Flight of fear.
Annie Jacobsen tells the story of a Northwest Airlines flight this June 29th last. Fourteen Middle Eastern males who appeared very suspicious were aboard the Detroit to Los Angeles flight. The flight drew the attention of the authorities. Jacobsen describes the cabin as full of fright. Probably everyone on board noticed the fourteen Middle Eastern males and their strange actions. The men apparently carried documents that had the appearance of Syrian passports. (*) (In the Global War on Terrorism, all identity documents must be considered with suspicion.)
What Jacobsen describes was either an aborted attack (the finger cutting across the throat with the word “No” being mouthed), a dry-run that was to give terrorists information on how to more effectively launch an attack in the future, or a series of incredibly wild coincidences.
Jacobsen correctly notes a vulnerability in our air security framework. If many Middle Eastern males board a single commercial flight, only two of them can be set aside for searching. This policy treats the security of our country as unimportant.
The enemy is primarily made of Middle Eastern Muslim males. This observation is not a matter of politeness or impoliteness. Making this observation is a matter of survival. In this war, we must be able to recognize the enemy, and those who are potentially the enemy. If we put blinders on our own eyes, our side will suffer casualties.
Jacobsen’s tale is an illustration of how the US and other Western countries now face a deadly dilemma. Out of the following three: open borders immigration and travel policies; civil liberties; and security of life and limb; we can logically expect to have only two. In that we are attempting to claim all three, we compromise each of the three goals, including security.
To protect our liberty and security, we must rethink the policy of open borders.
Glenn Reynolds is the source for the link, and he has some interesting related material. (†) Some people are skeptical of the account. I believe Jacobsen. Her story is filled with lots of little details. She and her husband don’t come out of the story as heroes, only as observers. Jacobsen sounds authentic to me.
Update: 22 July 2004. It was apparently a series of wild, innocent coincidences. (‡)
July 16th, 2004 at 09:44
Is privacy part of civil liberties? A camera in the toilet would go a long way to stopping this.
We might have to add the Archie Bunker solution (arm all passengers).
July 18th, 2004 at 15:49
Annie Jacobsen is our daughter!! She is NOT the science fiction writer nor the psychic (with the same name). She is well-educated (an ivy league school class of 89 and a top prep school graduate) and is quite rational. She is a world traveler. This is not a hoax. She and her family were with us in CT to celebrate our 40th anniversary. Our still-shaking daughter and son-in-law called us immediately after speaking with both the FBI and the LAPD upon their return to their home. We had expected the call several hours earlier so we were quite concerned.