Posted on 07/29/2004 9:33:29 PM PDT by neverdem
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www.washingtontimes.com Ignoring security threatsPublished July 29, 2004The Homeland Security Department reversed itself yesterday, announcing that all 14 Syrian musicians who exhibited bizarre, menacing behavior on a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles last month were legally in the United States after all. DHS blames the confusion about the visa status on Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Washington D.C. (damage control)
imo
I believe the fact of the matter is the FBI did not notify ICE until the Syrians wre released and the FBI didn't have a clue about their visas..so much for interagency cooperation....
There was a thread on FR about the Syrian's expired visas. What was the story surounding this? Never knew what happened.
...or sumthin' like that.
Suppose the government knew about a 'trial run' in advance, and was absolutely certain that it wasn't a real attack. Would there not perhaps be benefits to allowing the AQ spies to get away with things they would not get away with in reality, while observing them very closely?
While it is, unfortunately, quite possible that Bush's handling of the situation is just plain wrong, Bush is a power player. In poker, there can be considerable value in encouraging an opponent to 'draw dead'. If your opponent thinks he 'hits' his hand on the draw, you may rake in far more than if you go on the attack right away.
I tried to google "FBI did not notify ICE until the Syrians" and just "FBI+ICE+Syrians". Nothing came up on the first 10. Do you have any idea how google arranges its results or the logic to their search algorithms?
The gov't can only protect you from overt threats which can't be ignored, political correctness being what it is. Airline passengers must now assume they are now members of the disarmed militia and act accordingly, just like Flight 93.
Pretty obvious that these guys were up to something, but if they are AQ support, then they have clean backgrounds and the FBI wouldn't be able to get any convictions on them.
Not sure why they weren't disappeared to Gitmo though.
Also not real impressed with the passengers on that flight.
If they were scared enough to moan and cry out when the bad guys popped up for a RR break on final approach, then why didn't anyone put something together?
If I was on a flight like that, there'd have been at least ten and hopefully 20 big burly guys in line for the forward lav for the entire flight.
Any Muslim scouts wanted to use that restroom, or get near the cockpit would have been crowded out ten seat rows back and would have had our full attention until they sat down or used the facilities in the rear.
We have to use our heads here people, we are all on the front lines, and expecting one air marshall to deal with 14 bad guys is only going to get us a quick side trip to a national landmark.
Don't necessarily go leaving yourself open to trouble, but there are no rules against quiet, one-on-one conversations with other passengers, and no rules against using a little common sense either.
Fourteen guys can only take an entire aircraft by executing a surprise attack. If they know that nobody is going to be surprised, that nobody is planning to sit back and let them fight it out their way, there's a real good chance they won't even try.
ping
I doubt they are so stupid as to try to repeat Sep 11, 2001 using the same M.O. I'm more inclined to think this is a ruse to divert attention from other targets or methods of attack. Smuggling individual components of an explosive that's assembled in the lavatory is a theoretical possibility, but that seems to eliminate the plane's use as a guided missile.
TSA needs arrive at a decision on chemical protective masks for the possibility that they want to smuggle the ingredients of a chemical agent, synthesize it, and then release it to disable the crew and passengers in flight. Either they ensure masks for all adults, or they forbid all masks in carry-on baggage.
I doubt they are so stupid as to try to repeat Sep 11, 2001 using the same M.O. I'm more inclined to think this is a ruse to divert attention from other targets or methods of attack. Smuggling individual components of an explosive that's assembled in the lavatory is a theoretical possibility, but that seems to eliminate the plane's use as a guided missile.
TSA needs arrive at a decision on chemical protective masks for the possibility that they want to smuggle the ingredients of a chemical agent, synthesize it, and then release it to disable the crew and passengers in flight. Either they ensure masks for all adults, or they forbid all masks in carry-on baggage.
Anyone familiar with airline practices know that final approach requires all passengers to strap in, put tray tables in their upright positions, etc.. Those "musicians'" likelihood of getting here by boat, never having flown before, are somewhere around slim to none. Syrians have a peculiar custom of tilting their head back to indicate "No" instead of the left-right, left-right movement we're familiar with, but drawing a finger across the throat is not part of that custom. In fact, while Syria is a predominately Muslim country they abide other religions, like tourism and are very familiar with Western ways.
If it makes anyone feel better the President just signed a law allowing active and retired LEOs to retain their arms everywhere while travelling out of their home districts. I'm not sure but it may mean we just gained a legion of inadvertant air marshalls free of charge! If this survives Supreme Court sabotage and Leon Pinetta's blubbering it means airline safety just improved substantially. I'm anxious to see if this works out.
Judging from the original stories on this and the subsequent coverage, I would say that 14 Syrians managed to pull off a successful terrorist incident, even though no one was bombed or killed.
Thanks for the link and interesting thread.
Business as usual. Nobody seems to know what's going on.
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