Annie Jacobsen's harrowing piece "Terror in the Skies, Again?" came under fire from many quarters, including from some who claimed it was a hoax. But it was anything but, and Jacobsen provides more information in a follow-up piece in WomensWallStreet.com(thanks to Kemaste for the link):
And I now have another important question... Is there a link between my experience on flight #327 and the arrest of Ali Mohamed Almosaleh by customs agents at the Minneapolis Airport on July 7 (approximately one week after my flight)? Almosaleh was traveling from Damascus, Syria, to Minneapolis on KLM/Northwest Airlines. According to CNN.com, "Agents found Almosaleh to be carrying what they described as a suicide note and DVDs containing anti-American material."It was initially reported by CNN.com that the man "is not known to the intelligence community, and that his name was not on any terrorist watch list." The following day, on TwinCities.com, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Almosaleh "had something with him indicating a connection with at least one known terrorist." So, did a more thorough check of the man reveal this critical new information? Remember, according to Adams, FAM checked the 14 Syrian men on my flight against the terrorist watch lists. They found no match, so they let them go. I wonder what might have happened if the 14 Syrians on my flight had been looked into more thoroughly?
Since publishing the first article, I have received dozens of emails from people in the airline industry, including flight attendants, captains and pilots, some of whom I have also spoken with on the telephone. As of Sunday morning, to my knowledge, WWS had received no emails from anyone in the airline industry suggesting that the incident described in my first article did not happen. Here is what some of them are saying, all of it on the record.
Jeanne M. Elliott, Security Coordinator for the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA), which represents the flight attendants of Northwest Airlines, said, "By the uneducated eye, and to those who don't walk in our shoes, it may have been perceived that we were doing nothing, when indeed we were putting the safety and security of those passengers as our first priority."
This is just a small excerpt. Read it all.
"During a later phone conversation I had with Boettcher, he told me that based on his experience, it was his opinion that I was likely on a dry run."
Thank heavens we are seeing some follow-up to this story. However, how much of a bigger picture are we not seeing? For example, are the recent power outages at airports listed below also part of a "dry run?"
I have noticed reports in the press of power outages at the following US airports over the past month. In several instances, passengers were allowed to board, having been screened only with hand-held devices. In the instance of Houston Hobby, 80 bags without any screening at all were allowed on board a flight.
Houston Hobby: 6/21/04
Sea-Tac (Washington state): 6/30/04
Boston Logan: 7/6/04
Chicago O'Hare: 7/12/04
Minnesota: 7/14/04
Near Dulles (equipment failure at substation knocks out power to vicinity of Dulles): 7/15/04
There were also several instances where LAX lost power in April.
We are all aware that al-Qaeda continues to be interested in our air transportation system as well as our power grids. Is it possible that these power outages at airports are somehow connected to Annie Jacobsen's experience, as well as the man arrested at Minneapolis the week before... all part of a big "dress rehearsal?"
Just after making my post, I realized that the one common thread between Annie Jacobsen's experience, the arrested Middle Eastern man the week prior, and the power outage at the Minneapolis airport is NORTHWEST AIRLINES.
I've posted about this before, but at the risk of repeating myself, I will!
Two years ago in May, both in the gate area and on a Northwest flight, a middle eastern guy was acting extremely suspiciously. I alerted the flight crew about what I had observed and they kept a close eye on him during the entire flight. (I was seated nearby and could observe.) I called the FBI the next day but since I hadn't seen an actual crime committed, they wouldn't follow up. This was before the Patriot Act was passed.
I recently called again after seeing the guy's picture on the "Most Wanted" list. Two years too late, but this time an agent called me back and they were interested, wanted to know seat numbers, etc. I'm hoping that at least a check of the flight manifest yielded an alias that they could subsequently track over time.
Looks like Minnesota has their share of terrorist activity...
Zacarius Moussaoui, 36, was arrested in August 2001 after he aroused suspicion at a Minnesota flight school when he arrived for 747 simulator training without holding a pilot's license.
From Fox News
Saturday, June 26, 2004
A Lebanese national with ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , the most wanted terrorist in Iraq, was picked up in Minnesota and charged Friday in a New York court with lying to the FBI about his ties to terrorists, Fox News has learned.
According to a federal complaint obtained by Fox, Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi attended jihad training camps in Afghanistan in 1988 and ‘89, where he first met Zarqawi — who is believed to be directing the current attacks against U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq.
Officials say that more serious charges, such as material support to terrorism, may follow.
----------------
From Associated Press
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Terror Suspect Received Haz-Mat License
MINNEAPOLIS — A man who authorities believe may have been part of an Al Qaeda (search) "sleeper cell" obtained a license to haul hazardous materials months after he was identified as a suspected terrorist by the FBI (search), officials said.
The FBI identified Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi as a suspected terrorist before the attacks of 2001, the Star Tribune reported in Wednesday's editions, citing unidentified law enforcement officials.
Yet Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials said they did not know that Elzahabi was suspected of having Al Qaeda connections when he applied in early 2002 for a commercial license to drive a school bus and haul hazardous materials.
If we as Americans have abdicated our safety to the likes of Norman Mineta and Department of Homeland Security, then we can be assured that another 911 type attack is inevitable.
After notifying the flight attendant that something was terribly wrong, Annie Jacobson's husband was reassured, "There were people on board higher up than you and me watching the men" and "There were federal air marshals sitting all around us."
This complacency is so disturbing in light of the commitment these jihadists have to fulfilling their mission. It's no joke. What is more upsetting is even though it was evident to everyone something was terribly wrong, no one said or did anything -- not even the Federal Air Marshals! That FAM's are unable to respond to this overtly suspicious behavior until an actual "event" occurs is ridiculous. Do they mean the kind of 'event' where poor souls sitting closest to the aisle get pulled out of their seat and have their throat slit?
Do we have to accept the possibility of calamity because sick political correctness demands we care more about the cost of someone's 'feelings' than properly defending ourselves? Doesn't every passenger flying have a right to be reasonably protected without the suicidal nonsense of airlines or TSA avoiding crucial security measures because someone may feel 'uncomfortable?'
What a laugh they must be having at our terrified citizen's expense as they boldly run through their 'exercise' while passengers, crew and FAM's sit paralyzed in their seats.
Our liberal policy makers are sending us the message that it's better for America to experience another 911 than be sued or 'offend' our enemy before they kill us.
It is unacceptable that this is what our airline safety boils down to!
There needs to be legislation that permits racial profiling without risk of litigation against anyone involved in securing the flights. America must be allowed to do whatever is necessary to protect the flying public.
How do we mere mortals make something like this happen?
I am personally upset that the PC gurus are still endangering civilian lives in this country. The whole phenomena of profiling has recieved a poor stigma in our society to what end? Protecting the rights of criminals to injure, maim and kill those who have done nothing to warrant such actions. I would like to share a personal experience of why profiling works and how I became such a fan of spotting the enemy first.
Two years ago I was given the opportunity to work with the Israeli government and study counter-terrorism techniques. In order to get over there I had to take a commercial flight on El Al. Upon arriving at the ticket counter in Newark, a very beautiful girl came up to me, smiled and then began the most rigorious questioning I have ever recieved. She wanted to know why I was traveling on her airline, what my business was, why my passport had no stamps, how long I would be in Israel and a host of other questions. After about 5 minutes of rapid fire questons, she told me I would check in and then go to a designated room where my luggage would be waiting for me in half an hour. I went to this room and they asked me to open my baggage, explain certain articles I had in my posession (including documents related to counter-terrorism) and then they told me to wait until I was called to board the flight. An hour went past and I was called to collect my bags, when I entered the room an armed Israeli Air Martial was waiting next to my bags and informed me that he would be escorting me to my seat and that if I did not sit where I was told until after takeoff, I would not be allowed to travel that day and my ticket fare would be forfeit.
Well the flight went off without a hitch and upon landing in Ben Gurion Airport, I had the opportunity of talking with a friend of mine who had traveled to Israel several times and he told me that it was standard proceedure all that that happened (not just to me but to most of the 22 students that had traveled with me). He also said that is why El Al has never had a successful hijacking because they take security VERY SERIOUSLY, they have to, they are at war. It then occurred to me, that this is the very nature of security that our society needs to adopt because we are in fact at war! I was profiled and subject to intense search and scrutiny and to what end? To ensure that I was not going to endanger the lives of anyone aboard. I realized that if I had been treated like that and I was one of the "good guys" then I feel sorry for anyone who is up to no good under that system.
We need to accept the fact that profiling does work, even if it is not racially based, if it is just a system based on vigilance and attention to detail the system has been provent to work. The simple fact is that when terrorist are aware that they no longer have soft targets, they will be foreced to expend more resources hitting other, less valuable targets and more innocent lives will be spared in the long-run.
Al-Canine:
I have the very same list. I was going to post the arrest of the Syrian man, but you beat me to it. I too, believe these are related incidents and part of the bigger picture.
Kemaste:
I thought the very same thing. Let all know this...civilians are not bound by the same PC rules as the attendants and marshalls. We CAN do something...there were over 180 passengers on the plane. Instead of sitting there "terrified", waiting to be "saved" by the government, realize that we have indeed been "deputized" in this war on terror. The 14 should have been confronted, if not by the attendants then by the passengers, to sit down. Do you really care if someone calls you a profiler? Actions can be taken, especially if it can be claimed that actions were a result of self defense. That is to say, defensive measures can be taken if one feels their "life is in jeopardy". I'll take my chances in court. Time to stop being afraid and time to stop allowing ourselves to be "cowed" into submission.
One keeps trying to understand the logic of a policy that endangers lives; one tries, but fails, to find some reason for this. Could it really be that the government is afraid to do what it should, because it might then have to inform people -- or cease to misinform them -- about the nature of Islam, and why anyone believed to adhere to its beliefs becomes automatically suspect as a potential supporter of violent Jihad (all, of course, are supporters of Jihad through conversion and demographic conquest -- if they were not, they would no longer be full-fledged Believers).
Passengers have a right to know what the basis for this policy is. Will the Airline Passengers Association please make this its order of business, and not the amount of head-room, nor the quality of the meals, nor anything else -- except whether passengers can be assured that everything is being done to assure that they will arrive --- alive.
It is not enough to tell us to put our souls in an upright position. We want to stay alive.
I don't know how many of you saw it, but you should check out the post by ATPPILOT on the comments thread from the first "Terror in the Skies . . ." article, toward the very end of the thread.
I too had the opportunity to fly on El Al and experience their security measures first hand right after the shooting at LAX in July of 2002.
A very attractive Israeli woman approached me with a clipboard and proceeded to ask me questions about my faith, which synagogue I attended and the name of my rabbi. She asked me why I was going to Israel, where was I going in Israel, who packed my bags, the location of my bags over the last 24 hours and those who had access to them. She then asked if I spoke Hebrew. ( Native Arab speakers have difficulty pronouncing the letter 'P')
My attempt to joke around went ignored. She was hard-core serious.
Why can't we be the same?
More and more I am thinking that they will try a duplicate of 9-11...partly because alot of people think they wont do the same thing twice...and partly because what a victory it would be for them to get away with the same thing twice...and I swear after the next 9-11 the first person I hear say Islam is the religion of peace with be getting an unpeaceful punch in the face.
To USAgirl:
I agree with you... and so do these contributors to the Wall Street Journal article from July 12, 2004, "U.S. Tries to Divine al Qaeda's Next Move"
Excerpts:
"...Intelligence officials say groups such as al Qaeda have a penchant for returning to the same targets."
"Al Qaeda has remained very interested in aviation attacks," the U.S. intelligence official said. "We know that it is a consistent focus of their efforts, as we saw in 9/11. But since 9/11, and despite the numerous security enhancements that have been made, al Qaeda continues to pursue capabilities that can use aircraft, either as a weapon or to target."
Maybe it is just me and my personality but had I been on that plane I would have been up asking them what they were doing and checking the restroom, now dont get me wrong I would probably end up deplanining in shackles headed to the nearest county graybar hotel care of the FEDS.
We live by a large Military Installation and I ride my motorcycle around the outskirts often looking for anything, I have identified potential targets in my area as well that I frequently check.
I find myself becoming very intolerable to people of "middle eastern descent" and they do not get my business and when we have to cross paths they absolutely understand my position on everything and tend to finish with me quite KWIK.
My attitude is not with the race of the people but rather the ignorance of the moslems.
Check out a web site called zionist apparel and proudly display your thats to our arabic enemies