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Here's Patrick Smith's (Ask the Pilot) take on this mass hysteria:
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/...t95/index.html He deems her story to be "...a story about nothing, puffed and aggrandized to appear important" and "...six pages of the worst grade-school prose, spring-loaded with mindless hysterics and bigoted provocation." ... "She concludes...by insinuating that the men were terrorists, despite every shred of evidence, not to mention common sense, arguing to the contrary. And with that her article, and her credibility with it, plummets from merely sensationalist to inexcusably offensive." I have to agree with him that's it's nothing but racist, alarmist, offensive stupidity. |
Originally Posted by Spiff
And that is where the facts end and the paranoia begins. There were 14 Syrians on the flight. So what?
They were questioned by the FBI/FAM/BFD etc. Of course they were, this paranoid shrew kept ratting them out to the FA. They were in a band. You mean their story checked out? :eek: The story that they were in a band has not checked out. No Casino in the southern half of California has confirmed that any Syrian band was booked to play. So either she is a racist "shrew" (and naïve given her comparing AMS security with DTW's) or the TSA is ultimately a waste of time and $$. Or both! |
What a nutjob the author of the original story is, not to mention her lying about or making up facts. :td:
Originally Posted by TSAJohn
No thanks, I don't need any more radiation. |
Originally Posted by HeHateY
Is that because the incident proves how useless and potemkin-like your agency is? Perhaps a bunch of us have realized that nothing you do is helping us and that we must truly fend for ourselves when we travel??
How many pot-busts did your airport make this week? How many 3-bag passengers did you turnback? How many 90-year-olds or pilots or flight attendents did you secondary? When do I get my nail-file back so that I might poke these guys in the nuts if they try any thing on my flight(s)? Oh, I forgot, you sold it already on eBay! :mad: |
Originally Posted by Doppy
What a nutjob the author of the original story is, not to mention her lying about or making up facts. :td:
That's also what they said about DDT when they were corralling children into swimming pools and spraying it on them. No thanks, I don't need any more radiation. |
Originally Posted by Doppy
No thanks, I don't need any more radiation.
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OK, OK, so it WAS a probe. We actually had fourteen people of Middle Eastern appearance, some of them actually wearing team jackets (a new trerrorist incentive - houris in paradise ain't hardly enough,) buying one-way tickets but not given the dreaded SSSS on their BPs or have themselves or their carrry-ons screened by the TSA, furtively giving each other looks and other non-verbal communication, if not blatantly speaking in Arabic, using the rest rooms before landing, and one actually even gave the (presumably wide-eyeed panicked "author") a "dirty look" while another - the horror! :eek: - apparently disposed of some part of his MacDonald's bag in the lav before passing it onto a friend / colleague. (Ms. Jacobsen apparently was helped in her endeavours by ex-ray vision? Or maybe by the fact that she stated he rlegs were rubbery even before boarding the flight.)
One FAM commenting on the trip said the concern was Annie Jacobsen's behavior - they felt it might be a ruse to get the FAM(s) to be identified. 9-11, the terrs bathed, shaved, dressed nicely and tried to avoid drawing an yattention to themselves. So, we are now reduced to terr advance teams comprised of people even more stupid than Richard Reid? ^ Wow, we have a hope of success here. :rolleyes: BTW, the Syrian band was verified - not by our Sterling media, but by a student DJ at Stanford University! :sheesh: (I think that may explain a LOT of things these days...) Syrian Band identified I imagine if there is a "terrorist advance person" out there, s/he will dress in a suit, own a round-trip ticket, carry a large multi-bay laptop... you get the idea. Might even look like a clean-shaven Ted Kaczynski (who blew up my acquaintance, Hugh Scrutton,) or Timothy McVeigh, not exactly the Middle Eastern type... JDiver (terror attack survivor, Dec 4, 1965, frequent flier and reasonably aware person) |
NPR story on 7/30
NPR reviewed the events in a story today, and has on air statements from Homeland Security & Immigration. see link to audio
While FT members disagree on the implications of the apparent actions of the "Syrians" and Jacobsen, what I find amazing is the certitude of the DHS officials interviewed concerning the actions of the passengers and their immigration status. After the interview was recorded, DHS called NPR back to advise that in fact their stay was legal. They said that they changed their position within the last day. The event happened 30 days ago. House Judiciary staff members called FBI, DHS and ICE to a meeting today to discuss. While the actions of the 14 passengers may have been 'scary" to Jacobsen and others on board the flight, the sloppy handling of the investigation, the failure to ascertain immigration status at the time of the interview when Sky Marshalls were already at a heightened state of alert, and the certainty of federal officials after the fact that nothing could have been wrong, is what I find scary. |
Another passenger has corroborated the strange events on this flight.
"...a frequent business traveler who asked not to be identified, provided a copy of her itinerary confirming she was on the June 29 Northwest Airlines Detroit-to-Los Angeles Flight 327,...The passenger, who was riding in first class, said the constant foot traffic and strange behavior she witnessed in the front cabin frightened her as much as it did Annie Jacobsen, the first passenger who publicly reported the incident. "I thought I was going to die," the second passenger told The Washington Times." http://washingtontimes.com/national/...1508-5912r.htm |
Originally Posted by HUB Flyer
Another passenger has corroborated the strange events on this flight.
"...a frequent business traveler who asked not to be identified, provided a copy of her itinerary confirming she was on the June 29 Northwest Airlines Detroit-to-Los Angeles Flight 327,...The passenger, who was riding in first class, said the constant foot traffic and strange behavior she witnessed in the front cabin frightened her as much as it did Annie Jacobsen, the first passenger who publicly reported the incident. "I thought I was going to die," the second passenger told The Washington Times." http://washingtontimes.com/national/...1508-5912r.htm They should find some ethnic Arab or Middle Eastern persons on the flight and see if they felt the same way as the other drama queens. .... or the federal government is failing at securing the borders. |
Did, as a passenger reported, 7 of the 13 Syrian musicians whose behavior was terrifying some passengers stand up in unison and take strategic positions by the lavatories and the exit door during final approach to Los Angeles, an act that would have been a frighteningly overt and unambiguous provocation? They did not, according to the Federal Air Marshal Service, which had previously left unchallenged assertions by Annie Jacobsen, a freelance writer on the flight, that they did. "What happened was, they were already standing up in the aisle before the seat belt signs became illuminated," said Dave Adams, a spokesman for the agency, which represents air marshals who travel undercover on airplanes. "The flight attendants asked them to sit down and the men respected the orders and sat in their seats. Two gentlemen asked why they had to, and a flight attendant told them 'Because, so please take your seats.' And they obeyed," he said. The new information, he added, came from "subsequent interviews of flight attendants on this matter by our personnel." So there was absolutely no sudden move by the men on final approach? "None," Mr. Adams said. |
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