Posted on 07/15/2004 1:12:48 PM PDT by big gray tabby
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at womenswallstreet.com ...
I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure this was posted in another thread.
Well there you have it.
Yeah, it's scary that women this stupid are allowed on planes.
How dare those nasty middle eastern men use the bathroom?
You might want to read the entire article before joking about it:
Terrorist bid to build bombs in mid-flight: Intelligence reveals dry runs of new threat to blow up airliners
Islamic militants have conducted dry runs of a devastating new style of bombing on aircraft flying to Europe, intelligence sources believe.
The tactics, which aim to evade aviation security systems by placing only components of explosive devices on passenger jets, allowing militants to assemble them in the air, have been tried out on planes flying between the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, security sources say.
...The... Transportation Security Administration issued an urgent memo detailing new threats to aviation and warning that terrorists in teams of five might be planning suicide missions to hijack commercial airliners, possibly using common items...such as cameras, modified as weapons.
...Components of IEDs [improvised explosive devices]can be smuggled on to an aircraft, concealed in either clothing or personal carry-on items... and assembled on board. In many cases of suspicious passenger activity, incidents have taken place in the aircraft's forward lavatory.
Let me guess....You didn't really read the article. Seems like a lot more people than the "stupid" woman were concerned.
jjbrouwer: "Yeah, it's scary that women this stupid are allowed on planes.
How dare those nasty middle eastern men use the bathroom?"
No doubt dude. Last I checked our constitution demands the separation of church and state! If their religion says slaughter americans, then by golly who are we to shove our values down their throats? Some people just want to disenfrenchfry everyone!
Sorry, mods, about the double-up. I did search the title and came up empty.
Hey, you never can tell. That Micky D sack might have had a Big Mac and (gasp) supersized fries!
It's too late for apologies, human. Prepare to be assimila-- oh wait... I'm not a mod. Carry on. : )
I read the whole article, Einstein. The 14 guys were not terrorists. They were guilty of using the bathroom and not being white.
How dare those foreigners eat American junk food? Who do they think they are?
Certainly scared the pants off me.
Holy crap bump!!!
Oops. I see that somebody else already helped you out!
This was not just the opinion of the reporter. The crew noted these people acting strangely too.
Yes, but I appreciate your effort none the less.
Be well.
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