"Terror in the Skies": Annie Jacobsen Gets a Visit from the Feds

Women's Wall Street ^ | 4/22/2005 | Anne Jacobsen

[StoneGiant]

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Annie Jacobsen Gets a Visit from the Feds

This is Part XIII of the ongoing series entitled "Terror in the Skies".


By Annie Jacobsen

4/22/2005

The call came a little over a month ago, on my cellular phone -- which is not listed. It went like this:

"Hello Annie, this is [name withheld, and name withheld, and name withheld and name withheld]. We're from the Department of Homeland Security."

"Yes."

"We'd like to set up a time to talk with you."

"Okay, now is good."

"Actually, we'd prefer to come to your house. How is March 15?"

"Not so great. That's three days before I'm due to have a baby…" 

They came anyway. To my house in Los Angeles. By plane from Chicago.


Look Who's Coming for Coffee

The four federal agents showed up exactly on time, in a rented green mini-van, carrying briefcases and wearing suits (it was 75 degrees). They came to discuss the events of Northwest flight 327, the now notorious Detroit-to-Los Angeles plane trip I took last June. My husband led them to our house through the garden and, from where I sat in my kitchen, I could hear their comments: nice garden, pretty plants, too bad palm trees don't grow in Chicago. So, I thought, federal agents are people too.

In truth, I was excited that I hadn't gone into labor before the meeting. I was, after all, meeting with the big boys (actually three men and one woman). In the nine months that I've been working on this series, my access to the government has been through mid-level bureaucrats and agency mouthpieces. So here I was, suddenly meeting with agents who have real access to the truth -- and at their request.

On the telephone, the agents explained to me that the Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General, has been investigating flight 327 and flying DHS agents around the country to talk to various parties -- the flight attendants, pilots, federal air marshals and the passengers. They had saved me for last.

Here's what I find fascinating: while one arm of the government (the Federal Air Marshal Service) has vehemently maintained all along that "nothing happened on flight 327," the other, more muscular arm (the Department of Homeland Security) has been conducting a rather large investigation about it. Based on my 4 ½ hour meeting with the agents, I can tell you that not only have they been investigating what did happen during the flight, but they've also been investigating who botched the subsequent investigation as well as how it got botched.

So what do you say to four federal agents at your kitchen table on a bright Tuesday morning? The first thing I clarified for the agents was that, prior to my experience on flight 327, I had never heard of a "probe" or a "dry run." For the record, I explained, I had never heard of the James Woods incident either. [In case you're not aware, the actor James Woods flew on an American Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles one month prior to 9/11. Alarmed by the behavior of a group of four Middle Eastern men, Woods summoned the pilot and told him that he was "concerned the men were going to hijack the plane." A report was filed with the FAA on Woods' behalf but, tragically, no one followed up with Woods or the men. A few days after 9/11, several federal agents showed up in Woods' kitchen. Woods can't talk about what was said -- he believes his testimony will be used in the trial of the supposed 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui-- but, in an interview with Bill O'Reilly, Woods revealed that his flight "was a rehearsal [for 9/11] with four men."]

Standing in my kitchen, one of the agents said, "What I can tell you is this: Mohammed Atta was one of the passengers on that flight with James Woods." (Apparently, this information has never been made public.) With that, the agent pulled out his chair, opened his notebook and started in with his questions for me (at which point the other three agents opened up their notepads almost simultaneously).

During my meeting with the agents, what was not said was often as revealing as what was said. Naturally, the agents "were not at liberty" to tell me anything about the 13 Syrian men aboard flight 327, but they asked a lot of questions regarding my "intuition" about the situation: Intuition told me something was not right. Intuition is why I began noting the men's actions from the get-go. And it was exactly these details in which the agents seemed most interested. One of the agents commented on the fact that I took a lot of hits in the press -- that I was called a racist and a bigot simply for sticking with my gut instinct. To me, the agents' story that Mohammed Atta had been on James Woods' flight was a wink and a nod to the fact that it's fine to trust your intuition. If you're wrong, you can always stand corrected.


The Devil Is in the Details

Each agent carried a thick document (30-40 pages) filled with questions. All four took copious notes. After about three hours, they excused themselves, saying they were going to pow-wow privately in the garden for a little while. When the agents returned, they continued with what seemed to be the same line of questioning.

They continued to ask my husband and me question after question but, in the course of the morning, here are some additional details I gathered -- things that I didn't otherwise know:

• The Northwest Airlines flight attendants interviewed for the investigation would only speak to federal agents with lawyers from the airline present. (One agent remarked to me, "Northwest Airlines wishes flight 327 never happened.")

• There were 27 airports between Detroit and Los Angeles where the pilot could have landed flight 327 yet didn't.

• Because the men were from Syria -- which the State Department lists as a terrorist-sponsoring nation -- each man was interviewed individually by Customs and Border Patrol when he entered the country. Once in the United States, they traveled back and forth across the country several times using one-way tickets, for which they paid cash.

• Two months prior to the flight, the FBI issued a warning that, based on credible information, terrorist organizations might try to hide their members behind P visas -- cultural or sports visas -- to gain entry into the United States.

• The Syrians entered the United States on P-3 cultural visas, which they overstayed; the visas had expired by the time they boarded flight 327.

• While being interviewed at Los Angeles Airport (LAX), none of the federal law enforcement agencies involved noticed that the men's visas were expired.

• At LAX, the FBI interviewed only the two "leaders" of the group; 11 of the Syrians on flight 327 were never asked a single question by law enforcement.

• The Syrians were allowed to leave even before the FBI interviewed me and my husband.

• The Federal Air Marshal (FAM) supervisor at LAX took statements from my husband and me on the back of an envelope, later borrowing a notepad from another FAM.

• Another passenger from flight 327 indicated to the agents that he did not see any musical instruments in the baggage claim area, including the oversized baggage area. 
  

So What Really Happened on Flight 327?

The agents who sat with me all morning going over the events of flight 327 seemed sincerely committed to getting to the bottom of what happened on that flight. It seemed obvious that they believe something happened. Was it a probe? A dry run? A training exercise or an intelligence gathering mission? My sense is that the jury's still out on a hard and fast answer. But flight 327 was far from a situation involving 13 hapless Syrian musicians and a case of bad behavior.

Since 9/11 the Justice Department has been widely criticized for one particular tactic it uses in fighting the War on Terror: it detains suspicious persons for long periods of time and puts them under heavy questioning before they are ever even charged with a crime. Flight 327 seems to have had an extreme case of just the opposite. There were 13 men on a domestic flight acting in such a way that many passengers felt their lives might be in danger. And yet not one of the individuals responsible for that threatening behavior was detained. Only two were put under light questioning, let alone medium or heavy questioning. Two individuals from a terrorist-sponsoring nation were allowed to speak on behalf of the other 11 men. In this War on Terror, whatever happened to a middle ground? Can a democratic nation fight a War on Terror and at the same time bend over backward so as not to offend a few visitors' rights?

Perhaps these answers -- or at least some of them -- are forthcoming. According to the agents, once the investigation wraps up, the Office of the Inspector General will generate two reports on flight 327: one for DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff (Tom Ridge's replacement), which will be classified, and one for public consumption, which you and I will be able to read (this DHS report is different than the document Congress is working on). Whether the version we get will be a mere press-conference account or an actual glimpse into what went wrong during and after flight 327 is anyone's guess.

As they stood to leave, one of the agents shook my hand and said, "Thank you for writing those articles." The most senior agent asked if he could touch my very pregnant belly. Then he said, "As a fellow American I can say you did your duty." A third agent borrowed a line from my original article: "If 19 terrorists can learn to fly airplanes into buildings, couldn't 13 terrorists learn to play instruments?"

Anyone who's read my Terror in the Skies Series knows that I have not been writing with an eye toward approval from any government agency. But I really appreciated the agents' tip of the hat.


Annie Jacobsen writes about business, finance and terrorism for a variety of national and international magazines and webzines. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband and two sons.

[rdl6989]

Thanks. This is a very good read, and very scary too.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Some interesting reading material.

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for posting this.

I am glad it finally got the attention of the agents.

My guess is that they got some additional evidence, which is corroborated by Ann's experience.

[FairOpinion]

I know you've been following her stories, and some have been posted on the Threat Matrix thread, but I am glad that this follow up has been posted in the main area for all to see.

I think she is being vindicated, there was a lot more to that incident.

[freedumb2003]

Since then, they have instituted rules that people only use the lavatory in their class of cabin and no loitering in the galley or lavatory area. They emhasize this on every flight and even enforce it sometimes.

If I had been on 327, I would definitely had gotten all the men on the plane to sit those guys down. I would have cut in front of then and told them their lavatory priveledges were suspsended for the rest of the flight. Once they were in violation of what the Flight Attendents told them to do and in violation of FAA regs, it was the citizens' duty to assist.

I think all it takes is one person to say what needs to be said. And do what needs to be done.

[Squantos]

Lookie here !

[LPStar]

This is very interesting, but I'm a little concerned that Annie Jacobsen might have provided the terrorists some inside info by publishing this article far and wide. Hope that's not the case.

[Enchante]

When oh when oh WHEN will we get serious about our national security??? It's great that DHS appears to be doing a serious investigation of this flight, but we could fill entire rooms with reports and not make ourselves any more secure if the Norman Minetas of the world remain in control of policy.

[Petronski]

But flight 327 was far from a situation involving 13 hapless Syrian musicians and a case of bad behavior.

[cricket]

"They came to discuss the events of Northwest flight 327, the now notorious Detroit-to-Los Angeles plane trip I took last June"

I remember some of the controversy re the number of . . . ahhhh. ..'men' that were on this flight; but not much more. . .

[oceanview]

last time I checked, Mineta works for Bush. Bush could have fired him at any time, yet keeps him on, so that tells me he supports whatever policies the transportation agency has in place.

[ellery]

bump

[airborne]

Can a democratic nation fight a War on Terror and at the same time bend over backward so as not to offend a few visitors' rights?

NO!

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Thanks for the ping.

[FairOpinion]

To anyone who hasn't read it, I highly recommend reading the interview of actor James Wood by O'Reilly, that Ann was referring to.

The transcript is here:

Transcript: Actor James Woods

This is a partial transcript from The O'Reilly Factor, February 14, 2002

http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/Web%20Pages/FOX%20NEWS_transcript%20-%20Actor%20James%20Woods.htm


====

As Ann said, he was told by the FBI not to release any information about his discussion with the FBI.

The fact that the agents interviewing Ann revealed that Mohammed Atta was on the Flight James Wood was on and reported to the FAA about the hijackers, is blockbuster info.

Just think, if the FAA had taken him seriously, 9-11 may have been prevented.

[FairOpinion]

Standing in my kitchen, one of the agents said, "What I can tell you is this: Mohammed Atta was one of the passengers on that flight with James Woods." (Apparently, this information has never been made public.)

[FreedomPoster]

Do you have any of the links to the original story on this? I remember reading this about this gal's report on it, here, at the time.