Newsstand - Article: Terror on NW #327 - Frightening Article!!

http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=1&articleid=711

Terror in the Skies, Again?


By Annie Jacobsen

A WWS Exclusive Article

Note from the E-ditors: You are about to read an account of what happened during a domestic flight that one of our writers, Annie Jacobsen, took from Detroit to Los Angeles. The WWS Editorial Team debated long and hard about how to handle this information and ultimately we decided it was something that should be shared. What does it have to do with finances? Nothing, and everything. Here is Annie's story.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=337657

in the safety/security forum.

Why is this article frightening?

(To me it's frightening that idiots like the author are procreating and therefore polluting the gene pool with idiocy, but I think the "frightening" part refers to the terror in the article.) ;)

Why is this article frightening?

(To me it's frightening that idiots like the author are procreating and therefore polluting the gene pool with idiocy, but I think the "frightening" part refers to the terror in the article.) ;)

Well, maybe it's frightening simply because it's circulating and it's going to cause more people to stop flying and to become more xenophobic.

Or, maybe there are a couple of other possibilities, as witness the following from the Wall Street Journal's "Opinion Journal" today:

Best of the Web Today - July 16, 2004
By JAMES TARANTO

The Next 9/11?

A story by Annie Jacobsen, published on WomensWallStreet.com, has been making the rounds on the blogosphere. Jacobsen reports that when she flew from Detroit to Los Angeles last month, she witnessed a group of 14 men, flying on Syrian passports, conducting what appeared to be a "dry run" for a plan to build a bomb in flight--a terror scenario about which the FBI has warned.

It's quite a chilling story, albeit with some comforting elements. A stewardess tells Jacobsen that there are air marshals on board--though it's not clear if they just happened to be there or were put on the flight because the Syrians raised alarm bells. When the flight lands in Los Angeles it is greeted by a bevy of law-enforcement officers, who take the Syrians aside for interrogation.

Less confidence-inspiring, however, is this postflight conversation Jacobsen describes with Dave Adams, spokesman for the Federal Air Marshals Service:

"I asked Adams why, based on the FBI's credible information that terrorists may try to assemble bombs on planes, the air marshals or the flight attendants didn't do anything about the bizarre behavior and frequent trips to the lavatory. "Our FAM agents have to have an event to arrest somebody. Our agents aren't going to deploy until there is an actual event," Adams explained."

Jacobsen says this happened on June 29--the day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that noncitizen terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay have the right to sue in American courts.

Jacobsen says this happened on June 29--the day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that noncitizen terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay have the right to sue in American courts.

It's too late. Another journalist has become xenophobic by reading the article.
The fact that she linked both facts is telling. The fact she seems to regret a decision of the SCOTUS granting basic human rights to people under US custody is telling, too.

The article is frightening indeed...

Look -- this may well have been a dry run by some hijackers. But she read *so* much into it.

1) Often, if I'm sitting in the window I'll get up to use the lavatory at the same time as someone between me and the aisle because it's more convenient for everyone

2) She relies on Ann Coulter for Xenophobic "facts" (Relying on Ann Counter for anything related to facts causes me to question her motives).

3) I think her summary is outrageous:Do I think these men were musicians? I'll let you decide. But I wonder, if 19 terrorists can learn to fly airplanes into buildings, couldn't 14 terrorists learn to play instruments?She assumes that these folks just walked on board without being screened. She has a lot to learn, particularly about the Constitution.

2) She relies on Ann Coulter for Xenophobic "facts" (Relying on Ann Counter for anything related to facts causes me to question her motives).


Just because Coulter says something doesn't automatically make it untrue (same with Michael Moore or other leftists if you lean the other way).

The complaints against the airlines did happen (and are well documented) for better or worse, and Mineta is well-known (for better or worse) of vigorously fighting anything that might even resemble racial profiling.

The disgusting racial quota on additional screening is also a matter of public record and quote a bit of congressional testimony; see below for example. Both the Clinton and Bush administrations seem to be at fault for this one.

http://appropriations.senate.gov/hearmarkups/record.cfm?id=223139

That people would take Mrs. Jacbonsen's account for being substantive and an accurate picture of what transpired is an indictment of the fact that we have stupid pseudo-journalists in the world and that we are becoming an obsessively fearful nation.

Explosives killing passengers is nothing new and has been happening since the earliest years of train travel -- long before 9/11. As explosives are a real concern (even if the risk is small for any given flight), perhaps said "journalist" may want to put in her "story" something about the lack of adequate explosives screening. Of course not, for fear of the "other" sells better -- especially when it's an ethnic minority.

This story (and that's all it really is) has elements that can be easily disproven or discredited. And the linking of the story to the US Supreme Court case is disingenous to say the least. [I suspect that Jacobsen's use of Ann Coulter as a reference is indicative of something, to say the least. ;)]

Ann Coulter's hate for Bush's "muslims and brown-skinned people" stems from her being whoopied and dumped by a muslim-American. After that, her ego never recovered, and her hate became near legendary.]

Explosives killing passengers is nothing new and has been happening since the earliest years of train travel -- long before 9/11.

Thanks! I feel a lot better now. :)

Here is one of a number of skeptics about this article:

http://www.donaldsensing.com/2004/07/casing-northwest-327-threat-or-hoax.html

Casing Northwest #327 - threat or hoax?
Now-famous account seems over-detailed; color me skeptical

There is a lot of controversy over whether "Terror in the Skies," by Annie Jacobsen in Women's Wall Street is credible. Annie wrote at engrossing length about Northwest Airlines Flight 327, from Detroit to Los Angeles, on which there were 14 Arab men acting extremely suspiciously - suspiciously enough to alarm the flight crew and cause a swarm of federal officers to charge the aircraft after it gated in LAX.

I must say that it should have been relatively easy for law enforcement to figure out whether the people in question were an actual band on their way to a gig, and I have to assume that has happened long since, unless I hear otherwise.

Thanks! I feel a lot better now. :)

Can you tell that I believe that only two things are certain in life? Namely death and taxes. :(

I must say that it should have been relatively easy for law enforcement to figure out whether the people in question were an actual band on their way to a gig, and I have to assume that has happened long since, unless I hear otherwise.

Very true. It's hard to get visas for men of this age group to begin with. Also, entertainment event-related visas have been getting special scrutiny for the past 15 months as there have be a disproportionately number of people overstaying on such visas and then disappearing over the past decade. Toss in the "Syrian" (Axis of Evil-lite) citizenship status, and what do we have? Even more scrutiny and a validation of the venue and the performance history of a given person. [Fraud and misrepresentation is of course still possible.]

I am leaning toward the camp that considers the original article mostly hyperbolic and paranoid. The story did, however, remind me of an assertion made by the actor James Woods which I read in The Cell (see following link): http://www.homelanddefense.org/journal/BookReviews/ACF37D.html

Apparently Woods was on a transcon AA flight in J or F in May/June 2001 and believes he saw the 9/11 ringleaders on a scouting run (perhaps converging in LAS?). IIRC the anecdote related that "as an actor and lifelong student of human behavior, Woods perceived a commonality of purpose among the men, and assumed that they were all associated with one another either as law enforcement officials, soldiers, or criminals." He allegedly became convinced that they were going to hijack the plane and alerted an FA, who alerted the F/O, who came into the cabin for a look.

I can't remember how the incident ended for Woods--only that he couldn't tell any more in case he had to testify in a trial. But the book was a very good read and is recommended for those seeking a very good primer on the history of al Qaeda and their attacks on and in the US.