A first person account of a harrowing four hour plane ride is causing a buzz in the blogosphere today. "Terror in the Skies -- Again?" by Annie Jacobsen appeared at Front Page Magazine this morning and I must admit it made for intriguing reading. 14 Middle Eastern-looking men boarded a Detroit to L.A. flight, some in a group, others individually, and carried on in ways that the writer thought suspicious:
another man from the group stood up and took something from his carry-on in the overhead bin. It was about a foot long and was rolled in cloth. He headed toward the back of the cabin with the object. Five minutes later, several more of the Middle Eastern men began using the forward lavatory consecutively. In the back, several of the men stood up and used the back lavatory consecutively as well.For the next hour, the men congregated in groups of two and three at the back of the plane for varying periods of time. Meanwhile, in the first class cabin, just a foot or so from the cockpit door, the man with the dark suit – still wearing sunglasses – was also standing.
Jacobsen, who was on board with her husband and young son, was petrified. Her piece is worth reading in full, complete with federal marshalls on board the flight, and dozens of dark suits swarming the airport upon arrival. But the story ends rather harmlessly, and I had to wonder if the writer had overblown the whole thing to make a compelling story out of it.
Writer extraordinaire and nascent blogger Michelle Malkin got involved and started making phone calls to confirm some of Jacobsen's facts. She added another post later on in the day with additional information.
Donald Sensing is skeptical about the malign nature of the whole incident, and he has some even-handed comments on the issue:
This is the mighty thin gruel from which Annie constructs a banquet of a near-death experience. Even a McDonald's bag, carried by one of the Arabs, becomes ominous:
But once we were in the air and the seatbelt sign was turned off, the unusual activity began. The man in the yellow T-shirt got out of his seat and went to the lavatory at the front of coach -- taking his full McDonald's bag with him. When he came out of the lavatory he still had the McDonald's bag, but it was now almost empty. He walked down the aisle to the back of the plane, still holding the bag. When he passed two of the men sitting mid-cabin, he gave a thumbs-up sign. When he returned to his seat, he no longer had the McDonald's bag.Hmm... The bag was full, then it was "almost empty," then it was gone. Sounds like what happens to my McDonalds bag when I finish eating.
Her whole story is rich with such innuendo, after which we learn that nothing happened.
It turns out that the men were a band, a musical group flying to L.A. to do a gig. They may or may not have had any other agenda. All the men were detained and questioned by the FBI and other officials, and were cleared to go.
For my part, I'm glad to hear that the feds were all over this case, and naturally just as glad that it ended without incident, even if it wasn't completely innocent. Were these guys "casing" the flight, just as the 9/11 hijackers did before their date with the 72 virgins?
We sure don't know the answer to that question right now, but what we do know is that our security on U.S. airlines is still a secondary priority to political correctness. This excerpt from the congressional testimony of Michael Smerconish, quotes Secretary John Lehman on the ridiculous Dept. of Transportation rule that punishes airlines if they dare to pay too much attention to say, young Middle Eastern males for an example: (via Malkin)
"We had testimony a couple of months ago from the past president of United, and current president of American Airlines that kind of shocked us all. They said under oath that, indeed, the Department of Transportation continued to fine any airline that was caught having more than two people of the same ethnic persuasion in a secondary line for questioning, including, and especially, two Arabs."I then asked him about the role of political correctness, and he said:
"That is really the source, because of this political correctness that became so entrenched in the 1990’s, and continues in [the] current Administration. No one approves of racial profiling, that is not the issue. The fact is that Norwegian women are not, and 85-year-old ladies with aluminum walkers are not, the source of the terrorist threat. The fact is that our enemy is the violent Islamic extremists, and the overwhelming number of people that one need to worry about are young Arab males, and to ask them a couple of extra questions seems to me to be common sense, yet if an airline does that in numbers that are more than proportionate to their number in a particular line, then they get fined and that is why you see so many blue-haired old ladies and people that are clearly not of Middle Eastern extraction being hauled out in such numbers because otherwise they get fined."
Good plan guys. Hire more people to increase security, and then take away any latitude for them to use their judgment, their instincts or their experience to help keep airline passengers safe. We are all inconvenienced these days in the interest of security, at airports, sporting events and public gatherings of all types. It's insane to pretend that we aren't primarily concerned about the actions of young Arab males, and to take this pose strictly for appearances' sake, sacrificing necessary caution and diligence in the process.
Posted by dan at July 16, 2004 01:42 PM