Syrians and "men of middle eastern" decent are probing our airline defenses, such as they are.
They're rushing the cockpits in groups then suddenly stopping in attempts to flush out air marshals. They are removing lavatory mirrors and attempting to break through the lavatory walls into the cockpits. They're using telephoto lenses to try to correlate tail numbers with flight numbers. Flight attendants, pilots, and air marshals know all about it, but it would appear the Sec Trans, Norm Minetta, is doing nothing about it. Story here.
Don't want to racially profile, don't you know. This is the same Norm Minetta who has made it all but impossible for pilots, most of whom have a military background, to carrying firearms in the cockpit.
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 mid-flight 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.
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 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.
Well, there's a 'great degree of concern' here at The Happy Carpenter, too. It's long past time for the excuse of panic/just do something/just be seen to be doing something to have expired. This is national security, and I damn well expect the United States Government to do a better job than this of protecting the United States.
And I have a few questions about this story as such. Like, why is this story only in the Washington Times? The WT is a fine paper and does a lot of original beltway reporting, but it has a small circulation outside the capitol. So why are we not hearing this front page and lead story from the big Media? No, really, why not? It's not a question of spin-for-the-Left which we've come to expect. It's a huge story, and it's one where widespread public awareness could actually help. But not a peep from them. Are they so PC they won't report terrorist activity if they're afraid it will lead to the public's demanding aggressive racial profiling of 'men of middle eastern decent'? Do you have a better explanation?
Which brings me to my next question: What's with this "middle eastern decent"? Syrians are identified by their country, and after the events of the last 12 years, most of us are familiar with middle eastern nations. Are they Saudis? Iranians? Yemenis? Afghans? Libyans? Iraqis? Inquiring minds want to know!