Officials discount story on supposed terrorists' 'dry run' on LAX-bound je

[question everything]

http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/news/3234394.html

SAFETY: Despite widespread interest and Internet reports on Syrian passengers, the FBI says there was no "national security threat."

By Ian Gregor, Daily Breeze

Media inquiries have poured into Los Angeles International Airport from as far away as Australia and England. The story has made the rounds on local radio talk shows and popped up in national publications. It has been poked and probed from every possible angle in Internet chat rooms.

There's only one glitch: The supposed dry run for a terror attack aboard a June 29 Detroit-to-LAX flight -- chronicled earlier this month in dramatic prose on a Web site called womenswallstreet.com -- never happened, federal officials say. The "terrorists" were, in fact, Syrian musicians who were simply flying to a gig at an Indian casino near San Diego, they say.

"The conclusion was there was no sort of terror threat, national security threat," said Cathy Viray, spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles office. "To date this is absolutely our position."

An aviation security official who requested anonymity was more blunt in his assessment of the author, Annie Jacobsen of San Diego, who was aboard the Northwest Airlines flight. "I just think it was an over-reactive passenger who saw things her own way," the official said. "It was immediately discredited."

(snip)

[yellowcanine]

1. Oh I love the way the FBI doesn't address the real concern here....

So these guys were not terrorists. Fair enough. But their actions generated enough suspician to concern air marshalls on the plane who witnessed it as well as questioning by the FBI. The real problem is that there didn't seem to be any plan for how an incident of this type should be handled - 3 years after 9-11 - and the FBI doesn't seem concerned about that. Instead they want to talk about an "over-reactive passenger who saw things her own way." Well excuse me. Who is it that has been bleating for almost 3 years now about yellow alerts and orange alerts and how citizens have to keep their eyes and ears open and report ANY suspicious activity regardless how trivial - let the "experts" determine whether it is important? This administration, that's who.

[Mountainman]

2. All I know about this is what I heard on wing nut radio so I doubt I heard

anything other than what would make a case for the fear mongers.

I would like to hear what happened from other passengers. I always discount what I here from conservatives about terror because they use fear to win elections. I think this story was used just for that reason. I think we won't know the real story.