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 ...
Thanks for part II. Been following this since it was first posted on FR.
Michelle Malkin was on our local talk radio this am talking about it.
Pretty scary stuff. People better wake up. I'm due to fly United from Philly to San Fran in Sept. I won't be afraid of confronting suspicious behavior. Call me a racist, call be a -itch, call me whatever, but DON'T call me DEAD.
"Not again. This isn't a news story. It reads like a dime novel."
IMHO, only time and further investigation will prove this story to be one or the other. There are numerous questions raised by the story, and I hope further research is forthcoming in the immediate future. In this day and age, it behooves us all to take it seriously until proven otherwise.
Based on the posts of some in this and other threads (i.e., BurbankKarl the other day, who spoke to someone at the airport), I wonder if the government has been hushing the story up, and if so, why.
FIRE MINETA, FIRE MINETA!
It's bad enough to have Bush supporting political correctness of Mineta's policy. It's even worse to know, if someone were to attempt to do something about it, they would be sued for racial profiling!
What could the flight crew have done?
Air Marshals were on board....seems every passenger was on to these guys....and I suppose if they had made a run to the cockpit you would have seen 200 Todd Beamers go into action.
The same two groups that strongly support their fellow comrade - John Edwards.
It seems some of that is happening. Clearly the story has been corroborated by the FBI! What other corroboration do you need?
If only he were a Republican and not a PC appointment. He would be gone.
Some answers are in order; until then I remain vigilant.
Thanks Quilla, I couldn't get the last page either.
bookmark for later
I read somewhere that the syrians were in a "peace band" appearing in the US,,that ought to be easy to find out. Will yall excuse me while I google this?
Because we dare not offend our enemy. As sickening as it is, all this became utterly predictable at the moment we changed the name of our war in order not to offend anyone. (The original name of our anti-terror operation was INFINITE JUSTICE, which offended Muslims who said only Allah can dispense justice.) That was quite a bellwether as to the state of mind of our leaders. This latest crap is just more proof of the insanity.
MM
Now how about the rest of the story? That's what we need to know.
If they were going to Vegas to play in a show, I can only assume their expenses, including a 1st class passenger (could have been FF miles or Gold/Platinum status) would have been paid for. However, they bought one way tickets and had return tickets on Jet Blue.
I cannot imagine how the FBI would have let these guys go unless they were confident of their itineraries. Then again, the Supreme Court recently ruled terrorists have the same legal rights as other criminals in the US.
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