It is despicable that the passengers said and did NOTHING. Who the hell cares about the Air Marshalls. This is OUR NATION. And if you see a group of foreigners acting suspiciously...YOU DAMN WELL SAY SOMETHING!!!
But when passengers say something, they are labeled paranoids and ignored.
See story about the 14 potential terrorists/musicians and James Wood's observation and reporting of the suspicious terrorists.
I bet if those 9-11 terrorists Woods saw, had been shaken down, the authorities wouldn't have found anything -- until they murdered 3000 Americans.
That is the flaw of the "legal" approach. By the time you have legal cause, many of us are DEAD.
Pre-emption is the only thing that works against terrorists.
When a few terrorists can kill thousands of innocents, you can't afford to take chances.
If you want to look, I think there is a link above to the story about the flight with the 13 musicians. If not you can search FR, as the story has been posted about 20 times.
If you read the passenger's first hand account, you will discover that the passengers DID do something. They reported it to the flight staff. The flight staff assured the passengers that the situation was being monitored and that there were air marshalls on board.
Now, if you think the passengers should have done something more, I'd like to know just what you think they should have doen, or more to the point, what YOU would have done.
You want to tackle the zouri player, take him to the carpet and break his filthy Syrian fingers?
Man, you'd be working for his family for the rest of your life. That is, after you got out of jail.
RE: "...if you see a group of foreigners acting suspiciously...YOU DAMN WELL SAY SOMETHING!!!"
Right.
Then stand by for arrest for disorderly conduct as soon as you land, and a hefty lawsuit on top of that, in all probablility.
So I guess that any Passenger who is feeling threatened by a bunch of "Middle Eastern" types who decides to take some initiative and intervene, does so entirely at their own risk.
Of course, if it ends up saving the plane and some intended target, it may well be worth it. But if no HARD evidence of a terrorist operation can be recovered, his / their butts are going to be in a serious sling for a long time.
But then, if someone can provide sufficient leadership presence among a planeload of terrified passengers, he might be able to convert all of that "fright" primal instinct into a collective "fight" adrenaline rush, and instigate a general onboard riot in which everyone who even LOOKS Arabic gets pummelled to a pulp, and the plane has to make an emergency landing at the nearest airbase in order to quell the melee, put out the fires, and sort out the wounded from the dead.
If God is really good to America, there will be a few New York Irishmen on board. H#ll; about any Irishman will do!
What fun, eh?
If it turns out that our American Hero screwed up and it was a false alarm, at least he'll have plenty of company in jail!