TSA: 2 Passengers Detained After Flight to Phoenix

[elleng]

Source: nyt/ap

Authorities say they've detained two men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix.

A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman says passengers aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla. Saturday night reported that two men were acting strangely.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/27/us/AP-US-Phoenix-Airport-Detainment.html

[hlthe2b]

1. Oh, Lordy... Is the the start of another ,media epidemic to report on

Passengers acting "strangely?" :shrug:

[Don Caballero]

2. What is their origin?

This seems to be a calculated attack by Al Qaeda in order to disrupt the Christmas holiday. Osama bin Laden is planning these attacks from deep within Pakistan.

[havocmom]

5. More federal agents coming to investigate Joe Arpaio?

Law and order has a different flavor in Maricopa County ;)

[Don Caballero]

8. Ha ha ha

Whatever happened to that Nazi deputy who stole an attorney's papers during the trial?

[havocmom]

9. Dunno. I only check the Phoenix paper when a DUer tips us off to more antics

[grasswire]

11. consider another possibility

...and that possibility is that someone wants Americans to be afraid right now while they are emotionally vulnerable.

This administration has already dealt with terrorist acts without the press engaging in any fanfare.

So we must ask ourselves why this incident is being used to arouse fears? Why did Peter King immediately cite al Qaeda? (With a speed resembling the hasty naming of Lee Harvey Oswald?) What's happening that the PTB need some cover for right now? And why haven't we heard from Cheney, who is the biggest critic of Obama's on national security?

What's going on behind the scenes? Who are all the players? What is to be gained by each one?

[jwirr]

13. I wondered that also. What exactly is going on. When Pete King was

the first to tell us I immediately questioned the circumstances. What is the PTB?

[dragonlady]

15. Powers That Be n/t

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

31. I noticed that, too...

... my instinct was, "something is rotten in Denmark".

[elleng]

19. THESE incidents.

Gained by al q? Screw U.S.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4200664

[JDPriestly]

21. What happening? Attacks on Yemen that have to be justified.

Maybe Al Qaeda is really active in Yemen. I'm not there to verify any facts, but I do know that we can't afford yet another war right now. We have had eight years to deal with terrorism. Do you realize that kids who started school in 2001 are now in the eighth grade and will be in high school next year. That's how long we have supposedly been fighting this endless war on terror.

Might as well fight a war on weeds. Terrorists have been a part of social ecology for a long time. Who is and who is not a terrorist depends in part on perspective. Personally, I would class people who want to blow up planes, people or anything else without permission in my country to be a terrorist. But I suppose that people in countries where we blow up things might see us as the terrorists. I'm not there. I am here. My perspective is from this point of view.

All I know is that Bin Laden is either already dead or hiding somewhere. His children are in Iran. They probably know where he is. And we seem to be surrounding Iran.

[golddigger]

14. Okay!

[shadowknows69]

17. Ok, how much does the Department of Homeland Security pay for propaganda these days?

[kestrel91316]

20. You have personal knowledge of OBL's whereabouts? Perhaps you should

be talking to CIA instead of flapping your fingers on a message board.

[frog92969]

28. Six feet deep.

:eyes:

[No Elephants]

36. Did you read the article? These men did nothing.

[havocmom]

3. Does TSA offer defination of terms like 'strangely'?

With the zero tolerance in schools nonsense of calling police for every odd thing six year olds might do, I am thinking the whole population needs a set of terms spelled out so we are all on the same page.

I think anybody flying to Phoenix is probably behaving strangely. But, see, it's sorta subjective.

[No Elephants]

37. Please see Reply # 35.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. People behaving strangely on an airplane?

*That* never happens.

[havocmom]

7. Perhaps they had to pee?

TSA creates more panic than they ease. And now we have to worry about peeing our pants.

[Mari333]

25. rofl

[Arctic Dave]

6. More hype for our military incursions.

Crank up the irrational fears of the easily lead.

[Fearless]

10. +1

Smells the same as Rumsfeld and Cheney during the build up towards Iran... Thankfully that never happened... So far as we know.

[grasswire]

12. ayep

Yemen?

[Mari333]

26. yep!!!

as if we havent heard this kind of bullshit PR before.
my god, we are experts now at listening to Bullshit.

[Ian David]

16. Here's a photo

[RainMickey]

22. Now that's funny. n/t

[lib2DaBone]

18. TSA Witch Hunt... Who's Next?

The TSA is the most authoritative, well researched, most logical Law Enforcement group available today.

We must blindly follow them.. no matter where it leads.

Long Live George Bush.

[Duke Newcombe]

23. Great..."Shark Summer" for the War on Terra(tm)... n/t

[Downwinder]

24. A foreigner going to Phoenix? Now that is suspicious.

They must not know about Sheriff Joe.

[No Elephants]

38. Do we even know they were foreigners? I speak a foreign language, but I was born in the U.S.

[BP2]

27. I sure as hell hope that we're not going to get dragged into another

war fighting terrorists.

The Saudi and Yemen governments gave the United States authorization to hit al Qaeda in northern Yemen.

I think we need to do a Jean Luc Picard and just stay the fuck out of other people's affairs when they ask us to intervene on their behalf.

[slackmaster]

29. I fled to Phoenix once

It didn't work out.

:evilfrown:

[marshall]

30. Did security check their underwear?

For whatever reason.

[Flaneur]

32. Just another nervous nelly American racist--no threat, no attack

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/27/AR2009122701422.html

Transportation Security Administration officials said passengers aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla., on Saturday night reported that two men, described as Middle Eastern, were acting strangely and talking loudly to each other in a foreign language.

A nearby passenger also observed one of men watching what appeared to be footage of a suicide bombing, but was actually a scene from the 2007 movie "The Kingdom." The man also got up from his seat while the seat belt warning sign was still lit, FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson said.

"The totality of those three occurrences led this passenger to believe this was suspicious," he said.

The flight crew called for law enforcement and TSA officers to meet them when the plane landed at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport at about 8 p.m. Authorities said the two men were met by Phoenix police and TSA officials at the flight's airport gate and later interviewed by FBI agents.


Nothing dangerous was found during a search of the plane and passengers' luggage, police said. The men were released after questioning and allowed to continue on to California, Phoenix Johnson said.

[depakid]

33. This cracks me up:

A nearby passenger also observed one of men watching what appeared to be footage of a suicide bombing, but was actually a scene from the 2007 movie ''The Kingdom.'' The man also got up from his seat while the seat belt warning sign was still lit, FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson said.

''The totality of those three occurrences led this passenger to believe this was suspicious,'' he said.

Paranoid, irrationally fearful Americans... laughingstocks of the world.

[Lasher]

34. Hope none of my wife's family travels by air any time soon.

They'd end up in some secret detention center for sure.

[No Elephants]

35. Flying while being taken for Middle Eastern.

[havocmom]

41. Not so fast. You might be amazed at how big a Middle Eastern population there is in AZ

That isn't strange in those parts.

[panzerfaust]

39. "...got up from his seat while the seat belt warning sign was still lit..."

Reason enough right there to call the FBI; leaving aside the fact that they were foreigners conversing in a foreign language.

Must not have been an Air-Marshall aboard - else likely they just would have been shot...

Ah, the land of the free, the home of the brave.

[marshall]

40. And fooling around with his underwear underneath a blanket?

I hate it when the other passengers masturbate when I'm trying to concentrate on my book.