Terrorists Scouting Airplanes for New Attacks

[Luv2DriveTT]

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"Aren't there some beds you can hunt commies under?"

Yeah, yours probably.

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First off, the commies are under MY bed, and you can't have them! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Second: I am willing to bet that I am the ONLY person you will ever speak to who was ever accused by a foreign government of terrorism. That's right, I was pulled off a plane at gunpoint in 1991 (I think that is correct, it was during the tail end of the first Iraq war) by two solders holding Uzis in England. After I was thrown in jail, they accused me of being a member of the IRA. Apparently there is a known IRA criminal with my exact name (which is really odd since I have two first names... what's the odds of that happening?). To make a long story short they apologized after they discovered it was not me, but deported me for 5 years anyway because they found work related material that I traveled with (yep - can't bring work to the UK when you are on holiday... its true!).

So now here comes the punch line. 24 hours after I left, John Major's apartment was hit my a mortar shell allegedly fired by the IRA. I no longer hold any grievance against the British government, I understand they were just trying to protect their citizens.

Third: Now that I am qualified to understand the psyche of a foreign group of people who are (understandably) scared that they will be accused of being terrorists by inbreed rightwing Americans, they decided to separate from each other before they got on the plane to avoid discrimination while being searched. That's right, they were probably ADVISED to avoid each other before they got on the plane to make sure they got their flights. If they were really scoping things for a future attack, our government would not have let them go so easily. Sounds like a clear case of bigotry and profiling to me... an understandable case since our nations allegedly under attack, but this is the exact same reason why the CIA is in trouble now...

[jokerswild]

This has demonstrated again that M knows very little. He does hate Islam. He advocates invading Iran. I would say that he doesn't read Zogby because he is Arab-American, but that would be giving M too much credit. He gets his news from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the Drudge Report.

He probably would support Arab-American concentration camps.

[MMMMMM]

The only part you got right is that I think invading Iran might be a good idea; not sure yet. Depends on further developments, actually.

[MMMMMM]

Interesting story, thanks for posting it.

Your theory may be correct; maybe they wanted to avoid attracting unwished-for attention preboarding.

I would like to point out is that there is a distinction between profiling and bigotry. Profiling is a very effective law enforcement tool, although like many tactics, it carries the potential for abuse. Profiling can also be quite useful in security matters.

It is bad when profiling spills over into abuse, and steps should be taken to reduce the chance of that occurring. It is also bad if attempts to avoid perceived bigotry go so far as to negatively impact legitimate and potentially vital security concerns.

[Luv2DriveTT]

um... I wish I could have said that myself. You got my point exactly. Profiling is an unfortunate but necessary tool in trained law enforcement. However it crosses the line because the stewardesses are untrained in these matters. Obviously when they landed the athorities conducted their investegation and let these people free... which tells us the flight crew need better training.

On a related note, Americans have got to stop think Arabs will be the ones who next attack America. There are more African and Asian followers of Islam than Arabs, in fact the country with the largest radical populous is Indonesia. The real war against terrorism should have been supporting the Philipines who are about to enter into a holy civil war, and educating the poor and the teachers in existing Madrassas in Pakistan, Indonesia, Mylasia, Ubekistan, etc. Iraq was a waste, the new enemey lives in other countries and are acting alone. The days when a nations leader is held accountable for terrorist actions are dwindling, we are now fighting organised individuals - we need to start thinking like them and fighting like them! [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[Knockwurst]

Check Fox News or The NY Post, I'm sure they have additional information.