Posted on 07/24/2004 4:05:17 PM PDT by HostileTerritory
Undercover federal air marshals on board a June 29 Northwest airlines flight from Detroit to LAX identified themselves after a passenger, “overreacted,” to a group of middle-eastern men on board, federal officials and sources have told KFI NEWS.
The passenger, later identified as Annie Jacobsen, was in danger of panicking other passengers and creating a larger problem on the plane, according to a source close to the secretive federal protective service.
Jacobsen, a self-described freelance writer, has published two stories about her experience at womenswallstreet.com, a business advice web site designed for women.
“The lady was overreacting,” said the source. “A flight attendant was told to tell the passenger to calm down; that there were air marshals on the plane.”
The middle eastern men were identified by federal agents as a group of touring musicians travelling to a concert date at a casino, said Air Marshals spokesman Dave Adams.
Jacobsen wrote she became alarmed when the men made frequent trips to the lavatory, repeatedly opened and closed the overhead luggage compartments, and appeared to be signaling each other.
“Initially it was brought to [the air marshals] attention by a passenger,” Adams said, adding the agents had been watching the men and chose to stay undercover.
Jacobsen and her husband had a number of conversations with the flight attendants and gestured towards the men several times, the source said.
“In concert with the flight crew, the decision was made to keep [the men] under surveillance since no terrorist or criminal acts were being perpetrated aboard the aircraft; they didn’t interfere with the flight crew,” Adams said.
The air marshals did, however, check the bathrooms after the middle-eastern men had spent time inside, Adams said.
FBI agents met the plane when it landed in Los Angeles and the men were questioned, and Los Angeles field office spokeswoman Cathy Viray said it’s significant the alarm on the flight came from a passenger.
“We have to take all calls seriously, but the passenger was worried, not the flight crew or the federal air marshals,” she said. “The complaint did not stem from the flight crew.”
Several people were questioned, she said, but no one was detained.
Jacobsen’s husband Kevin told KFI NEWS he approached a man he thought was an air marshal after the flight had landed.
“You made me nervous,” Kevin said the air marshal told him.
“I was freaking out,” Kevin replied.
“We don’t freak out in situations like this,” the air marshal responded.
Federal agents later verified the musicians’ story.
“We followed up with the casino,” Adams said. A supervisor verified they were playing a concert. A second federal law enforcement source said the concert itself was monitored by an agent.
“We also went to the hotel, determined they had checked into the hotel,” Adams said. Each of the men were checked through a series of databases and watch-lists with negative results, he said.
The source said the air marshals on the flight were partially concerned Jacobsen’s actions could have been an effort by terrorists or attackers to create a disturbance on the plane to force the agents to identify themselves.
Air marshals’ only tactical advantage on a flight is their anonymity, the source said, and Jacobsen could have put the entire flight in danger.
“They have to be very cognizant of their surroundings,” spokesman Adams confirmed, “to make sure it isn’t a ruse to try and pull them out of their cover.”
...or the suspicious Middle Eastern men?!
>>“A flight attendant was told to tell the passenger to calm down; that there were air marshals on the plane.” <<
Nice to know you may be caught in a cross fire or flaming wreckage. . .at least you knew Air marshal's were there.
Why not just chill and take a nap. . .Air Marshal's (undercover) are there to stop anything from starting.
Right. . .
That's an insane statement or chillingly too child-like. Again: grow up. Get some counseling.
I can, you can, any one with the mental capacity to post on this site can investigate this, and I know the media doesn't -- the media is paid to SELL YOU GOODS AND SERVICES. And good for them in doing that.
But it is an absolutely insane or childish view to think that they are great, thorough, complete, wise and honest investigators. They are not. They do "investigations" sure -- you can do better -- you don't have to suppress information, filter it, color it to favor this thing or that. They do. They MUST. It's a simple reason why. It's called BUSINESS.
They're "investigations" must not drive away either their customers nor their "cattle". You and I are their cattle -- they feed us images and ideas that move us into the pens of the market where our wallets are slaughtered for their customers. Of course we get our "feed" and are usually, most always happy to buy what the ads suggest to us. But this does not make the media "investigators". They don't even have the power of supeona! Yet you and I do -- through our elected agents called DA's, or through ourselves when we set on grand juries, or through committees of inquiry convened by our legislative bodies, or by ourselves when we sue and get to a court proceeding in that suit.
well let me tell you, if we have to allow 28 uses of the lavatory to clean for prayers, and to eat "outlawed" food in the lavatory, all in the name of tolerance for Islam - then its over. we might as well just cancel the air marshall program all together. you can't allow a hole in the system that big, and then not expect that a real terrorist who wants to use the lavatory to assemble a device to take down the plane - now has a blank check to do so because we have to tolerate the fact that he may be cleaning for prayers and eating "outlawed" food.
Did you every figure which statement was true?
For instance, why all the background, working place and hotel checks on the A-rab gang were performed ONLY AFTER THE LADY'D MADE THE FUSS?
Surely the air marshals should be able to calm down the situation conveying to a disturbed passenger or any whistle-blower that there was nothing to worry about - the group had been screened BEFORE getting pass for the flight.
But they obviously didn't have any foreknowledge on the 14 strong group of potential shoe-bombers...
You got it, GM.
OK. I'm gonna bite. How have you personally investigated this? What facts have you verified?
Dude.... explain how that little platitude helps us.
Just stop the racial profiling PLEASE!!
OK, but wouldn't carrying a bulging Ronald McDonald bag past his buddies give his non-halal habits away?
Personally, I don't think Annie Jacobson was being paranoid. From the news reports, hers isn't the only unusual airline story lately.
First, the airlines didn't follow regulations regarding the number of passengers congregating at the rest rooms and around the emergency exits.
Second, though Mrs. Jacobson wouldn't have known this at the time, I have read elsewhere that the Syrians visas had expired.
Third, just because the "musicians" had legit jobs doesn't mean they weren't checking out the aircraft security or weren't about to set off a bomb or hijack the aircraft.
We are at war, whether we chose to accept it or not. As has been said many, many times. They are at war with us, even if we aren't at war with them. In a post 9/11 world, better to err on the side of caution, even paranoia, than to have another 9/11 like event.
Hindsight is 20/20, but only for those who live long enough to look back. If we step on a few toes protecting ourselves, then we can say we're are sorry once the plane has landed.
Wow! The Prophet seemed to have missed something in his instructions to the faithful.
You've already set your mind one way on this -- that is obvious from your first post. You want comfort -- any comfort. In this case the specific comfort in the continuantion of assurance that "things are being taken care of" by magically trustworthy people. I WILL NOT and CAN NOT give you such false comfort.
And YOU have set yourself to only take comfort from some mommy-analogue. THAT, I can not be. You have set this course -- turned yourself off. ONLY YOU can turn yourself back on -- can become an adult.
I can, however, assure you most kindly and with compassion -- that you can do it. You can do it on your own. Take one step and others will help you take the next. (Most times, no guarentees. Sometimes a person gets so far into the muck and mire he or she has to take quite a few steps, a few lonely steps outwards and upwards.)
Anyway, by the hair of your teeth if you have to -- pull yourself up. You can do it!
Bwashhh. . .coke all over my computer.
Funny.
You put jobs -- the air marshalls job's, that is some sort of deferential respect for their jobs -- ahead of her concern for her own life. That is wrong. Dead wrong in some cases we can easily imagine based on actual experiences -- such as Flight 587, Flight 63, Flight 93.
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