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 ...
After a complete reading I must say that was one of the most frightening things I've read in a while.
You sound alot like some of the posters here before 9/11 complaining about the raids on muslims in Texas up by Dallas. Come to find out they were involved with the terrorist.
You wave the UK Flag, have you ever been to the Deep South?
I wave the UK flag but I live in New York. There are a lot of these suspicious-looking people driving around Manhattan. I conquer my feelings of terror to wave at them too - when I need a taxi.
First off Einstein, if that's all you got out of the entire read, please disregard the term Einstein. Second, hopefully you learned something from the other commenters here relative to your stupid comment.
Finally, I'm kinda curious. Is there anything short of an actual bombing of an airliner that would cause you any concern?
Interesting idea.
Sorry. We can't both be Einstein.
If you keep this up I might even start laughing. But I doubt it.
After reading your posts here, I can safely say....You're no Einstein!
Well from your posts it certainly isn't you.
Another possibility occurs to me. Perhaps the middle easterners are more used to eating rice and curried goat etc. So after gorging themselves with healthy American Big Macs, their delicate palates became affected and they had to rush to the lavatory.
The other possibility is more sinister. Could they have been indulging in some mile high club activities with one another?
Yeah, and I'll bet the odor and compounds given off by a Big Mac and Fries would totally mask a nitrate sniffing device.
And he sat in the toilet and ate half of it??
One other thing, They flew on one way tickets out and one way tickets ,on another airline, back. Why not round- trip tickets?
These dudes were on a 'dry- run' or perhaps not. They might have gotten suspicious what with the attention they caused and called it off. ( whispers from the FA, sky marshalls onboard). One of them gave a 'cut it' sign.
That is frightening. I must say though, I regularly fly out of Metro, and a dozen or so Middle Easterners on a flight is common-place, given the population of Detroit. Given that, however, this story is even more frightening, as not once on any flight that I have been on where are a couple dozen middle easterners do they all act in synch.
In fact, the race doesn't matter. If I saw ANY group of people acting the way this woman described, I would be suspicious. It could be McVeigh types, or eco-terrorists, or any other group.
As a resident of that fine God-fearin' place, can you confirm that every adult male must bring a rifle to church on Sunday in order to ward off Indian attacks?
It could have been something simple and a lot more innocent (comparatively) ... drugs. While reading it I thought that may be an alternate explanation.
I ,despite my flippant remarks about Big Macs, believe that there is a 85% chance that this was indeed a dry run. But the whole story hinges on one womans impressions. The reactions of the crew and other passengers pass through her filter.
"The 14 guys were not terrorists. They were guilty of using the bathroom and not being white."
I'd hate to be counting on you if some sh*t started. You don't know who these guys were anymore than the rest of us do. Your political correctness is going to get you killed one of these days, mark my words. I hope I'm not standing anywhere near you when it happens. What a fool!
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