Fear of Flying

[paulthompson]

An interesting new 9/11-related article in the Village Voice can be found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1240772

and directly, here:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0507,mondo1,61134,6.html

[vincent_vega_lives]

1. There is nothing as devious as

bureaucratic inertia. It alone has probably cased as much suffering as greed and neglect.

[k-robjoe]

2. Last paragraph

I had forgotten about that.

About how Salman Rushdie was banned "from taking domestic flights in Canada and the U.S. shortly before the attacks".

"The author's publisher said it was told by the FAA that U.S. intelligence had given a warning of "something out there," but gave no details. The FAA confirmed it had stepped up security measures around Rushdie, but would not say why."

[Old and In the Way]

4. Why would Rushdie be a person of interest to warn?

I find it really odd the FAA is specifically warning Rushdie not to fly. It just doesn't make any sense to me. I can understand the Pentagon brass being warned, but Rushdie?

[paulthompson]

5. Simple

The religious fatwa against him. He's an international jetsetter type, flying frequently between LA and New York (recall actor James Woods sitting near the hijackers during a practice flight a month before). Imagine if he'd been on one of the hijacked planes and had been killed. That would have been a huge, unexpected propaganda bonus for al-Qaeda, and especially would have boosted their reputation in Iran where they've been weak due to Sunni - Shiite differences (the fatwa was an Iranian thing).

[Dancing_Dave]

3. The Rushdie detail is most telling...

Long after much of this article is just discredited mythology, that will remain significant evidence toward what really happened and who was ultimately behind it.