Could It Happen Again? Terrorists might not have given up on planes.

National Review on line ^ | October 26, 2005 | By Anne Morse

[aculeus]

Journalist Annie Jacobsen gained a certain degree of fame last year as the woman who wrote about the strange and frightening behavior of a group of Syrian “musicians” aboard a Northwest Airlines flight. She has now written a riveting book, Terror in the Skies: Why 9-11 Could Happen Again about what happened that day and in the months that followed. Jacobsen put her investigative skills to work, and discovered that the harrowing events that took place on her flight were far from an isolated occurrence. She ends her book with a warning: If our security system does not improve, another 9/11 is almost inevitable.

The events of Flight 327, on June 29, 2004, became notorious after Jacobsen described them on WomensWallStreet.com. Jacobsen, her husband, and their four-year-old son boarded Flight 327 in Detroit, the last leg of their flight home to Los Angeles after a family vacation in Connecticut. Settling into their seats, the Jacobsens noticed 14 Middle Eastern men board the plane. Shortly after takeoff, she writes, “The unusual activity began.” One of the men got up and entered the restroom at the front of the coach section, taking with him a large McDonald’s bag. Leaving the restroom, he passed the bag to another man and gave him a thumbs-up sign. For the next hour, the men used the restroom consecutively. They congregated in groups at the rear of the plane. One of them stood in first class a foot from the cockpit door. Two were standing mid-cabin, and two more were standing in the galley, keeping an eye on the flight attendant. Others spent the flight patrolling the aisles, scrutinizing increasingly nervous passengers.

[cgk]

BFLR

[iceskater]

bump

[steel_resolve]

They might be able to attempt a hijacking, but they will never again be able to use a plane as a missle. They other passengers simply will not allow it.

[Sans-Culotte]

A lot of the people who blew off Jacobson and her husband were right here at FR.

[nmh]

"Given the evidence that terrorists had been trying to assemble bombs in airliner restrooms, why, Jacobsen asked, had air marshals done nothing about the Syrians’ bizarre behavior — much of it involving restrooms? “Our . . . agents have to have an event to arrest somebody,” Adams explained."

Yeah, when the plane explodes, then they'll have their
"event".

[Thrusher]

"Just musicians" bump (a.k.a, "religion of peace" bump).

[nmh]

"Gary Boettcher, president of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations, told Jacobsen that she’d likely witnessed a “dry run,” and that he’d had many similar experiences himself: “The terrorists are probing us all the time.” Mark Bogosian, an American Airlines pilot, said incidents like the one she described were a “dirty little secret” that airline crew members had known about for some time. Air marshals sent e-mails congratulating Jacobsen for bringing to light “something that had been going on since shortly after 9/11 and was being suppressed.” "

So, "dry runs" are allowed as long as there is "no event".

Lovely!

[dhuffman@awod.com]

d'you mean 'has the department of homeland severity failed?' After their untold billions drained from the economy? How dare you question...

[Cboldt]

If it's only one plane, it isn't terrorism.

[nmh]

It gets better:

"Much blame for these procedures can be assigned to two entities: the Transportation Department and the ACLU. Incredibly, the Transportation Department forbids searches of more than two male Arabs per flight; to search more would be “discriminatory.” This rule is strictly enforced by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who, just ten days after Arab hijackers used jets to murder 3,000 Americans, reminded all U.S. airlines that it was illegal to discriminate against passengers based on their race, color, national or ethnic origin, or religion. To make sure they got the message, Mineta subsequently directed his department to file discrimination complaints against Continental, United Airlines, and American Airlines. (United and American settled their cases for $1.5 million each; Continental, for $500,000.)

In June 2002, the ACLU got into the act, joining forces with the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee to launch a number of lawsuits over cases of men being removed from jets. The ACLU has also filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, claming, among other things, that the “no-fly list” violates passengers’ right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The airlines are now working hard to avoid discriminating against anyone else — apparently by allowing unlimited numbers of Middle Eastern men carrying expired visas and mysterious packages to board jets and engage in conduct that terrifies the passengers and crew. “The airlines’ fear of being accused of racial profiling could very well lead us to stand around and wonder, ‘How did we let 9/11 happen again?’” Jacobsen writes.

---

So for the sake of political correctness, profiling is not allowed or it shows discrimination.

Hell, I''m all for discrimination. I really wish we would discriminate terrorists on a "dry run" from non terrorists. Isn't that the point of all this? STOP these terrorists before they do it again? Or are we to protect them till an "event" happens?

[DTogo]

It would be far easier to pay off some coyotes and slip in through Mexixo, then conduct Beslan-eque assaults on the numerous soft targets in the U.S.

I'd like to hear the Administration and Congress try to explain that away.

[nmh]

In July 2004, a flight attendant e-mailed Jacobsen, telling her that a partially made bomb had been found in a flight-attendant jump seat on an Airbus 330S — discovered because flight attendants heard ticking. And on April 8, 2005, Department of Homeland Security officials discovered that two passengers aboard KLM Flight 685, traveling from Amsterdam to Mexico City, were Saudis who had attended the same flight school as 9/11 hijacker Hani Hanjour. “Will we ever know how often these incidents occur? Twice a year? Once a month? Every day?” Jacobsen asks.

---

We're just begging for another "event".

This is ridiculous.

[calrighty]

"Our . . . agents have to have an event to arrest somebody,” Adams explained." "

Folks, you just can't make this stuff up!!

[TheSpottedOwl]

Air marshals sent e-mails congratulating Jacobsen for bringing to light “something that had been going on since shortly after 9/11 and was being suppressed.” "

Oh that's just great. Are these idiots trying to get us killed?

[mtbopfuyn]

A lot of the people who blew off Jacobson and her husband were right here at FR.

That's true.

[nmh]

Not only are these idiots incompetent; they LIE to cover up their incompetence:

"The reality, as Jacobsen documents, was that only two of the men were briefly investigated, 13 were traveling on expired visas (the 14th was an American citizen), and nobody had any idea where the “musicians” went after leaving the airport. "

[nmh]

It doesn't look good.

Heads in the sand, till an "event" happens.

[nmh]

Read the rest of the article.

This is COMMON PLACE activities and airline people are VERY frustrated.

[nmh]

If it weren't for the seriousness of the matter, it would be hilarious. Knowing this goes on ... I can't find it funny.