Reply #9: I don't understand the logic here... [View All]

[Sufi Marmot]

Fourteen people to assemble a bomb and blow up a plane mid-air? Unless it was just a training run for a lot of potential terrorists who would have later been dispersed onto several flights...Blowing up a plane mid-air, while dramatic and terrorizing, to me doesn't seem to warrant 14 terrorists dying, they weren't expecting/trying to get into the cockpit and crash the plane into a building, right?

Some other incongruities:

a) I find it hard to believe that nobody at the Detroit airport checked IDs as they were boarding the plane - I thought this was a federal regulation - you have to show ID before you walk down the ramp.

b) How did she know the passports were Syrian? Did she get a good look at the cover? What kind of writing do they have on the cover? Do they say "Syria" in English? At the beginning of the article she says the passports have Arabic writing.

c) A journalist of any capability could surely follow up the whereabouts of these men...

d) What kind of musical instruments? What kind of musicians were they - western pop/rock or Middle Eastern music? Most casinos I'm aware of tend to book bar bands or once-famous now faded pop/rock acts. Heavy metal/hard rock/R&B - that sort of thing.

e) What is the likelihood that the government would issue visas to 14 Syrian nationals to work as musicians in America?

f) (deleted)

g) After the last man comes out of the bathroom when the plane is approaching LA, and runs his finger across his neck and mouths the word "no" - why would Arab speakers up to no good do this in English?

h) Can any NPR devotees confirm the NPR story she referenced?

i) Why is a representative of the Federal Air Marshalls' Public Affairs Office (evidence of the existance of which I could not confirm from a cursory Google search) cold calling this woman to give her info on what I assume would be an ongoing investigation?

I dunno.... :shrug:

Not that I think that people shouldn't be vigilant for suspicious behavior, but it might be nice to have independent confirmation of this.

-SM

On edit: NW327 is indeed a flight from Detroit to LAX, so that checks out at least. :shrug:

Edit #2 - What does she mean by "no second security check required at Detroit"? I assume she got off the Providence to Detriot flight and didn't leave the security zone so she just passed from one gate area to the next in the terminal. If she didn't exit out into the rest of the airport, or into another terminal, she wouldn't go through x-ray again, right? Isn't this how most airports work?