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View Full Version : This really gave me the chills..


sq764
07-21-2004, 09:10 PM
And I am sure this will cause some strife...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/07/21/attacks.surveillance.video.ap/index.html

Tom
07-21-2004, 09:34 PM
In my job, I fly frequently at times. I was on a flight just a week befreo 9-11 and I can tell you security was a total farce. I was late for my flight out of Grand Rapids, Michigan and as I ran up to the security check point, my shoes set off the alarm. The guard motioned me to the side for wanding and I pleaded that I was going miss my plane and he just let me go.
Since the whole airport security checkpoint system is no more secure than the absolute worst site, it is still scary. Once you pass one checkpoint, you are in and can go anywhere in the enite country as long as you don't leave the gate areas, so a terroost getting past a weak point in Easy BumFlack is now in the gate area at JFK if he wants.
I flew again the very day the ban on flying was lifted on an emergency basis-I had driven to Detroit witi a co-worker and had to return home immediatley due to a family emergency, so he dropped me off in Flint, Michigan (NO-I was NOT visintg Michael Moore!) and I had a one way ticket, questionalbe items in my luggage (stuff you would not carry on an airplane but would carry in a car) and I got the royal search treatment.
There ver only a handful of passenmgers on the normalkly full flight out of Detroit, and we all spent the flight checking each other out and looking around the plane constantly.
It was the strangest flight I was ever on.
Seeing those murderous animals blatantly getting thorugh securitry is just disgusting.

Pace Cap'n
07-21-2004, 10:54 PM
http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=1&articleid=711

JustRalph
07-21-2004, 11:16 PM
Originally posted by Pace Cap'n
http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=1&articleid=711

Man, that is scary. For those of you that think it can't happen again.........this makes me wonder.

PaceAdvantage
07-22-2004, 03:29 AM
Well, at least Suff should be happy that nobody was searched or inconvenienced prior to that flight. :rolleyes:

What a freakin scary ride that must have been.

Mike at A+
07-22-2004, 01:06 PM
I'm 54, never been on a plane and don't plan on starting now. Sure I don't get around (as far) as most people but I've driven all over the U.S.A. Beautiful country to see at ground level while blasting the CD player with a nice breeze blowing through where my hair used to be. I couldn't give less of a rat's a$$ about anything in Europe. Hey even their beer has some stiff competition from American microbrews these days. Besides, if someone approaches my car with a boxcutter, they get to scream Alahu Akbar with tire tracks on their a$$.

GameTheory
07-22-2004, 02:54 PM
Detroit is tough because of the very high Arab population in the Dearborn area. I imagine there are at least 14 Middle-Easterners on every single flight from Detroit to L.A.

Tom
07-22-2004, 10:48 PM
Tips for flying:

1. Always ask for a seat belt extender whetther you need it or not-it has a heavy metal buckley on the end of a fot long strop-great for bolo attakcing any insurgents, or wrapping around your hand for added skull busting power.
2. Sit in an aisle seat and keep you eye on any middle eastern looking people-profiling is a way to stay alive.

3. Sit in the rear of the plane-you can get a running start down the aisle to re-assemble anyone in front of you. Remeber those re-inforced cabin doors? If Mohammed won't com eto the mountain.......LOL

4. Always take a blanket and a pillow - use the blanket like the gladiators used those nets and the pillow to ward of knives.

5. Before boarding the plane, scout out the passengers in the gate area and make a mental "most likey" list and keep close tabs on them at all times.

6. Err on the side of caution- you can always apologize later on.

7. Remeber the unoffical signal to act - "Let's Roll!" I don't anyone on an airplane who heard someone yell that would have any doubt what it meant and hopefully enough people would realize it was time to join in.

PaceAdvantage
07-22-2004, 11:36 PM
As I continued to ponder this article this morning, the more I think it may be a BS story. I can't for the life of me believe that if there were air marshalls on that flight, that they wouldn't have at least QUESTIONED what these guys were up to DURING THE FLIGHT!

Something doesn't smell right here.....

JustRalph
07-22-2004, 11:41 PM
Originally posted by PaceAdvantage
As I continued to ponder this article this morning, the more I think it may be a BS story. I can't for the life of me believe that if there were air marshalls on that flight, that they wouldn't have at least QUESTIONED what these guys were up to DURING THE FLIGHT!

Something doesn't smell right here.....

Not so sure PA. From what I am told, there are usually only two on a flight, at the most. 7-1 could be pretty intimidating. If you ask me they showed great restraint.

Pace Cap'n
07-23-2004, 06:07 AM
I ran across a couple of follow-ups yesterday. Will post the links tonight when I have time.

JustMissed
07-23-2004, 08:25 AM
Could be they were just messing with their heads.

I remember sometime after 9-11, a lady sat in a restaurant booth next to some young rags heads. She overheard them talking about bombs and blowing stuff up. After they left the lady called the cops and they followed these guys(in Florida I think).

Turns out they were medical students and noticed the lady was eaves dropping so they made up a bunch of crap just to mess with her head.

I'm like PA, something about that story above just doesn't seem right.

JM

Pace Cap'n
07-23-2004, 08:39 AM
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/taylor200407211921.asp

Pace Cap'n
07-23-2004, 08:48 AM
Terrorists testing jets, crews say
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 21, 2004


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.

"No doubt these are dry runs for a terrorist attack," an air marshal said.
Pilots and air marshals who asked to remain anonymous told The Washington Times that surveillance by terrorists is rampant, using different probing methods.

"It's happening, and it's a sad state of affairs," a pilot said.
A June 29 incident aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles is similar to a Feb. 15 incident on American Airlines Flight 1732 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.

The Northwest flight involved 14 Syrian men and the American Airlines flight involved six men of Middle Eastern descent.

"I've never been in a situation where I have felt that afraid," said Annie Jacobsen, a business and finance feature writer for the online magazine Women's Wall Street who was aboard the Northwest flight.

The men were seated throughout the plane pretending to be strangers. Once airborne, they began congregating in groups of two or three, stood nearly the entire flight, and consecutively filed in and out of bathrooms at different intervals, raising concern among passengers and flight attendants, Mrs. Jacobsen said.

One man took a McDonald's bag into the bathroom, then passed it off to another passenger upon returning to his seat. When the pilot announced the plane was cleared for landing and to fasten seat belts, seven men jumped up in unison and went to different bathrooms.

Her account was confirmed by David Adams, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), who said officers were on board and checked the bathrooms several times during the flight, but nothing was found.

"The FAMS never broke their cover, but monitored" the activity, Mr. Adams said. "Given the facts, they had no legal basis to take an enforcement action. But there was enough of a suspicious nature for the FAMS, passengers and crew to take notice."

A January FBI memo says suicide terrorists are plotting to hijack trans-Atlantic planes by smuggling "ready-to-build" bomb kits past airport security, and later assembling the explosives in aircraft bathrooms.
On many overseas flights, airlines have issued rules prohibiting loitering near the lavatory.

"After seeing 14 Middle Eastern men board separately (six together and eight individually) and then act as a group, watching their unusual glances, observing their bizarre bathroom activities, watching them congregate in small groups, knowing that the flight attendants and the pilots were seriously concerned and now knowing that federal air marshals were on board, I was officially terrified," Mrs. Jacobsen said.

"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 ... 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."

In an interview yesterday with The Washington Times, Mrs. Jacobsen said she was surprised to learn afterward that flight attendants are not trained to handle terrorist attacks or the situation that happened on her flight.

"I absolutely empathize with the flight attendants. They are acting with no clear protocol," she said.
Other passengers were distraught and one woman was even crying as the events unfolded.

The plane was met by officials from the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, Federal Air Marshal Service and Transportation Security Administration. The Syrians, who were traveling on one-way tickets, were taken into custody.

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.
Mrs. Jacobsen, however, is skeptical the 14 passengers were innocent musicians.

"If 19 terrorists can learn to fly airplanes into buildings, couldn't 14 terrorists learn to play instruments?" she asked in the article.
The pilot confirmed Mrs. Jacobsen's experience was "terribly alike" what flight attendants reported on the San Juan flight.

He said there is "widespread knowledge" among crew members these probes are taking place.
A Middle Eastern passenger attempted to videotape out the window as the plane taxied on takeoff and, when told by a flight attendant it was not permitted, "gave her a mean look and stopped taping," said a written report of the San Juan incident by a flight attendant.

The group of six men sat near one another, pretended to be strangers, but after careful observation from flight attendants, it was apparent "all six knew each other," the report said.

"They were very careful when we were in their area to seem separate and pretended to be sleeping, but when we were out of the twilight area, they were watching and communicating," the report said.

The men made several trips to the bathroom and congregated in that area, and were told at least twice by a flight attendant to return to their seats. The suspicious behavior was relayed to airline officials in midflight and additional background checks were conducted.

A second pilot said that, on one of his recent flights, an air marshal forced his way into the lavatory at the front of his plane after a man of Middle Eastern descent locked himself in for a long period.

The marshal found the mirror had been removed and the man was attempting to break through the wall. The cockpit was on the other side.
The second pilot said terrorists are "absolutely" testing security.

"There is a great degree of concern in the airline industry that not only are these dry runs for a terrorist attack, but that there is absolutely no defense capabilities on a vast majority of airlines," the second pilot said.

Dawn Deeks, spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants, said there is no "central clearinghouse" for them to learn of suspicious incidents, and flight crews are not told how issues are resolved.

She said a flight attendant reported that a passenger was using a telephoto lens to take sequential photos of the cockpit door.

The passenger was stopped, and the incident, which happened two months ago, was reported to officials. But when the attendant checked back last week on the outcome, she was told her report had been lost.

Recent incidents at the Minneapolis-St. Paul international airport have also alarmed flight crews. Earlier this month, a passenger from Syria was taken into custody while carrying anti-American materials and a note suggesting he intended to commit a public suicide.

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.

JustMissed
07-23-2004, 12:30 PM
We might be pleasantly surprised to know how many air marshalls there are in the sky.

The US airlines have pretty sophisticated ticketing systems and we know for a fact they target passengers who pay cash, buy oneway tickets, etc. I would not be surprised if they can identify Arab names and if two or more Arabs book the same flight, they detail as many air marshalls as needed. Also, I suspect that there are hidden cameras in every concourse and waiting area where a congregation of rag heads would be easy to spot.

I hope and pray there is more going on behind the scene that we don't know about.

Bottom line is that if they hit us in the air again, Tom Ridge, George Bush and all of Congress will have to go-period-no questions asked.

As far as the left wing liberals who post here talking about violating their civil liberties, every time I have been haselled at an airport I just smile at the security folks and say "Thank you for doing your job". Flying an airplane, after all, is a privilege, not a right.

JM

sq764
07-23-2004, 12:59 PM
But the problem is, what can we expect from security that is getting paid $8 an hour??

I fly a few times a year for business and a few for personal, and each time, I see the bag checkers laughing away, chatting away, God only knows what gets through that shouldn't..

JustMissed
07-23-2004, 01:18 PM
Originally posted by sq764
But the problem is, what can we expect from security that is getting paid $8 an hour??

I fly a few times a year for business and a few for personal, and each time, I see the bag checkers laughing away, chatting away, God only knows what gets through that shouldn't..

SQ, I totally agree with you but who is responsible for that $8 an hour-Tom Ridge, George Bush & Congress.

Why don't you think they upgrade the help? My guess is they are taking huge political contributions from all the airlines and those in the aerospace industry. That's the f**king problem and is probably the root cause of most of our countries problems.

Special interest, special interest, special interest. Til we can come up with a better way to finance and elect our public officials it is always going to be the same old good ole boy system and there's not much we can do about it.

I hope and pray we don't have another catastrophic incident but I wonder sometimes what it is going to take to get us to wake up.

I'm sure I will vote for Dubya again, but like I've posted here before, it is pretty damn bad that the only two choices we have are George and JFK.

JM

sq764
07-23-2004, 01:29 PM
So you are blaming the pay to these security guards, which has been going on for 20-30 years, on Bush and Ridge??

Are you kidding me?

chickenhead
07-23-2004, 01:35 PM
they should make everyone fly naked, with no carry ons. We wouldn't have these problems.

sq764
07-23-2004, 01:38 PM
I think I would rather have my plane go down than to see some of those people naked.

JustMissed
07-23-2004, 01:39 PM
Originally posted by sq764
So you are blaming the pay to these security guards, which has been going on for 20-30 years, on Bush and Ridge??

Are you kidding me?

SQ, I thought after 9-11, Congress voted 100-0 to make all airport security folk federal employees.

I do remember that the old security people were fired and had to reapply with the new federal airport security agency. Seems like they were arguing if they would be cover under civil service or if they would be exempt federal employees and thus the low pay.


JM

JustMissed
07-23-2004, 02:00 PM
Employment Printable Version


Transportation Security Administration Employment Information

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is responsible for security relating to civil aviation maritime and all other modes of transportation including transportation facilities and is the lead agency for security at airports ports and on the nation's railroads highways and public transit systems.

TSA's Mission

The Transportation Security Administration protects the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.

TSA's Vision

The Transportation Security Administration will continuously set the standard for excellence in transportation security through its people processes and technologies.

TSA's Values

Excellence in public service through:

Integrity
Innovation
Teamwork

Update on Transportation Security Screener Positions

View current Transportation Security Screener Positions.

Update on Federal Air Marshal (FAM) Positions

Currently TSA is not accepting applications for Federal Air Marshal positions. Please continue to check back frequently for upcoming job openings. Candidates who previously applied that are seeking information regarding application results; status assessment information or security or medical status may call our toll-free FAM voice recording at 1-866-674-6492.

TSA Job Related Contact Numbers

Transportation Security Screener Customer Service

1-800-887-1895

Transportation Security Screener Customer Service TTY Line

1-800-887-5506

Employment Links

Transportation Security Administration Employment Opportunities

Federal Employment Opportunities

Tips For Writing Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) (Word 51KB)

YEAH, THAT'S IT. THE OLD AIRPORT SECURITY EMPLOYEES WORKED FOR THE INDIVIDUAL AIRPORTS AND/OR CONTRACTED SECURITY COMPANIES.

THESE TRANSPORATION SECURITY SCREENER EMPLOYEES STARTED AFTER 9-11.

JM

sq764
07-23-2004, 02:41 PM
JM, can you honestly say that security has not improved greatly since 9/11?

JustMissed
07-23-2004, 03:02 PM
Originally posted by sq764
JM, can you honestly say that security has not improved greatly since 9/11?

sq, Where did I say that security has not improved.

You were the one complaining about the low pay($8)of the airport screeners. I agreed with you and added that Ridge, Bush & Congress were responsbile for the low pay and we should be doing even better. Like I said, the good ole boy system is alive and working well. If you care, you can read the following article:



"October 23, 2003

The Pretense of Airport Security
By Robert Higgs*

College student Nathaniel Heatwole’s recent, highly publicized hijinks in deliberately and successfully flouting airline-security rules illustrate once more the realities of the government’s sham program to protect the commercial airline industry from terrorists.

The Transportation Security Administration is a joke, and not a funny one, either. As you pass through the TSA’s airport checkpoints, you can expect to overhear mutters about the “gestapo,” the “morons,” and similar commentary from outraged but powerless travelers who have chosen to swallow their self-respect and submit to pointless, degrading invasions of their persons and property in order to avoid offending the thugs who, whenever they choose, can prevent passengers from proceeding with their travel. Something is horribly wrong with a population willing to tolerate such routine degradation and thuggery, especially when the alleged benefits of the humiliation are entirely bogus.

Deputy TSA Administrator Stephen McHale, behaving as a bureaucrat is bound to behave, dismissed the significance of the Heatwole incident. “Amateur testing of our systems do [sic] not show us in any way our flaws,” he said. “We know where the vulnerabilities are and we are testing them. … This does not help.”

Well, yes, it does not help to improve a bureaucrat’s day when a college student carries out with such ease multiple evasions of forbidden-item interdiction, immediately alerts the authorities to every detail of his actions, then has to wait a month for an official reaction. McHale’s dismissal notwithstanding, this incident does highlight flaws that have been disclosed repeatedly by others, including agents of the Transportation Department’s inspector general, ever since the feds rushed to nationalize airport security screening in the wake of 9/11.

Back then, when President Bush signed the takeover bill into law on November 19, 2001, he declared: “Safety comes first. And when it comes to safety, we will set high standards and enforce them.” The president was just blowing political hot air. Everybody knows that services are almost always performed worse by government employees than by private employees. Airport security screening has been no exception, as the government’s own inspectors have shown again and again. A TSA survey of thirty-two major airports, reported in July 2002, for example, “found that fake guns, bombs, and other weapons got past security screeners almost one-fourth of the time.”

Do not suppose, however, that the TSA has served no purpose. Primarily, it has served to give the public the impression that the government is “doing something” about airline security. The government is doing a great deal, to be sure; it’s just not doing anything that contributes to genuine security. Anyone who spends half an hour thinking about how to commandeer or blow up an airplane can easily come up with a workable plan. Do we really suppose that the people smart enough to have pulled off the coordinated hijackings and attacks of 9/11 are too stupid to beat the present system?

The TSA has also served to bulk up the government payroll and, in the process, the ranks of rock-solid Democratic voters. Count this payoff to Democrats as one of the many that President Bush has been willing to make to secure Democratic votes in Congress for measures he himself ranks highly, such as running up the Pentagon’s budget and attacking Iraq. Late in 2001, the airline screening industry employed some 28,000 workers. President Bush’s request for fiscal year 2004 calls for the TSA to employ 59,000, at a cost of $4.812 billion. That sum works out to $81,560 per employee. Does anyone really believe we’re getting our money’s worth?

Of course, we have to take into account that not all the money goes for payroll. Indeed, much of the spending ends up in the pockets of private contractors—Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Oracle, Unisys, InVision Technologies, and others—who have found the provision of hardware, software, training, and other services to be a godsend. Along the way, the TSA has approved at least eighty contracts worth some $54 million without normal competitive bidding. Obviously, the good-old-boy fraternity so familiar in Pentagon contracting—officially described here as “firms that TSA officials identified as having expertise in the areas needed”—has had no trouble entering the TSA’s vault and walking out with cash.

Like any federal bureaucracy, the TSA has spawned its share of scandals. A widely reported one involved its booking of the Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa near Telluride, Colorado, to conduct recruiting interviews. Twenty TSA recruiters stayed seven weeks at this plush resort to fill fifty screener jobs. While there, they also shelled out $29,000 of the taxpayers’ money to the local police department for extra security. Another scandal involved some $400,000 spent to redecorate in appropriate bureaucratic splendor the office of then-chief John Magaw (who was later fired).

When the feds were gearing up to take over the screening industry, proponents of this harebrained idea emphasized the advantages of switching from ill-trained, low-paid private employees to better-trained, higher-paid federal employees, all subjected to proper background checks. In June 2003, however, “the TSA acknowledged firing more than 1,200 airport screeners—roughly 2 percent of its screener work force—for providing false information on job applications, failing drug tests or having criminal records.” Recently a flap broke out when it came to light that TSA employees taking certification tests had been given the exact questions and answers in advance. Evidently, these crack federal employees, who were supposed to be such tremendous improvements (though the TSA had quickly waived its initial high-school-graduation requirement), needed a slight edge to demonstrate their superiority.

TSA head Admiral James Loy affirms that although he has ordered a “full investigation,” he retains “full confidence” in the agency’s 56,000 screeners. Evidently Admiral Loy does not fly commercial. If he had seen what the rest of us see each time we encounter this overpaid-at-any-price corps of petty tyrants, he would know better.

In what may rank as the greatest public understatement of recent times, Oregon congressman Peter DeFazio observed about the TSA screening program, “I have extraordinary concerns that we are doing something that lacks common sense.” The congressman should know as well as anyone, however, that although it may lack common sense, it expresses plenty of political sense—in fact, nothing but political sense, with the usual full measure of pandering to an ignorant electorate and doling out loot to political cronies.

In its screening program, the TSA also complies fully with political correctness, preferring to strip-search grandma and to hassle young mothers laden with infants and their paraphernalia rather than to commit the unforgivable sin—namely, “profiling” the sort of people, the only known sort, who conceivably might be planning to hijack or blow up an airplane. Simultaneously, in further compliance with political correctness, the TSA has done everything in its power to cripple the program that Congress forced on it to train pilots to carry guns in the cockpit—one of the few measures that actually packs some anti-terrorist punch, and a cheap, sensible one at that.

Ultimately, however, the TSA’s program serves one political purpose above all others. It routinely abases and humiliates the entire population, rendering us docile and compliant and thereby preparing us to play our assigned role in the Police State that the Bush administration has been building relentlessly. For Attorney General Ashcroft, the federal prosecutors, and the thousands of bully-boys at the FBI, the BATF, and all the other, similar bureaus, nothing could be finer than a system whereby the entire population without exception is treated as suspected criminals and made to feel like inmates in a concentration camp.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published December 7, 2003 in The San Francisco Chronicle "

JM

sq764
07-23-2004, 03:29 PM
My point was that great improvements have been made, but until they start getting schooled, responsible people at every corner, it won't be completely safe..

But.. I don't think this is even possible to do.. Whether it's Bush, Kerry, Clinton, or anyone..

Pace Cap'n
07-24-2004, 12:25 AM
AIR MARSHALS SAY PASSENGER OVERREACTED
By ERIC LEONARD
KFI NEWS

LOS ANGELES | July 22, 2004 – Undercover federal air marshals on board a June 29 Northwest airlines flight from Detroit to LAX identified themselves after a passenger, “overreacted,” to a group of middle-eastern men on board, federal officials and sources have told KFI NEWS.

The passenger, later identified as Annie Jacobsen, was in danger of panicking other passengers and creating a larger problem on the plane, according to a source close to the secretive federal protective service.

Jacobsen, a self-described freelance writer, has published two stories about her experience at womenswallstreet.com, a business advice web site designed for women.

“The lady was overreacting,” said the source. “A flight attendant was told to tell the passenger to calm down; that there were air marshals on the plane.”

The middle eastern men were identified by federal agents as a group of touring musicians travelling to a concert date at a casino, said Air Marshals spokesman Dave Adams.

Jacobsen wrote she became alarmed when the men made frequent trips to the lavatory, repeatedly opened and closed the overhead luggage compartments, and appeared to be signaling each other.

“Initially it was brought to [the air marshals] attention by a passenger,” Adams said, adding the agents had been watching the men and chose to stay undercover.

Jacobsen and her husband had a number of conversations with the flight attendants and gestured towards the men several times, the source said.

“In concert with the flight crew, the decision was made to keep [the men] under surveillance since no terrorist or criminal acts were being perpetrated aboard the aircraft; they didn’t interfere with the flight crew,” Adams said.

The air marshals did, however, check the bathrooms after the middle-eastern men had spent time inside, Adams said.

FBI agents met the plane when it landed in Los Angeles and the men were questioned, and Los Angeles field office spokeswoman Cathy Viray said it’s significant the alarm on the flight came from a passenger.

“We have to take all calls seriously, but the passenger was worried, not the flight crew or the federal air marshals,” she said. “The complaint did not stem from the flight crew.”

Several people were questioned, she said, but no one was detained.

Jacobsen’s husband Kevin told KFI NEWS he approached a man he thought was an air marshal after the flight had landed.

“You made me nervous,” Kevin said the air marshal told him.

“I was freaking out,” Kevin replied.

“We don’t freak out in situations like this,” the air marshal responded.

Federal agents later verified the musicians’ story.

“We followed up with the casino,” Adams said. A supervisor verified they were playing a concert. A second federal law enforcement source said the concert itself was monitored by an agent.

“We also went to the hotel, determined they had checked into the hotel,” Adams said. Each of the men were checked through a series of databases and watch-lists with negative results, he said.

The source said the air marshals on the flight were partially concerned Jacobsen’s actions could have been an effort by terrorists or attackers to create a disturbance on the plane to force the agents to identify themselves.

Air marshals’ only tactical advantage on a flight is their anonymity, the source said, and Jacobsen could have put the entire flight in danger.

“They have to be very cognizant of their surroundings,” spokesman Adams confirmed, “to make sure it isn’t a ruse to try and pull them out of their cover.”

KFI reporter Jessica Rosenthal contributed to this report.

Tom
07-24-2004, 11:16 AM
There is some scarry stuff in the 9-11 report about how our entire airline industry has been infiltrated by muslem extremeists, from maintenance to food service, not to mention our governemental agencies like those that isse passport and IDs.
The system is corrupt and I think allflights should once again be grounded and the entire sstme purged and re-built before the next great attack. We are fighting a world-wide enemie that has sofar broken through all of our defenses. We are infested with muslem murderers and we have to wake up and start taking decise and fast action, I fear the next major attack is already unfolding and we will not be able to stop it.
Because we are afraid to acknowledge who the enemy is. I'll give you 1-2 odds HE knows who we are....he has been attacking us for 20 years and we still are sleeping at the switch.
BTW....sine the 9-11 report came out several days ago, anyone heard anything going on at congress? I would have expected that given the seriousness of the report, the blame bestowed upon congress, and the risk of an immenent new attack, they would be working around the clock studying the data, making plans, getting mobilized....or did they just go on vacation for the summer. Next time one of your local reps comes around looking for your vote, ask him point blank - and demand specifics- what action he took on 7-22-04 as a result of the 9-11 report, and what specifically he is doing TODAY.

Mike at A+
07-24-2004, 11:32 AM
Originally posted by Tom
There is some scarry stuff in the 9-11 report about how our entire airline industry has been infiltrated by muslem extremeists, from maintenance to food service, not to mention our governemental agencies like those that isse passport and IDs.
The system is corrupt and I think allflights should once again be grounded and the entire sstme purged and re-built before the next great attack. We are fighting a world-wide enemie that has sofar broken through all of our defenses. We are infested with muslem murderers and we have to wake up and start taking decise and fast action, I fear the next major attack is already unfolding and we will not be able to stop it.
Because we are afraid to acknowledge who the enemy is. I'll give you 1-2 odds HE knows who we are....he has been attacking us for 20 years and we still are sleeping at the switch.
BTW....sine the 9-11 report came out several days ago, anyone heard anything going on at congress? I would have expected that given the seriousness of the report, the blame bestowed upon congress, and the risk of an immenent new attack, they would be working around the clock studying the data, making plans, getting mobilized....or did they just go on vacation for the summer. Next time one of your local reps comes around looking for your vote, ask him point blank - and demand specifics- what action he took on 7-22-04 as a result of the 9-11 report, and what specifically he is doing TODAY.

Some good ideas Tom but the ACLU (with the support of activist judges) would shoot them all down in a New York minute. Unfortunately, political correctness outweighs safety because the Bush haters will oppose even the most common sense ideas simply for the sake of taking the opposing viewpoint. I hope and pray that Americans will wake up in November and realize that the only way we will get our government to function properly again is to vote out those who use the filibuster to get their way. It's like the spoiled rich kid who takes his football home because he can't be the quarterback.