Posted on 03/09/2014 5:58:02 AM PDT by wtd
Saturday European officials indicated two of the people on board were using passports that had been stolen in Thailand. On Sunday Malaysia’s transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said Malaysian intelligence officials were also checking the identities of two other passengers, according to The Associated Press.
“All the four names are with me and have been given to our intelligence agencies,” Hishammuddin said, according to The AP. “We do not want to target only the four; we are investigating the whole passenger manifest. We are looking at all possibilities.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Yet they can sure keep track of what the rest of us are doing...even if we are ordering pizza.
Thanks wtd.
I’ve gone through a lot of European destinations where nobody, American or not has, to remove their shoes. And in any case, I would doubt that this was a shoe bomb, especially if there were 4 passengers aboard with false passports.
My suspicion is that the four had smuggled explosives and had actually planned to detonate the plane elsewhere or perhaps fly it elsewhere and take out some other target, but that they just blew up too soon.
I’ve never flown to Asia, so I don’t know their procedures. This is just a comment as a fairly frequent flyer.
Starting to look like an episode of “lost”
But going down in the sea or the mountains of Vietnam doesn’t seem very productive from a terrorism point of view.
And no one has claimed responsibility.
5.56mm
“Chinese police shot and killed all of the attackers.”
Good. I’m glad to know it!
More interested in groping women and men and taking little old ladies that are 80 years old behind a wall and strip searching her. I REFUSE TO FLY. I will not subject myself to being groped and man handled any more. I last flew back in 2003 when me and my wife flew from Seattle to Tampa to visit her sister. We had a change in Philadelphia. In all that time we were subjected to groping and pawing by these thugs. I told my wife when we got back to Seattle that I would NEVER fly again. I was not going through that again. We have now been back home in Alabama for 8 years. My wife has flown back to Seattle twice to visit family. But I did not go. If I cannot drive, I ain’t going. I am not giving my money to go somewhere and be groped all the way there and back. They can rot in hell. I will not give a dime to these thugs again.
“Given that the flight originated in Malaysia, it’s likely that most of the passengers were Muslims.”
Given that the flight was going to China and the population of Malaysia is about 15% ethnic Chinese it’s likely that you’re wrong.
Same with me. Flight free since Sept. of 2002.
That was after I was prodded in the belly(I was heavier then) at the airport as part of my “once-over”.
I told my wife I cannot fly anymore because I almost hauled off at the guy when he did that.
Now I drive. I take what I want, stop when I want. No stress. I enjoy the view as I drive.
I flew extensively from 1979 to 2002. At the end it was like being on a bus in the sky. I don’t miss it.
I know it is not an option for some.
You’ve nailed it, everyone is looking at the stolen passports thing and immediately jumping to the conclusion they must have been terrorists without thinking it through.
Why would terrorists on a suicide mission worry about being identified? Why would they book onward flights?
The passports were stolen in Thailand, the tickets were bought in Thailand, the onward flights were to Amsterdam.
Drug smuggling anyone?
Remember when Saddam went into Kuwait in GW I ? He cleaned out the Kuwaiti’s personnel files and got a truck load of Kuwaiti, Soddy and a bunch of other ID’s. That stuff is most likely still out there being used to travel the world.
I read that only 28 of the passengers were Malaysian.
Some unknown Uigher group did claim responsibility, but I’d suspect it’s probably Asian-European Muslims (that is, Russians such as Chechens or Dagestanis) who were either showing support for their Asian brethren or - more likely - had a work accident while transporting a terrorist weapon to a European target.
If the dingleberries in transport security can’t even stop known STOLEN PASSPORTS, then there is effectively no security at all.
I am shocked they haven’t found anything floating yet. They found first debris from AF 447 the next day, in the middle of the Atlantic.
I flew 2 years ago, first time in almost 20 years. Didn’t occur to me that it would be easy for me as no one would want to grope me ;(
There will be a fifth passenger with fraudulent passport. They operate in groups of five.
I wonder if there might be a more mundane explanation that points to ineptness, like the ValuJet 592 crash in Florida in 1996. In that crash, which occurred soon after take-off, a set of oxygen generators activated to produce oxygen and a fire that brought the plane down. It was learned later that all kinds of rules were violated in getting those canisters aboard in an effort to simply fly them from one location to another.
That’s one theory. Terrorism is another big one the evidence seems to point towards. And a jumbo they say? Maybe faulty sensors or a “center fuel tank” event?
Good points. Entirely possible the stolen passports and their users were not involved with the crash.
I think that’s possible. Folks might try looking where it would come down in that case.
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