Airline hijackers rehearsing for October surprise ?

[JohnnyRingo]

I read a similar article last week involving Annie Jacobson's observance of "erratic behaviur" aboard a trans-Atlantic flight, but I dismissed it when I came to a link to Ann Coulter.

This story may have, at least, a BIT more credibility:
(I know who owns WT)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040721-101403-1508r.htm

Credible or not, it's an interesting read.

[ps1074]

1. washington times has no credibility whatsoever

Second sentence of the article:

"...in what one pilot called "stereotypical" behavior of an organized attempt to attack a plane."

Okay, what is the stereotypical behaviour for atacking a a plane? I doubt there is anyone in the FBI or CIA actually seen one. Pure BS.

[progressivebydesign]

2. Washington Times... that should tell you something right there..

Because you're relatively new here, I'll let you know that the Moonie-owned Washington Times is basically a right-wing, Bush-bot, birdcage liner. Also, they own the UPI news service. Take most of what they write with a LARGE grain of salt.

That Annie Jacobsen piece was circulated around last week. There was a great Salon piece written by a pilot, that really puts her bizarre tale under scrutiny. If someone can link to that, I think you'd find it equally interesting.

While I have no doubt that terrorists are thinking of new ways to attack us, certainly as Bush's policies have made us a much more attractive target (sadly), I DO think these stories are over the top.

In that article you've posted, FIRST it said that the Syrian musicians had "one way tickets", then two paragraphs later, the officials confirmed that their "return flight checked out". The whole story is rather suspect, actually.

[ps1074]

3. another pearl from the article

"If 19 terrorists can learn to fly airplanes into buildings, couldn't 14 terrorists learn to play instruments?"

[StopTheMorans]

4. there was a great rebuttal to this piece in Salon last week

talking about what an alarmist, race-profiling nutjob the writer of this article was. The Washington Post is not to be trusted...

[LittleApple81]

5. I am sorry for anybody who looks "Arab"...because we are (with reason)

paranoic. IF SCARBOROUGH IS DECICATING HIS WHOLE PROGRAM TO THIS IT CANNOT BE A REAL PROBLEM.

[Literate Tar Heel]

6. I am so tired of seeing that nutjob Annie Jacobson on TV

everywhere I look this week, it seems that she's being interviewed by some talking head or other, quivering and talking about how terrified she was and how bizarre the behavior of these Syrians was, and then when asked for specifics, she's like, "well, uh, you had to be there ... but the, uh, flight attendant agreed with me" ... the closest thing to strange behavior she is able to give is that a few of them went to the bathroom (evidently airplane bathrooms are now segregated and only white people are allowed to use them, even if the flight is 4 hours long), and that a few of them got up to get stuff out of the overhead compartments while the "fasten seatbelt" light was on (well, clearly that's an act of terrorism if there ever was one) ... if this was such a horrifying flight experience, where are the other hundred, two hundred, whatever, people who were on this plane and why aren't they all over cable news? this whole thing stinks either of a slightly unstable jingoistic freak looking for her 15 minutes of fame or of an orchestrated political maneuver of some sort to stir up more terror unrest and deflect attention away from the 9/11 report

[pbg]

7. Annie Jacobson is serving the terrorist cause

The best way to hijack a jetliner would be to make sure some traditionally dressed or otherwise stereotypical Arabs/Muslims are on board, and while the racist xenophobes are getting all antsy, you (light-skinned, Western dress, no accent, smiling and friendly) take over the plane.

And being seen casing the joint is not expert behavior.

The unspoken racist assumption is that terrorists are stupider than 'we' are because they're not white.

[shraby]

8. In the article

it stated that one man was in the bathroom for a long time, so after he left the sky marshall went in and found the mirror had been removed as if the man was trying to get in the cockpit...my question, if this is what it looked like, why wasn't the man immediately put into custody for questioning.

Big fake story intended to scare people.

[Shopaholic]

9. Local news says the witness overreacted--link:

http://www.kfi640.com/ericleonard.html

2nd story down on the page

[warrior1]

10. False

http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/skyterror.asp

Claim: Reporter encounters terrorists on airline flight who are making a dry run at assembling a bomb on-board.

Status: False.

Example: