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. |
This confirms what I've thought all along. The clean-up crew are the people to watch. There have just been too many incidents of "things" being found on airplanes "AFTER" they've gone through the cabin. I don't think it can be excused as "sloppy housekeeping". Too many conincidences, IMO.
I was joking about getting sucked out. But how awesome was that tree cannon they had on Mythbusters?
It's definitely something you don't see on P-BS. As for joking, seeing you're new around here, a < /sarcasm > tag goes a long way (kind of hard to decipher a joking post from just reading it).
You must have enough bonus miles to qualify for a flight on the Space Shuttle by now :-)
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. :)
I agree except on one point: take the blanket to be assured that there's nothing hidden in it, then sit on it and use your own blanket for warmth (and possible Islamofascist defense) instead. The reason? Hygiene. Recently, the EPA issued a warning to all airline passengers that they should not drink or even wash their hands with the water in airplane lavatories. Around the same time I recall reading about how airlines only wash the blankets when they're "obviously" soiled. That means fifty or more people may have used that blanket before you, and each one of them may have sneezed or drooled all over it.
Ditto.
Gotta bump this babe, she is on top of things!
Claim: Reporter encounters terrorists on airline flight who are making a dry run at assembling a bomb on-board.
Status: False.
It is fun to post back and forth, though. It gives one a measure of relief, when you can make a person respond with an equally uninformed response.
This is the place where many should be!
Arab Prisoner: "To My Dear Family, Happy Ramadan!"
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I'm not reading that conclusion from the information given. The passengers may well have been contained in a secure area, and hopefully the Islamofascist terrorists were spirited off to a very, very deep hole somewhere near Guantanamo.
I guess the answer then is to just not travel anywhere?
After all, ALL modes of public transportation are potential targets. And, Amtrak is definitely out of the question after what happened to the trains in Spain.
What's a person to do? Turn into a hermit?
Snopes is run by a couple of raging liberals. Funny how you forget that fact. And the Snopes debunking of the incident reads like Dan Rather's debunking of Buckhead's criticism of the fake TANG documents. How are the Snopes liberals in a position to debunk the incident?
Since the cockpit doors are locked during flight I fail to see how the plan would have succeeded. Other than causing chaos on the plane.
What if the muzzies starting slitting the throats of all the children on the plane?
I had no idea snopes was run by liberals as I have often seen their site linked to confirm or deny stories here at FR. I do recall that Ms. Malkin attempted to verify Jacobson's story as well. She asked that anyone on that particular flight come forward and share their story/ordeal with the public. As far as I know, no one did.
I apologize if my linking to the snopes article offended you. That certainly was not my intention.
Michelle Malkin is a class act in my book. Always make it a point to read her articles or watch her on Fox. Doesn't mince words, gets to the point,very articulate, and doesn't care if the pc crowd is offended.As far as the veracity of the article is concerned,it sounds plausible to me.As an aside,last yr i was at Tampa Int'l waiting for my flight to Millwaukee,and i was watching the workers(maintinence,food caterers,etc)going from plane to plane, and it occured to me that that would be perfect opp. for a terrorist to plant a bomb or weapon. Are these workers vetted?
It didn't startle him. He had seen that happen before on other older Aloha jets. But Austin remembered the name painted across the plane's exterior: Queen Lili'uokalani. It was a 19-year-old Boeing 737.
A week later--on April 28, 1988--the same jet's roof ripped open 24,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, killing one flight attendant and seriously injuring seven passengers and a crew member. Austin counted himself lucky....
Wrong place...wrong time!
Hope she's not becoming ratherized in her zeal to close our borders.
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