Posted on 01/15/2005 3:34:16 AM PST by Stoat
A MYSTERY IN THE SKIES
By Michelle Malkin · January 14, 2005 10:58 PM
Physician blogger Dr. Bob says one of his patients, a federal air marshal, told him about a foiled hijacking involving boxcutters hidden in overhead luggage bins:
He and his partner were assigned to a flight (the airline, airport, and destination were not disclosed) in their customary undercover security role. They boarded the airplane early in order to meet the flight attendants, at which time the cleaning crew was still on the airplane -- somewhat longer than expected. My patient and his partner sat together in seats near the middle of coach class.
It's hard to imagine, in a post-9/11 world, that terrorists would attempt another attack with box cutters. Also, Dr. Bob's patient did not disclose specifics--airport, airline, destination, etc.--that would facilitate confirmation. If anyone can provide more information, drop me a line. Whether or not the story is true, it highlights at least two important policy questions: 1. What kind of security measures are being undertaken with regard to clean-up crews and other ground personnel with access to airplanes? 2. Why does FAMS director Tom Quinn continue to enforce idiotic pre-boarding policies that expose marshals' identities to observant passengers? Update: The idea that terrorist operatives might be trying to smuggle razor blades as weapons onto planes is not pure fantasy. Last April, Pakistani illegal alien Fazal Karim was convicted on charges of carrying and attempting to carry concealed dangerous weapons in air transportation and of making false statements about his immigration status. Security officials at Dallas/Ft. Worth airport found 32 double-edged razor blades tucked in a coiled belt inside a cardboard box in Fazal Karim's carry-on luggage.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Schattman argued that Karim carried out a test run to aid terrorism. The Ft. Worth Star Telegram reported that security officers first noticed that Karim appeared to distance himself from his carry-on bag. After placing the bag on the conveyor belt leading to an X-ray machine, Karim did not walk through the adjacent magnetometer but selected one farther away. He offered FBI agents three different explanations for the blades, Schattman said. First, Karim said he used the blades to shave the bottom of his full beard. Then he said they were for a friend in Houston. Finally, he said he did not know the blades were in the bag. More: At a hearing in November, a federal agent testified that the names and phone numbers of the current directors of the civil aviation systems in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates were found in Karim's address book _ 10 years after he worked as a computer programmer for the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority.
In addition, I've found at least one other mention of a flight crew member discovering razor blades in blankets. Weird. Scary weird. Update II: Reader Eric makes some additional, on-target points... For me at least, there is another lesson in this story. |
"I believe that true security rests in the individual vigilance of a proud and free people who are not dependent on a nanny state to look out for their welfare or safety. I hope you agree."
How I do agree!! A national "neighborhood watch" would be a great development. Michelle Malkin is a wonderful, intelligent journalist, who is watching out for her country and for all of us.
ping
One other note. Besides early boarding having the Marshals sit together would seem to be a tip off and a weakness in that a single shooter would have both in his sites at the same time.
I was watching a cleanup crew coming out of an airplane while i was waiting for my own plane, and i wondered the same thing, Why isn't there someone supervising these people?
Thank you Jet.
I'll have to read that today.
Interesting post. (I see you fulfilled your duty to our gentleman freepers by providing pictures. Kudos to you)
If every incident of this nature was widely publicized, more flight attendants and individuals could spot potential terrorist activity. Granted, it may scare a few away from flying, but I thing the benefits would greatly outweigh any damage to the industry.
Yes, and my denist told me that one of his patient's cousins invented a car engine that runs on urine and gets 95 miles to the pee. He's being held in a secret gov't prison along with the guy who invented a ballpoint pen that never runs out of ink and the woman who developed socks that stay together in the dryer so that one of them can never be lost...
I didn't know this woman's name. My wife and I love this lady (Michelle Malkin). Whenever she comes on, we immediately stop talking and turn up the volume - she's a pitbull, she's eloquent, she talks a great talk.
I believe that true security rests in the individual vigilance of a proud and free people who are not dependent on a nanny state to look out for their welfare or safety.
Don't fall into the liberal trap. It's not "racial profiling," it's "criminal profiling." The criminal profile may be based on any number of factors (and, in fact, is usually based on several or more), of which a person's race is just one factor to consider.
I couldn't agree more and that includes racial profiling by the airlines as well - they are restricted from doing so now and that is just plain stupid. Air Marshalls should NOT have a dress code that is also stupid.
I began my career in newspaper journalism more than a decade ago as an editorial writer and columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News (1992-94). Covered school board meetings and pole sign ordinances. Exposed Rep. Maxine Waters' gang-infested job-training center boondoggle. Received a death threat from the Mexican mafia. Moved to the Pacific Northwest and worked at the Seattle Times from 1996 to 1999. Wrote editorials supporting a repeal of the death tax. Opposed editorial board on everything else. Exposed Gov. Gary Locke's Buddhist temple cash connections. Opposed publisher and supported successful campaign to abolish race-based affirmative action in government hiring, contracting, and college admissions. Quit job and moved to Washington, D.C.
My column, now syndicated by Creators Syndicate, appears in nearly 200 papers nationwide. My first book, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores (Regnery 2002), was a New York Times bestseller. Other: Fox News Channel contributor. Oberlin College grad. Philadelphia-born. South Jersey-raised. I live with my husband and two children in Maryland. Reach me via e-mail at malkin@comcast.net. |
Box cutters ? Either box cutters are THE tool of the (terrorist) trade... or:
1- Someone at the airport is using box cutters in their normal and customary practice, therefore they are plentiful and inconspicuous, permitting access to them and not drawing attention to their presence...
2- Bull malarkey... as in, if agents of terror are going to plant weapons onboard an airline these days, they better have more than a box cutter on them as they will be pummeled senseless by any item available to the crews, the passengers and in a scenario such as this, the ventilating devices that the US Air Marshalls happen to be packing.
I'd tend to buy this story (only slightly more) if ceramic daggers or knives were discovered hidden in the overhead bins.
Being of , er, "tall, dark, and somewhat scary-looking" appearance, I tend to get taken aside a lot and questioned whenever I fly here in the US. I don't mind this, but I do think it's often open to human fallacies, where untrained security guards or (understandably) suspicious passengers take it upon themselves to get a bit overenthusiastic.
Anecdotes don't really mean anything, of course, but a few months ago, I was forced to miss my flight because one of the other passengers saw me fiddling with my iPod in my bag and automatically assumed that I was up to something, and I had to be taken back for another round of screeningwith security.
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Maybe you don't believe their were hijackers that drove airplanes into buildings... or you don't believe there are actually people who wish to do it again! Either way, your head is looking for sunshine!!!
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