CNN BREAKING: Philadelphia Int'l Airport Evacuated

[PCIntern]

Suspicious package behind counter.

I might add that local stations are running regular news programs with all of their BS features.

[DoYouEverWonder]

We should do a DU poll

to guess what it turns out to be.

1. A lunch box
2. Someone's Playboy Magazine stash
3. My kid's homework that he still can't find...

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

6. Probably all the homework and Playboys I've lost over the yeras.

Damn this ADD! Now it's causing terror alerts!

[thepurpose]

1. That crazy Karl. Now's he planting packages in Airports.

[davekriss]

15. Things do seem to be following a script...

...Bush low in polls, important election coming up in a few months, and whammo we get the Miami 7 and planted packages in airports again. fear Fear FEAR!!! But Bush will save us, keep us safe.

Rove thinks we are children, easily manipulated by props and shallow speeches.

[OzarkDem]

25. Welcome to DU!

:-)

[Earth_First]

2. TERRA! TERRA! TERRA!

I have the sneaking suspicion that it very well may be an election year...

[Deja Q]

3. Hmmm

1. These recent thwarted terrorist acts are genuine. Understandable given the US stampeding in the Middle East.

2. The Fear card. The only thing that they're still seen as being good at, oddly, is protecting America. They will win in November.

Americans are cowards.

Which is ironic. Many of them end up marrying molesters, greedy, or the violent, given our divorce rate...

[PCIntern]

4. I was watching the local news...nothing

I switch to CNN for no particular reason and imagine my surprise! Probably leaked to CNN first...

[cal04]

5. CBS3

BREAKING NEWS

Terminals 'B' and 'C' at Philadelphia International Airport are being evacuated due to the discovery of a suspicious device. The device was found in a bag behind a ticket counter. The Philadelphia Bomb Squad has been called out to the scene. Stay with CBS 3 and CBS3.com for updates.

http://cbs3.com/

[saltpoint]

7. I bet the package turns out to be Rick Santorum's overnight bag.

He only visits in Pennsylvania, doesn't he?

[Eurobabe]

43. LOL, good one!!

[Zorra]

8. Bu*h's codpiece? n/t

[PCIntern]

9. "All clear" has been given...

move right along, nuthin' to see here...

[qanda]

10. Right on cue!

[lisby]

11. Ahhh, the buildup to the theft of 2006 elections has begun...

The scent of Karl wafts on the summer breeze.

:eyes:

Lisby

[bigworld]

12. wouldn't have been much of a loss

... the crappiest airport in the east.

[PCIntern]

13. True enough...

it was remodeled right before 9/11 and there is no place for people waiting for passengers to go...you have to stand in corridors while all the good dtuff goes on past the checkpoint. interestingly, one airport guy told me that 93% of all retail in airports is passenger purchase - so I guess the only real loss would be to the coffee vendors like Starbucks.

Bad news there if you're waiting for a delayed flight...

[OzarkDem]

27. GOP reaching out to women voters

by trying to scare the hell out of them.

[pnorman]

14. Googling returned this 4 year old hit:

Briefly Noted; AIRPORT EVACUATION

By TINA KELLEY (NYT)
Published: February 23, 2002

Two terminals of Philadelphia International Airport were evacuated last night after a woman walked through an unstaffed security lane in Terminal C. ''The passenger was apparently afraid she would be late for her flight,'' said Laura Brown, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman. The woman boarded the plane for San Juan, Puerto Rico, but security officials unloaded the plane and evacuated the terminals. Tina Kelley (NYT)


In the course of playing mind-fuck games with the American public, these guys are totally DESTROYING the air travel industry. What's next? Trains, buses and trolley cars? They seem to be working hand in glove with Bill Laden on "shared goals". Question: Are they complicit, or are they just plain STEWPID?

pnorman

[mom cat]

16. Its crank up the fear time,

[skooooo]

17. Yep, right before the 4th of July...

...just like clockwork, isn't it?

[MindPilot]

18. The "terrorists" are playing US authorities like a fiddle

I put "terrorists" in quotes because--like god--I have come to seriously doubt their existence.

The Americans will jump up and down and spin in circles at the mere mention of something that might be a threat. All a "terrorist" would need to do is make a few phone calls to a few airports. Mention the word "explosive" and the US air travel system is shut down. They have just cost the US economy billions of dollars and they didn't even have to leave their bombed-out hovel in Terror-town.

We have let the "terrorists" win by becoming cowards afraid of our own shadows. I was saying that the first time I had to go through a metal detector to get on an airplane back in the seventies.

[NYC]

21. What started the metal detectors back in the 70s?

I don't remember. Thanks in advance.

[MindPilot]

24. Sure I'll do the research for you:P

In the US it was driven by the number of hijackings to Cuba. Most of the other hijackings in that time period were Palestinian response to zionists stealing their land. Of course in typical corporate fashion instead of fixing the problem, they choose to place the burden on the everyday passengers by using the fear of hijacking as a an excuse to begin whittling away at our rights. And as we saw on 9/11 annulling the Fourth didn't help.

This is from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_hijacking

Hijackings for hostages have usually followed a pattern of negotiations between the hijackers and the authorities, followed by some form of settlement -- not always the meeting of the hijackers' original demands -- or the storming of the aircraft by armed police or special forces to rescue the hostages. Previous to September, 2001, the policy of most airlines was for the pilot to comply with hijackers' demands in the hope of a peaceful outcome. Since then, policies have reversed course, in favor of arming and armoring the cockpit.

The first recorded aircraft hijack was on February 21, 1931, in Arequipa, Peru. Byron Rickards flying a Ford Tri-motor was approached on the ground by armed revolutionaries. He refused to fly them anywhere and after a ten day stand-off Rickards was informed that the revolution was successful and he could go in return for giving one of their number a lift to Lima. Most hijackings have not been so farcical. The first hijack of a commercial airliner probably happened on June 16, 1948, when a failed attempt to gain control of the Miss Macao, a Cathay Pacific seaplane caused it to crash into the sea off Macau. On June 30 1948, a Bulgarian commercial Junkers plane was successfully hijacked to Istanbul by a discharged diplomat and his family, who had to shoot dead the co-pilot (who happened to be the head of Bulgaria's civil aviation) and the radio operator in order to escape to the West. On September 12, 1948 a Greek T.A.E Airlines plane was successfully hijacked by 6 pro-communist students who wanted passage to Yugoslavia. The plane landed near Skopje and returned to Thessaloniki later that evening.

Since 1947, 60% of hijackings have been refugee escapes. In 1968-69 there was a massive rise in the number of hijackings. In 1968 there were 27 hijackings and attempted hijackings to Cuba. In 1969 there were 82 recorded hijack attempts worldwide, more than twice the total attempts for the whole period 1947-67. Most were Palestinians using hijacks as a political weapon to publicise their cause and to force the Israeli government to release Palestinian prisoners from jail.

Airliner hijackings have declined since the peak of 385 incidents between 1967-76. In 1977-86 the total had dropped to 300 incidents and in 1987-96 this figure was reduced to 212.

[NYC]

26. Thank you, researcher, but I didn't mean

for anyone to give me all that information. Yes, I was lazy, but I figured someone would just remember. :)

I didn't realize the hijackings to Cuba were the/a cause.

As I recall, those ended without violence. It was more of a detour than anything else. I remember booking a flight to Florida around that time, and realized the plane could be hijacked to Cuba, but was not worried about it.

I wonder if the metal detectors were truly responsible for the decrease in hijackings to Cuba.

[MindPilot]

30. I tend to think not.

As we all know from recent reports, every time authorities test the TSA, it's fairly likely that someone will be able to get a gun on board an aircraft.

And look at those numbers; they peaked during the period that tough airline security was implemented and over three decades, hijackings were reduced by only about a third.

A hijacker knowing he couldn't succeed I think is and has been the biggest deterrent. If airlines & the FAA had started way back then reinforcing cockpit doors and putting sky marshals on every flight would've done a lot more for aviation security than all the passenger screening they could possibly imagine.

I could have told you from memory, but I was too lazy to type a lot :)

[NYC]

32. All you had to say was hijackings to Cuba. :)

No real typing required. Maybe just "Cuba" would have done. :)

That was in my mind, anyway. It just didn't seem like enough of a cause since I never associated any violence with it.

A few years ago (pre 9/11), when I went to court, I found out that the court entrance metal detectors were more sensitive than the airport metal detectors. I don't know about now.

[mike_c]

19. any underwear get blown up out on the tarmac...?

eom

[struggle4progress]

28. "The package turned out not to be dangerous, and travelers were allowed ..

back in about an hour later, Pesce said."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0625AirportEvac25-ON.html

[stepnw1f]

20. suuuuuuurrrrreeeee

I only wish the real culprits who keep planting this shit get busted.

[devilgrrl]

22. What's in the package? A shark?

:eyes:

[Mz Pip]

23. Maybe it's a box

of dildos being smuggled into Alabama. Hard work but somebody has to do it.

Just wait. The first time I make a smart assed remark it will turn out to really be something. :sarcasm:

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Kenergy]

29. Sounds to me like

someone at the counter needed a smoke break

[sweetheart]

31. Was Bruce Willis involved?

Was there a flight to the Florida Keys?

Did the guy with the package have reddish hair?

Was a blonde woman involved?

Its just like this dream i had...

:-)

[6000eliot]

33. Should we be surprised

that this shit has started again in the two weeks since Rove was "cleared?"

[HuffleClaw]

34. back to the fear-mongering TERRA TERRA crap ?

this is just more roveian propaganda.

[radfringe]

40. actually they are playing "DUBYA SAYS"...

the GOPer version of Simon Says

[sarcasmo]

35. It's not even election time. Is this a drill for October?

[PCIntern]

36. Funny about this post...(dynamics herein)

I personally don't like posting in this forum. It is the only place where my posts have been deleted for reasons unknown to me. I dont' question authority here so I'm not insinuating anything - other than the fact that I was the first to post the Patsy Ramsey news yesterday and it was immediately deleted. then another post appeared from someone else. It's not that I care about being first but...you all know how it is. Oh well...

The point is, I hesitated to post this one this AM except that no one else was doing it and nature abhors a vacuum...so being who I am, I threw all caution to the winds...and the post is hanging around tonight, even though it was no news here in Philly after the first few minutes.

I have connections to some people who might know something about what this wound up being and if I can, I'll post what I know.

[struggle4progress]

37. It's my impression that most posts that follow the rules here in LBN ...

... don't get deleted. LBN does like serious news, so sports and celebrity stuff tends to get moved; news on topics the mods consider flame-bait (like taser posts) tends to get moved; and local news of limited general interest tends to get moved. Questionable stuff from questionable sources tends to get locked. My advice is to read the LBN rules; they're almost always enforced in a sensible manner.

[PCIntern]

41. I know...

that's what I couldn't figure out...Oh well. Time to drop this...another week begins!!

Butt, hoo nose what will happen.

[DoYouEverWonder]

42. I've had the same thing happen that PCIntern is complaining about

Where you post a story, that maybe of questionable LBN value and it gets moved. Then a few hours later someone else posts the same story and it's allowed to stay. It's only happened to me a couple of times but it does happen.

[Heidi]

46. Hi, DYEW!

When things like that happen, I would encourage you to alert of the move or send a PM to one of the LBN Mods or an Admin, so that we can look into it. :hi:

[DoYouEverWonder]

48. I did

but since the mods rarely respond back (which I understand - not enough hours in the day for that), it's hard for us to know the results.

[Heidi]

45. Hi, PCIntern!

I'm sorry you've experienced inconsistency in the way LBN is moderated. With so many new threads posted daily, and thousands of posts for us to read every week, inconsistencies are bound to occur. Any DUer who feels his or her thread has been inappropriately locked, moved or combined is encouraged to alert on the thread and bring it to Mods' and Admins' attention. Alerts helps us do your jobs better. :hi:

[PCIntern]

49. Thank you, Heidi...

I don't usually remark on these things...but I'm a little brittle lately due to personal/professional/political reasons so I thought I'd mention it, since this place is about the only location where I have a little solace...


On edit...maybe you want to change the title of the thread, 'cause a lot of people will think it's contemporary (Monday)....just a suggestion.

[Heidi]

50. No problem.

Good vibes for a turn-around in your personal/professional/political stuff. :thumbsup:

[TheWatcher]

38. Another Orweiilan Day in an Orwellian Country

I miss America. I really do.

[Phoonzang]

39. For a second there I thought..

...the evacuated because that airport is possibly the nastiest in the country. Well except for the bathrooms...they're surprisingly nice.

[Eurobabe]

44. Oh KEY-RIST!

My youngin' is flying across the pond from PHL on 7/7 for a visit.

Memo to US govt: can you please suspend the terra for a week or so? The little one didn't make her last visit overseas because of 9/11. We really don't want to disappoint her again, she'll be very pissed. Many thanks.

[Demeter]

47. Terra!Terra!Terra!

Somebody's dirty laundry, or perhaps trash collected and lost by frantic parents?

Wonder if they'll blow it up first and ask questions later.