NW #327: The Mystery is Solved!
 

Those of the leftward persuasion will bemoan the fact that it took a youngster of the rightward persuasion to google a solution, nor will they approve of some the conclusions toward the end of the column.

However, here goes:

http://www.nationalreview.com/commen...0407211921.asp

Annie Jacobsen's recent piece for WomensWallStreet.Com made waves. Her account of flying with her family while 14 Middle Eastern passengers acted in a threatening and apparently coordinated manner makes for a terrifying read. Her article captures her sickening sense of both uncertainty and inevitability as what might possibly have been the next 9/11 unfolded around her.

Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened. On June 29, Northwest Airlines Flight 327 landed safely in Los Angeles and a phalanx of law enforcement greeted the suspicious passengers, whisking them away for some intense interviews. Jacobsen noted a pile of Syrian passports in the hand of a law-enforcement official.

GIVE ME A BREAK! A man with dark skin takes longer in the bathroom than you expect and you want the plane to land early!!!! Because he is on a plane with friends that have dark skin!!!

The writer of the article needs more time in the john himself.

You're right. He needs to start eating a bit more plane food... and then he will be there himself.

I like bathroom humor too, but aren't you overstating your reducto ad absurdum argument just a wee-wee bit if the following is accurate? ;)

http://womenswallstreet.com/WWS/arti...me=&start=5559

Finally, the captain announced that the plane was cleared for landing. It had been four hours since we left Detroit. The fasten seat belt light came on and I could see downtown Los Angeles. The flight attendants made one final sweep of the cabin and strapped themselves in for landing. I began to relax. Home was in sight.

Suddenly, seven of the men stood up -- in unison -- and walked to the front and back lavatories. One by one, they went into the two lavatories, each spending about four minutes inside. Right in front of us, two men stood up against the emergency exit door, waiting for the lavatory to become available. The men spoke in Arabic among themselves and to the man in the yellow shirt sitting nearby. One of the men took his camera into the lavatory. Another took his cell phone. Again, no one approached the men. Not one of the flight attendants asked them to sit down. I watched as the man in the yellow shirt, still in his seat, reached inside his shirt and pulled out a small red book. He read a few pages, then put the book back inside his shirt. He pulled the book out again, read a page or two more, and put it back. He continued to do this several more times.

Sounds like normal behavior to me when someone wants to go to the bathroom and doesn't know if they can hold it in until the plane lands and gets to the gate. Add in the time to deplane and get to a restroom in the terminal and I think I would be doing exactly what they are doing until the FAs told me otherwise.

Reading books while hanging out by the exit door next to the lavatory waiting for someone to come out is normal behavior. Everytime you hear a flush, you may think you can put the book away and get ready to enter the bathroom. When time passes, you pull the book back out. It's completely normal.

Are you not used to seeing a line of women hanging out with a book waiting for the restrooms on the plane even when the seatbelt sign is on? I see it happen all the time, and make nothing of it unless someone refuses to listen to an FA once requested to sit down. No request, no foul!

PS. Four hours and then the seat belt sign?!? Fact check? ;) Nah....

If the following account is accurate, we'll just have to agree to disagree about normal behavior then: ;)

"The fasten seat belt light came on and I could see downtown Los Angeles. The flight attendants made one final sweep of the cabin and strapped themselves in for landing. I began to relax. Home was in sight.

Suddenly, seven of the men stood up -- in unison -- and walked to the front and back lavatories."

And the flight attendants choose to say nothing. "If" is a big "if". Going to the front and back lavs without passing a single FA at such a point in time and having the FAs say/do nothing? :rolleyes: There is a first time for everything I guess.

I just saw this woman on CNN. She is a polished drama queen. She even tried to "butter up" Aaron Brown. The fact remains that she is a racist and wants her moment in the spot-light and is peddling hysteria.

Maybe it's time to put recorded cameras in the cabin, so that such drama queens can be more easily dismissed.

Sexist stereotyping perhaps? Tsk Tsk... ;)

There are drama kings too. ;) And brown-nosing is an equal opportunity activity. ;)

Annie Jacobsen should take over the "Scary" crown from longtime fear mongerer Scary Mary.

Scary Annie

:(

Deleted

The story still has legs:

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...1403-1508r.htm

Scouting jetliners for new attacks

By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Flight crews and air marshals say Middle Eastern men are staking out airports, probing security measures and conducting test runs aboard airplanes for a terrorist attack.

At least two midflight incidents have involved numerous men of Middle Eastern descent behaving in what one pilot called "stereotypical" behavior of an organized attempt to attack a plane.

"The men, who were not on terrorist watch lists, were released, although their information and fingerprints were added to a database. The group had been hired as musicians to play at a casino, and the booking, hotel accommodations and return flight to New York from Long Beach, Calif., also checked out, Mr. Adams said.
"We don't know if it was a dry run, that's why we are working together with intelligence and investigative agencies to help protect the homeland," he said. "

"A third pilot reported watching a man of Middle Eastern descent at the same airport using binoculars to get airplane tail numbers and writing the numbers in a notebook to correspond with flight numbers.
"It's a probe. They are probing us," said a second air marshal, who confirmed that Middle Eastern men try to flush out marshals by rushing the cockpit and stopping suddenly."

I'm really not seeing any credible evidence here other than the guy who supposedly tried to dig through the wall.

Those ballast marshals ought to be flushed however. I think they're making up a lot of these stories just to keep their stolen seats in the premium cabins.