Posted on 07/19/2004 10:15:47 AM PDT by jimbo123
Last Tuesday morning, WomensWallStreet.com (WWS) published my first-person account of a recent Northwest Airlines flight that I took from Detroit to Los Angeles called Terror in the Skies, Again? A heads up about this article went out in our Daily Cents email -- our subscriber newsletter which primarily features financial tips and information for women.
On Wednesday morning, the WWS page views were unusually high, something like 10 times the normal amount. Apparently our readers had been emailing the article to their friends, family and colleagues and everyone was reading it.
By Thursday morning, that number had again multiplied ten-fold. It felt like the shampoo commercial from my youth: they told two friends, then they told two friends, then they told two friends. We sat in the WWS offices reading through your emails, taking stock of what you had to say. As the afternoon went on, the number of people reading the article continued to increase and the telephone was ringing off the hook.
And then a powerful thing happened. The mainstream media started calling.
The following statement was made by Daniel Drezner, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, on his website danieldrezner.com:
I received a mass email linking to this disturbing first-person account by Annie Jacobsen... I can say that the e-mail sent to me and other bloggers was cc-ed to movers and shakers in the mediaspere -- Bill Keller, David Ignatius, George Will, Anne Applebaum, and Nicholas D. Kristoff. So they're certainly aware of the story... I'd like to see real journalists dig deeper into this.
Dig they did. NBC was the first major news outlet to contact WomensWallStreet. The producer I spoke with on the telephone said the FBI had confirmed that 14 Syrians were on the flight, they confirmed the details about what happened upon landing in Los Angeles, and they said that the accounts from the flight attendants regarding what happened during the flight matched the accounts given by me and my husband to the FBI after we landed.
Then I spoke with a producer from ABC. She explained that she could not get Dave Adams, Head of Public Affairs of the Federal Air Marshal Services (FAM), on the phone. So she asked me some of the questions that she had wanted to ask him: Where exactly did this band of 14 musicians play? What was the name of the band? Who booked the band and what kind of music did they play? Did anyone follow up and actually witness these 14 men performing at their desert casino gig? I had none of the answers, even though I had asked Adams these exact questions myself when we spoke last week. The ABC producer also asked me other questions which had crossed my mind after hanging up with Adams. Did I know anything about their return flight on JetBlue? Did the men go back to Syria? Did I believe FAM's story?
(Excerpt) Read more at womenswallstreet.com ...
The Air Marshals would not want ANY passenger to know they were on board. I don't think the flight crew would tell the lady, Air Marshals are all around you.
It was not the lady the flight attendant told about the air marshals it was her very worried husband that got up to go and talk to the fight attendant about the Arabs weird behavior.
It seems reasonable to me that if this was an operation to watch the behavior of the Arabs then keeping a very worried male passenger (worried for the safety for his wife and young child) calm and keeping him from interfering in any way with the investigation, would be the reason for letting him in on the fact that there were air marshals on board. They also gave him the job of writing about their suspicious behavior to keep him occupied and think he was helping.
PC is wrong and will get more folks killed. I mainly want to stress vigilance with calm. I hope her story is true, (I know she didn't just make it up), but I would have liked to have heard it from a few other voices too.
In my brief law enforcement career (2 years) it became painfully obvious the 3 people see the same thing 3 different ways. The calmest person saw the truest picture. This has been proven time and time again.
PROFILING is not evil.
So lets change it to, "Air Marshalls put passengers at risk in new training room in the sky".
Sorry but I really have to go now.
I've "stepped in it" on the "Jose Padilla" threads. It ain't personal. In the end, 99% of us are on the same team.
Very, very good. Thank you very much for the television listings.
But didn't the article say the flight was to Los Angeles?
OK - here's my suggestion: FIRE NORM MANETTA and HIRE SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO FOR TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY...If anyone has heard about Sheriff Joe, you'll agree he's the man who WON'T pussy foot - you break the law, you go to jail...he makes the inmates live out here in AZ in "tent city" wearing Pink boxers and instituted the "chain gang"...
Well, that's pretty infuriating, isn't it? Thanks for the link.
Stop imagining what you WISH the post 9/11 era to be like. It is not. It is as dangerous, and we are being probed. They are looking to leverage us in weak moments.
Not only does political correctness hobble us, but so to does the "Centralize It" mentality -- which is just a way of (1) pushing off responsibility or (2) creating a central storehouse or poltical grain for the mice and rats we call politicians.
Rumsfield spoke to that issue -- the waste and folly of centralization -- today.
I don't think this woman is sending panicy info,,she wrote a cogent article about an incident. Truth will out about it.
That said, I was on a Southwest flight out of Houston about eight months ago. Two middle eastern, clean shaven, well dressed were talking intently for a long time at the edge of the place where you sit waiting to board. They knew each other. I boarded first with first class and one of them boarded around me. Before boarding, they had separated. Then the second one boarded and walked right past the first without acknowledging him. I sat there, looked back and made unfriendly eye contact with the second one. The first one went to the lav and never spoke to the second. At that time I called the attendant and told her what was happening. She said ok, left and the plane sat on the runway. They announced we had paperwork probls, three men boarded the plane, in suits. They hung around the front of the plane and talked with the captain. The sterwardess came back several times, just walking. And then the men left after about forty mins. We took off , stewardess told me not to worry right before we took off. I am convinced they checked out the guys, eyeballed them quietly and cleared them. Now that was small but it comforted me. I don't think it would have taken off with a large number of these guys.
Kerry and Osama, girlie men :-)
We need a pic of them in pink tutu's to match the one of Daschle LOL
I caught all but the first few minutes of NBC Nightly News this evening and saw nothing about this. Did you, or anybody else, catch an interview with this couple?
Brokaw spiked the story it seems. Just like he did with Juanita Broaddrick. Some people don't want this story to get out. My bet is that they'll let Scarborough do the show on MSNBC at 10:00p tonite and that's the last we'll hear of it from the big media. Very scary. The silence from Fox News and Matt Drudge is telling.
Thanks for the quick response, jim...very chilling!
actually, your post is a perfect example of what is wrong. drunks have no special rights, so harsh tactics (not that what you describe is harsh, but you get the idea) can be used on them - and there is nothing to fear, no lawsuits, no hate crimes charges, no negative media coverage, etc. But the Muslims can't be touched. That's the insanity of the system the sheeple have given us.
Same here! The more security measures taken to keep Americans safe, the better!
I think if we could go back in time and question all the passengers on Flight #93, they would have willingly taken off their shoes to prevent what happened to them :-(
Agree - that's what I've been thinking since the story broke. Has anyone looked into the casinos in PS or Indio to see if they had a gig there?
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