Posted on 07/29/2004 10:51:44 PM PDT by kattracks
Government officials are questioning a passenger's account of alarming and suspicious behavior by Syrian musicians aboard a recent flight to Los Angeles, although a second passenger has corroborated the events.
The second passenger, a frequent business traveler who asked not to be identified, provided a copy of her itinerary confirming she was on the June 29 Northwest Airlines Detroit-to-Los Angeles Flight 327, which was disrupted by 14 Syrian passengers later identified as musicians.
The passenger, who was riding in first class, said the constant foot traffic and strange behavior she witnessed in the front cabin frightened her as much as it did Annie Jacobsen, the first passenger who publicly reported the incident.
"I thought I was going to die," the second passenger told The Washington Times. "And that makes me furious because that's the whole point of terrorism, to make people afraid. It makes me mad that they achieved that. But I'm not letting it stop me from taking other trips."
The incident on Flight 327 highlighted concerns that terrorists have been making "dry runs" on commercial jets in preparation for attacks.
Homeland Security and FBI officials briefed Senate Judiciary Committee staffers Wednesday. The House Judiciary Committee also is conducting an oversight review of what happened on the flight.
Federal officials agreed the activity was suspicious but doubted the account by Mrs. Jacobsen and her husband, said one staffer who attended the briefing.
"They emphasized repeatedly there were material discrepancies between what the two [passengers] reported and what the flight attendants and federal air marshals observed," the staffer said.
Air marshals, pilots and flight attendants, however, back the passenger's account because they say such events are happening regularly.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Since 9/11 occured under Bush's Presidency, who else would have appointed the leaders of Homeland Security? Or are you saying that we didn't need to create an agency to help protect us from terrorism after we found out on 9/11 that the terrorists were capable of killing thousands of us and destroying our economy?
My guess is the group is already infiltrated, and the agent is close to getting very important info... this stunt may have been testing him.
My thoughts are that they are on top of it but don't want to set off a panic that could hinder air travel and hurt the economy. There could be a lot of things going on here, including the fact they may be watching these people closely and hoping they will lead us to bigger fish.
From the part of the article that wasn't included in the original excerpt:
Homeland Security officials described the 14 as "just musicians," but freelance writer Heather Wilhelm discovered that Mr. Mehana had recorded a song, "Um El Shaheed," ("Mother of a Martyr") in which he sang the "glorious" praise of a suicide bomber.
I dunno about anyone else, but reading that passage resulted in a few things happening to me.
First, it made my blood run cold.
Then, it made me angry -- at the idiots who wrote the article I read a few days ago, I forget which newspaper, which berated the original reporter as being a paranoid bigot, with the "proof" of her paranoia and bigotry being the fact that the "famous singer" checked out as being a bona fide famous singer in the middle east.
Next, it made me forward that article to a few others, to update them on this surreal nightmare. (No, I do NOT do the "forward to everyone you know" thing, but I do send stuff to some friends and relatives on occasion.)
Finally, it gave me that sinking feeling that accompanies the realization that we are genuinely and truly f**ked.
I mean really and truly.
We're leaving our borders wide open for anyone and everyone who feels like crossing into the country undetected -- because we don't want to offend Vicente Fox -- and, we don't want to cause deep-pocket lobby-money-spenders to pay more for their workers.
Yet, we're handcuffing and arresting innocent Americans for the "crime" of chewing on a piece of candy as they enter a subway station!
And, we're kicking down the doors of an innocent American, because he's been seen growing hibiscus flowers!
It's gone beyond "funny"; it's gone beyond surreal.
We're f**ked.
There's no other way to put it.
We're *ucked.
Good Lord, we're *ucked.
America, we hardly knew ye.
It was a nice run. Over two hundred years of vision, hope, and sanity in a world driven by madness.
But it looks like that run is over.
Damn...
I feel ill.
It is... frightening to consider that merely reading the news can make one feel sick to his stomach.
"And the band played on."
The constant drumbeat of "bread and circuses" drones on. Pop "culture" fills the heads of our children -- hell, and our adults too -- with utter garbage. And total ignorance.
Our enemies are plotting our demise with utter boldness. With complete abandon. With indescribable arrogance.
And what happens?
Anyone who so much as tries to blow the whistle is attacked as a "paranoid" and a "bigot."
If someone has a more apt term for it, I'm all ears. Frankly I'd love to have a better term than "we're f**ked."
Seriously.
You know, I think that's about 30 or 40% likely. Much more likely is that the Stuarts (MadTV character) in the administration are rocking back and forth and chanting "we don't want to appear mean-spirited". Listen to the John & Ken interview of Asa Hutchinson, you might think the latter explanation is the more likely one.
I do not know whether in this situation I could refrain from ripping the heads off these Islamist motherphuckers.
Could you?
Personally I would have got up, tried to persuade a few other guys to do likewise and gone to have a chat with the Syrians, find out what they were up to... all friendly like. Then take it from there.
Exactly. The behavior of the stewardesses and (at least some) passengers is strange to say the least: they put up with this "threatening" behavior for four hours and said nothing. Did nothing other than to cultivate a deepening paranoia.
If it were really that bad, really that threatening, I'd think that at least one or two passengers would have spoken with these men to say "Sit down" or just to discover what they were doing. After all, if you think you're "going to die," what do you have to lose?
Finally, it'll take more than three passengers to make the case that the scene was really that bad. And if it was that bad, then I'd say that was a sorry load of passenegers. The Sheeple Express.
DITTO!
I assumed it was the pilot or other airline official who asked authorities to meet the plane and detain the musicians.
I can't imagine them doing this unless they also believed there was a serious problem. At the least it sounds as if what Jacobsen described was close enough to cause the FBI to be there waiting.
Now it's almost being downplayed, and coming off like it was a lone complaint. Hmm.
That sit down and keep your mouth shut mentality is exactly what terrorists and unfortunately Homeland Security want. Amazing how those two are playing on the same team and we're left out to fend for ourselves.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
It's absolutely terrifying wondering what else is being hidden from us.
Fine, you fly that flight with your family. I won't.
Nip it in the bud. Crack down hard and you don't have to worry about any other spys/terrorists. The other day that Mohamad woman was caught in McAllen, TX who admitted to crossing the border illegally 250 times and who's visa had expired in 1996. Just how long are we supposed to sit back and monitor them before slapping them behind bars and making the country safe?
How so? FAM and flight crews all say this goes on all the time. We just caught a woman in TX who has been sneaking across the border illegally 250 times since her visa expired in 1996. Explain to me how we're on top of it.
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