[Jeff Head]

I have no doubts that the "probes" continue and the enemy is gathering inforamtion for a future opeartion against us.

It also conitues in the interior of the country at national and regional infrastructure sites.

We must let our people be armed on international flights. These two terrorists should have been dropped on this flight...but there was no one with the weapon to do so.

I believe this, that the passengers, upon learning that ME men have taken a flight, will not allow it to continue, IMHO, viza viz Flight 93 type ction.

[txhurl]

bttt

[Political Junkie Too]

I believe this, that the passengers, upon learning that ME men have taken a flight, will not allow it to continue, IMHO, viza viz Flight 93 type ction.

I might agree with you on US domestic flight, but this was an outbound from France. I'd assume that most passengers are French, not Americans returning home. I'm not so sure that the French passengers would react the same way.

-PJ

[jack_napier]

I believe this, that the passengers, upon learning that ME men have taken a flight, will not allow it to continue, IMHO, viza viz Flight 93 type ction. I don't know about you guys, but if I saw these assholes trying to rush the cabin, I wouldn't think twice about killing them.

[GovernmentShrinker]

We must let our people be armed on international flights. These two terrorists should have been dropped on this flight...but there was no one with the weapon to do so.

I'm not so sure about that. It's very difficult to tell who "our people" are, given that some people who have been firmly identified as terrorist operatives are US citizens with no criminal record. And even genuinely well-intentioned US citizens can be muddle-headed or paranoid. Some passenger who's terrified from the start about possible terrorist activity on his flight might be trigger-happy -- e.g. might have responded to a commotion like this one by firing at one of the Arab trouble-makers, hitting a member of the crew, even the FO or FB coming out the cockpit door.

Granted in THIS situation, nobody should have been opening the cockpit door, but I don't trust every random US citizen with no criminal record to distinguish a situation like this one, from a situation in which an Arab-looking passenger is genuinely notifying a crew member of, say, his father having symptoms of a heart attack, and understandably sounding/acting agitated. The crew might well be able to discern that this was a genuine report and act accordingly, while a passenger some rows back might rush to assume the worst and shoot.

I would, however, like to see flight attendants trained to carry and use firearms to handle situations like this, and to ensure that there are always armed crew members on board, and out among the passengers, aware of emerging problems on a real-time basis.

[mad_as_he$$]

Weapons are all around you - even on aircraft.