Arabic Spoken? Plane Grounded.

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 08/30/07 | Norman Parrish

[Froufrou]

A woman who complained that some fellow passengers spoke Arabic and "had odd behavior" prevented a Chicago-bound American Airlines flight from departing San Diego, police said Wednesday.

Flight 590, scheduled to depart at 11 p.m. Tuesday, left its gate about 11:15 but returned to the boarding area after the woman, who was traveling with at least one child, indicated she wanted to get off the airplane. The flight then was unable to make Lindbergh Field's 11:30 p.m. curfew for departures, said Irene McCormack, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Harbor Police.

The flight, carrying 126 passengers, was rescheduled for midmorning Wednesday and arrived in Chicago in the afternoon, an American Airlines spokesman said.

McCormack said it is unusual for planes to return to the gate. She said it's usually for medical and mechanical problems or a disturbance.

The woman first complained to the flight crew that four to seven men were possibly speaking Arabic in the boarding area. The woman added that they "had odd behavior." The crew decided to return to the boarding area because the woman indicated she wanted off the plane.

The American Airlines spokesman indicated the plane returned to its gates because of a dispute between passengers. The spokesman didn't provide details on the dispute.

A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said it returned because of "suspicious activity on board the plane."

Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, was upset about the airline's actions. He said television reporters told him that six Iraqi Americans were detained after a passenger became uncomfortable with the men speaking Arabic.

"It is one thing to flag suspicious behavior, but to flag a global language? We are deplaning people for who they are, not what they do," Rehab said.

The Associated Press reported Defense Training Systems had hired the men to train U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton in California.

McCormack said no one was detained in the incident.

[mountn man]

Chances are its going to be obvious who the bad guys are.

It will be more than likely that the air marshall would be trying to stop the bad guys.

I doubt the air marshall would be looking or acting too much like a bad guy.

[jveritas]

:)

[Publius6961]

Here ya go...

Defense Training Systems

Clearly, these courses should have been taught in freakin' Alaska!

[r9etb]

Perhaps these guys took a job with a defense contractor specifically to infiltrate our military.

And perhaps you're simply ignorant. These guys were hired to help train Marines who are getting ready for deployment to Iraq.

[mngran]

...better safe than sorry

But there's got to be some reasonableness to it. If we cancelled flights everytime some paranoid woman thought something was amiss (what was that noise? why does that guy have shifty eyes? why does my coffee taste funny?) no one would ever get anywhere. Based on what I read here, I don't think this woman's actions were justified.

[FatherofFive]

هذا موضوع مجنون

This thread is not crazy!

[freekitty]

I don’t blame her a bit. I wouldn’t want to go on that plane either.

[r9etb]

But there's got to be some reasonableness to it. If we cancelled flights everytime some paranoid woman thought something was amiss...

And note, BTW, that the flight was not cancelled strictly because this woman complained

Her complaint and subsequent events caused a delay that went past the 11:30 pm curfew for planes taking off from the airport. Had this happened earlier in the day, there would have been no cancellation.

[Publius6961]

I don’t see things getting any better in the near future especially when we have an organization like CAIR whining about apparent “profiling”.

All 1800 of them, through a foreign enemy propaganda office financed by the Saudi Government.
They continually get more press from the MSM that the entire American people and their concerns do

Just saying.

[jveritas]

Very possible. The next generation of islamic terrorists will have a lot of non Middle Eastern people including the blond blue eyes from Bosnia or from the islamic republics South of Russia. Also many of those terrorists who will come to the US will be carrying Europeans and other passports that do not require an entry visa.

[gracesdad]

“Uh oh, I just wrote Arabic. I’m a bad person.”

You’ve got me worried now. I’m going to have to get this thread taken back to the gate so the mods can check you out. Sorry for the delay, other posters. Just remember that you’re in U.S. cyberspace now and we don’t allow any writing except in English.

[Publius6961]

Do you follow the news?

You actually knew who "Defense Training Systems" is? Remarkable!

Or is that in your talking points arabic handbook?

[1rudeboy]

Right from the article genius: "The Associated Press reported Defense Training Systems had hired the men to train U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton in California."

Am I allowed to infer that DTS is a military contractor? What does the knee-jerk manual say?

[Publius6961]

We have become a bunch of bedwetters who see the boogeyman everywhere. What happened to the “Land of the Brave”.

The land of the Brave is useless if combined by the "Land of the Ignorant"... Just saying.

[OESY]

The Associated Press reported Defense Training Systems had hired the men to train U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton in California.

This is getting silly. There is a world of difference between these men speaking Arabic and the behavior of the Imans in Minneapolis. They were probably hired to teach our Marines the language and nuances of their country to which the Marines may be assigned and they probably had security clearances and passes evidencing background checks, not that the woman would have known this. She did the right thing to speak up, but let's not overreact. The airline did the right thing, upon evaluation, not to detain them. After all, most of us who visit foreign countries are not fluent in the local languages, so we speak English.

As Winston Churchill said, "There is only one thing worse
than fighting with Allies and that is fighting without them."

.

[TChris]

"It is one thing to flag suspicious behavior, but to flag a global language? We are deplaning people for who they are, not what they do," Rehab said.

Hmm... I always considered the language people speak to be a "behavior", not a definitive matter of "who they are".

Do I become a different person if I speak Spanish?

[Tex Pete]

[quote]And perhaps you’re simply ignorant. [/quote]Perhaps I am, but I guess you don’t really know that. It was only a supposition. No need to get upset.

[quote]These guys were hired to help train Marines who are getting ready for deployment to Iraq.[/quote]And the guy who threw grenades into his fellow soldiers’ tents was in the U.S. Army. Your point?

[PinkDolphin]

True, but I doubt we can go on what we are reading here. Not at all. Not yet.

[VRWCmember]

It’s also not unreasonable to assume they cannot speak english...isn’t it?

If they were hired to go to Camp Pendleton to train our Marines, then I would bet they know how to speak English. At any rate, this woman probably panicked because she say arab-looking men speaking in a language she didn't understand. There are no details about the "suspicious behavior" these guys exhibited, but I doubt it was really anything suspicious.

[Publius6961]

Good thing shwe wasn’t going to europe or asia...she might have heard lots of foreign languages and different behavior!!!

She wasn't.
Focus, dude!