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 think he's here brushing up on his taqiyya!!
LOL, yes that's the physician I was thinking of.
I have read the Bible quite a few times. There are things that Jesus talked about (we call them parables), that never actually happened...yet they had proper application to the lives of His listeners...
Just because this article refers to a questionable source, does not lessen the points she makes... It allows her to make them!
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Agreed. Hopefully people familiar with the event (if it occurred) will contact Michelle, and she will undoubtedly provide another update.
If the event did occur, however, people involved with the apprehension will most likely be barred from commenting on the record due to National Security reasons and laws.
Off-the-record corroboration would still be pejoratively dismissed by naysayers as 'gossip', however, so there's no such thing as pleasing everyone :-)
Never said that... And I mocked Michelle, how? You sure must be good at reading thoughts (not mine, obviously), because NOTHING I said was disparaging her... I posted to him about his puerile response...
This thread is typical of many here at FR, which is why I like the site and the community of contributors so much...
A subject gets scrutinized to the enth degree, chawed on, turned inside out, postulated, hypothesized, etc., etc., etc.
One has their mental world rocked occasionally by points/counterpoints not pondered, prior to putting fingers to the keyboard.
Not true. If Ms. Malkin said she had personally spoken "off the record" to eyewitnesses who corroborated Dr. Bob's account, then I would give the blog a lot more credability then I'm now willing to give to what amounts to nothing more than uncorroborated double hearsay.
Yes, and getting sucked out of an airplane window in the fashion of Bloefeld (?) is not possible. The pressures being dealt with are not so great as to do that.
Anyway, I'm pretty much against anyone but an air marshall having guns on a plane.
When they will guarantee me that there will be multiple, highly-trained air marshals on every single domestic and international flight then I will begin to agree. I would suggest, however, that an important point is being overlooked in that the element of 'not knowing' whether people around you are armed is an essential element in crime control. Notice how in every country and city that outlaws legal gun ownership, violent crime skyrockets. That's because criminals tend to gravitate toward easy targets whom they know cannot fight back.
I mean, hell, everyone's already dealing with fearing terrorists/crappy peanuts/crying babies/smelly toilets/coffee nerves on the flight. It'd be mere seconds before someone got killed for putting their seat too far back. Heh.
A theme of the trigger-happy eager-to-shoot-and-kill civilian gun owner runs throughout your posts....a theme that I have never encountered in reality; a reality that has had me surrounded by legal gun owners since birth.
Just because this article refers to a questionable source, does not lessen the points she makes... It allows her to make them!
As much as I like Ms. Malkin, I'm not about to elevate her or Dr. Bob (who neither you nor I know anything about)to the level of Jesus Christ. Also, you attacked Durasell for merely having the nerve to question the veracity of the story. Neither Durasell nor I have suggested that there's not a lesson to be learned from the blog even if it is nothing more than a fictitious account of what could happen as opposed to an accurate account of something that actually happened.
Apparently you missed the "Mythbusters" episode where the show's hosts attempted to induce explosive decompression with gunfire by pressurizing an airplane so that the difference between air pressures was the same as an airplane at altitude and firing various weapons through both windows and the fuselage (firearms failed to do so; the holes produced were too small).
SOBERING.
VERY stone cold sober-ing.
OK, let's not get too silly.
Socks get "lost" in dryers do to the Laws of Physics. Its that time-space continuum1 thingy (technical term). It is absolute and cannot be changed or altered.
1 - The sock isn't really 'lost', it just occupies a different "place" in space-time. Ergo, its there you just can't see it as you are in a different place in space-time. In English that means if you stick around long ebough, the "lost" sock will reappear.
:-)
I would suggest that 'hearsay' is a bit of a harsh invective to use in this case as she is being entirely up-front about her sourcing, and is in fact requesting additional corroboration before she pronounces it as being ironclad fact, something that far too many 'mainstream' reporters would never even consider doing. I don't believe that she is misrepresenting her story in any way.
As far as I know, her track record of accuracy is unblemished, which makes me want to give her the benefit of the doubt. The entire related event is entirely plausible and relates closely to other documented situations, as is indicated in the story. Hopefully she will soon be provided with additional details, which she will undoubtedly pass along to us. In the meantime, I will merely consider it as an interesting story worth making note of and not dismissing out of hand before all the facts are in.
I usually fly in excess of 50,000 miles a year. My advice to everyone. Always take the blanket.
When asked if you want one, take it. The reason is, no one with a razor blade will be able to harm you if you have the blanket. It becomes the best terrorist defense you'll have and you can use it to keep warm or as a pillow. :)
If the story is true, what bothers me the most is that the passengers who deplaned were not contained!
There are many FR skeptics who have been critical of Ms. Malkin's coverage of citizens who have witnessed failures in our transporation screening process. But most of them have an agenda to trash the TSA, rather than to praise the fact that despite the failings, the hijackings had still been prevented and lives have been saved. They attack and tear down the citizen witnesses.
Remember what they did to the woman who reported on the behavior of those "Syrian Musicians"? Many on FR never questioned the activities of those "musicians" who arrived from Damascus on expired visas and terrorized. But they were very eager to trash the woman who told her story.
IMO that should be a Capital Offense anyway.
"A theme of the trigger-happy eager-to-shoot-and-kill civilian gun owner runs throughout your posts....a theme that I have never encountered in reality."
Sorry, I kind of sacrificed clarity in an attempt to be funny. I didn't mean to say WOW IF YOU HAVE A GUN YOU'LL BE ALL GUNG-HO AND SHOOT ME; what I meant was that we all fallible, and that accidents can happen. Fear, stress, and being cramped into coach class affects everyone differently, and it's hard to predict what will happen on a plane if everyone had a gun.
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