Ha Ha!
Cheers!
Posted on 08/19/2006 4:54:48 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The British have always been pretty good about security.
I was on a flight from Birmingham, England to Ohio in 1999.
I had checked my luggage and had no carry on bags. I walked down to the gate just to see where it was, and then turned around and went back up the concourse to have a beer since I had some time to kill.
When I returned to the gate, they had my bags off the plane, and called me by name to come over while they searched them.
I still don't know how they knew who I was, or that I had left the gate, or which bags to get off the plane! I hadn't even checked in at the gate yet.
I noticed the two mideastern guys in line with me....one dressed casually, the other in a sportscoat...
..when I finally boarded the plane, wouldn't you know it....one of them was sitting in front of me, and the other had the seat next to me!!
Actually, he argued that my seat....the aisle seat...was his.
I'm usually mild mannered, but I argued back and pointed out specifically that it was mine.
..I did not like him immediately.
I was so freaked out & nervous, I just sat there and cried, thinking I would have to spend the next few hours right next to him......he was just weird.
I prayed....I really prayed, cause my imagination was running wild, and I remembered what they did to those stewardesses on 9/11.....(and this guy sure wanted my aisle seat)...
...eventually, I calmed & read my book...
..and the guy (who didn't have a carry on...all he had was a plastic bag with items he kept pulling out)...
..put on a sleepmask **of all things** and went or pretended to go...to sleep.
I don't ever want to experience that again....it's too nerve racking.
Israelis have a lot more up-close-and-personal experience with Muslims than other Western countries do, and every last one of the screeners is likely to have served in the IDF. Not having those advantages, I don't think mere behavioral profiling would work here, although I would agree that a security officer should be able to prevent any passenger he feels may be a threat to the aircraft from boarding.
I agree.
The good folks in the article didn't profile based on "Middle-Eastern appearance" alone.
Also added were:
1) speaking in Arabic
2) always checking their watches
3) being bundled up in leather despite the heat
And don't try that BS about "it's hotter in the Middle East, they bundle up more in what others would call warm weather".
I live in Phoenix and I still wear shorts when it's in the 60's.
If people started doing this more often, the Islamikazes would have to call off the airplane bombings due to...no targets.
Full Disclosure: I call dibs on this one:
What if they held a Jihad and nobody came?TM
Cheers!
My approach would be to announce that the "suspects" had been thoroughly searched, and were "clean." Maybe search them again, and announce that. Then state that anyone can get off the plane, but their tickets are non refundable. Then take off, with if need be just the two "suspects" on board. Stand firm; do what is right. The incident was mishandled it appears, and mob fear was allowed to run rampant, and then catered to. It is pathetic really.
I bet if it was to happen here in the US the only person getting arrested will be the ones making the complaints.
Awesome for those tourists to stand up and make notice their observations, the airlines are too cash starved to give a hoot who buys the ticket, I'm also hoping the next airline advertising slogan will say, "Muslim Free". And I'm hoping for more ant-muslim cartoons!
"...they were speaking in a foreign language thought to be an Arabic language, and the pilot was refusing to take off until they were escorted off the plane."
Notice, it never says what language they were actually speaking. Must have been arabic.
YEs, the story is RIDDLED with PC Crap!
I hope we see more incidents like this.
The fact remains that McVeigh was seen with a Middle Eastern male (John Doe #2) by many witnesses. Remember the sketches?
And until they lift a finger, I consider them ALL to be BAD APPLES.
Your last comment would make a GREAT T-shirt!
Ha Ha!
Cheers!
" If Allah wanted his people to fly -- he would have given then wings."
Or Magic Carpets....
I did that too, then I stopped flying cause the BS at the airports just ain't woth it anymore. I drive everywhere I go now.
No, I agree. But the idea that excluding all East Asian or Middle Easterner appearing people from flights is going to provide safety is not very accurate. Pakistanis and Indians look a lot alike, but one group is mostly Muslim and out to get us, and the other is not. Furthermore, there are a lot of converts - three of the British plotters were non-Middle Easterners. Two were white Britons and one was a black Jamaican.
My point is that the problem is Islam, and I think it's going to be very hard to screen on the basis of ethnicity alone, because that doesn't always indicate anything. When the Israelis screen passengers (and El Al screens all its passengers), they do so not only on the basis of national origin, but on the basis of behavior, past travel, contacts in the country, etc.
Personally, I think the way to deal with it is to wipe out Islam or deal it such a death blow that these people don't even dare to attack innocent Western civilians again. We can't go on constantly restricting our lives, our behavior and our freedom for these people. We've got to strike them at some point and make it really undesirable for them to even think about interfering with us.
Flying internationally next month for the first time since 911. To the UK. Scary.
OMG, Guen, that's just awful I wasn't going to relate my horrid experience (fear) but since you have... I was late to the boarding gate to catch my connecting flight so I was unable to view the passengers until AFTER I boarded the plane. Several women in burkas accompanied by M.E. men. I calmed my fears by thinking they'd not be so damn obvious and were surely screened.
If these people are sharp enought to spot middle eastern terrorists, I hope these same heroes are savvy enough to spot the next Richard Reid or Jose Padilla.
IIRC, "asia" begins at the bosporos, the waterway from the Mediterranian to the Black Sea
Ham and cheese, washed down with a beer.
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