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 ...
I've seen that kind of thing here. While I registered here at FR in 2000, I didn't really being posting til this year.
I've found if you object to a specific action, say.....our handling of Fallujah and al Sadr for example, you get tagged as either a troll or a bush basher.
Nothing could be further from the truth, but some think ANY comments that are not fully supportive of the Bush Administration means you are against him.
There are quite a few things about President Bush's policies I take issue with. The Farm Bill. The Education Bill. The Prescription Drug policy. There are others.
Doesn't mean I won't be voting for the President come November, I will. It does mean I have the capacity to think Independently and make rational judgements without a "talking points memo" from the RNC.
None of the guests on Scarborough said anything about the pieces, camera and cell phone, (along with the McDonald's bag), that were taken into the lavoratory. The Aviation Security expert did, however, relate the story of Ramzi Yousef who built a bomb on an airplane using components that were brought on board by multiple persons. Yousef left the assembled bomb under a seat, got off the flight and the plane blew up on the next trip, (1994, 1995?, part of the Bojinka memo). Also, he mentioned the liquid bomb material that would not be detectable by security screeners. NW attendants should have, at the very least, made the middle eastern men take their seats when the "Seat Belt" light was on. I didn't like hearing Jacobsen's husband state that he was "absolutely terrified"...gives the terrorists the wrong idea. There were approximately 180 passengers onboard. Perhaps the passengers themselves should have made the 14 take their seats. The attendants, air marshalls and airline industry are slaves to PC mindset and frightened of CAIR. Ordinary people need not be, especially if they claim they felt their lives were in danger. Seems to me like some years ago, folks would not have felt so "cowed" into submission by their fears. Time to stop being afraid.
Agree completely. There will never be a President that I agree with 100% of the time, because I'm not running. I am much too busy to run the country. I will, however, vote for you when you run.
I wonder if they know "Ahab the Arab"?
This really isn't that complicated. If they were playing in a band, then there ought to be a detailed paper trail. Another explaination could be that the Fedds are on to these guys and believe they are easier to trail if the guys believe they are not suspects.
There is not as much friendly debate as there used to be on FR, it's more antagonistic. Maybe there are more liberals and RINOs infesting the place. Could be a reflection of our polarized politics nowdays, too.
bump for later read.....
"There is not as much friendly debate as there used to be on FR, it's more antagonistic. Maybe there are more liberals and RINOs infesting the place. Could be a reflection of our polarized politics nowdays, too."
Tis the season.....(grin). I suspect it will calm down the day after the election.
I think you are indeed correct. I am well right of center, right of even moderate. But the only differnce in the extreme right and the extreme left is that the extreme left never goes to church. The hate, intolerance, my way is the only way etc... are the same.
The US is not on the North Pole, South Pole, or Equator. It is above the Equator and south of the North Pole. I guess that is like my politics except I am a Southerner.
Here, I'll give you three plans nevertheless:
So, Master of Hot Air, what heat does your air bring to my mighty plans above? Or are you as lard3ss as ever?
You still can't come up with a plan. Until you do, you would look less foolish to avoid the question.
Their plan was to live and let live. Tolerate an occassional nuisance. Not be bothered. Not be alarmed. Adjust to the buzzz. And indeed -- the homeowners appreciated that "free" honey.
Over years the bees built more and more combs -- colonies and honeycombs throughout the walls and eaves. They came to fill any vacant area.
Eventually the load of honey in the combs -- the weight of live bees collapsed the ceiling. The house was a total loss. The family was driven out.
The fruits of tolerance of slight nuisance, of inaction in the face of ignorable danger. Of living and letting live.
That's the basket of fresh stuff you have for sale.
Seems like you've been stung.
Little is known about what they were trying to do, if anything -- but what they did do caused extreme distress. Distress in 93% psychological -- Alfred Hitchcock's movies make that clear.
As a person who rarely "stands by" in such situations -- similar tension-filled situations occur all the time in travel and in the transitional phases of daily living -- I'd have made something happen that would have exposed more "what was about". And gone from there -- each card played exposes more of the hand that was held close.
Nope. Still waiting for you to say what you would have done. Not holding breath. Because you have no plan. Try as you may you cannot distract from the fact that you can't even say what you would have done. I said many replies ago that I would not have boarded the plane. But you say you would have handled the situation.
TELL US WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE DONE OR SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET.
If you answer this with a story about bees, I will not respond.
What a joke of an answer. What would have been your FIRST move?
If you don't have a first move, you have NO move.
Sorry I have to go check on my elderly parents. I will be back in the morning.
Take a while and really think it through. So far you would have lost even the simplest test of handling the simplest of conflicts.
Are you over 20? There is more to life than video games.
With you? Silk purses I can not make out of sow's ears.
We find ourselves having had already so done.
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