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The time has come to write about Annie Jacobson, “Terror in the Skies,” and Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles. As most of you know, Jacobson wrote a harrowing account of a flight in late June that appeared to…

This federal indictment of a Muslim “charity” came as a surprise to me, but only because I thought they had already been indicted years ago when they were shut down. It’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

…about this whole Annie Jacobsen story. Some have said that the suspicious acting Syrian band members with expired visas were…

Secure? What do you mean you don’t feel secure? – Yesterday, Michelle Malkin posted on the continuing saga of the Northwest flight 327 and Nour Mehana and his band of thirteen Syrian musicians who acted at best like bad attitude artists or at …

Snopes.com has already declared it a hoax and urban myth.

Maybe you should redirect this energy towards helping us find those tons of WMDs that Bush said could be activated in 45 minutes by Saddam!

The story is (belatedly) getting the play it deserves, thanks to this website and also Donald Sensing and Winds of Change. When the Anne Jacobsen article that started this up was published, there were a host of ambiguous facts. They are mostly [not completely] cleared up now (check blogs’ archives for verification):

–The musicians were Syrians. They entered the US on valid visas to play a gig at a casino outside LA. They flew in, they played, they flew out. [Were they "overstaying" their time in the US?]

–There have been no credible reports or suggestions that any of these musicians were anything but musicians. No connections to Al Qaeda, etc. No hits on terror watch lists.

–Frequent travelers on El Al (!) have reported Israeli passengers ignoring flight attendants and moving about the cabin during landings, etc. as a matter of routine, suggesting that there could be a ‘cultural’ aspect to the behavior Ms. Jacobsen reported.

–To my knowledge, Ms. Jacobsen’s account stands alone. The only report of other passengers’ concern is this sentence from the Dallas Morning News story: “Some passengers and air marshals aboard the flight raised concerns about the men’s behavior.”

–Air Marshals cover a small percentage of domestic flights, so the fact that they were on board suggests a level of prior concern by Homeland Security. As does the claim that they checked the lavatory mid-flight.

My own theory (like Miss Anne Elke’s, “and it’s mine”) is that these Syrians held typical anti-American views, and when they–correctly–felt bad vibes from the other passengers, they decided to play gangsta, and put on a little in-flight show.

In a similar vein, some protesters to the Repub. convention in NYC are apparently planning to confuse bomb-sniffing dogs by carrying traces of mateial that smells like explosives.

One question I carry away from this: how do we want our security forces to deal with this variety of “somewhat-false-positive”? We all know that intent, a key factor here, is hard to judge, especially in tense and fast-moving situations.

If the answer turns out to be “No”, then why is it so unreasonable to suggest that we should restrict visas, passports, and travel into the US from countries such as Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia while we’re at war with them?

Somebody earlier mentioned cover stories. Does anyone have a list of which gigs these guys played, and where? (Even I know “I’m with the band” is one of the All Time Top Ten Lies.)

Either way, the point is that they violated security practice in more than one way while aboard the flight, and the flight crew did little or nothing about it.

I flew twice on American in mid June, and the flight attendants on those flights were absolute in not allowing even a single person to wait in the aisle for a lavatory; not even for a few seconds.

There were, however no obvious Arabs on board. Could it be that Minetas ‘No more than two Arabs’ philosophy has crept into the guidance given to flight attendants? If so, then a group (gang?) of three or more pretty much has the run of the plane.

There can be little doubt that the anti-profiling nonsense will assist terrorists in perpetrating their next crime.

I, for one, will implement my own profiling program. I don’t intend to get on a flight if I see more than two Arabian passengers in line for my flight. I’ll live with the inconvience.

R