know was there. Even though they looked through my camera bag by hand ... it remained undetected. I myself did not find it untill I got through baggage pickup at my destination airport and was in the hotel.
I was horrified and still to this day get weak in the knees when I think of what would have happened to me had it been found. I burried it in LA. At a cost to me of around four hundred dollars. I had no alternative. I have admitted this to no one. Especially not any family members.
I will say no more.
Yes...I saw that. Like I said above, this is not over by a long shot. Our enemies will use our laws and liberties against us to the max...and they are clearly in the final planning stages of doing so.
See my post 73.
According tests run by the TSA, until the results got to be too embarrassing, UNHIDDEN guns and other weapons are found only 50% of the time.
In other words, your odds of getting home with your expensive item were a coin-toss.
Similarly, to hijack 5 planes armed with guns, terrorists would have to send 10 teams to do it.
We are sitting ducks. Fly as little as possible until Moslems get special treatment all the time, every flight, every Moslem.
Thanks for posting.
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