"Terror in the Skies" paranoid, bigoted B.S., sez pilot on Salon.

[gauguin57]

"The hysterical skies
She survived a flight with 14 harmless Syrian musicians -- then spread 3,000 bigoted and paranoid words across the Internet. As a pilot and an American, I'm appalled."

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2004/07/21/askthepilot95/print.html

I assume many of you have heard about this woman, who had a "brush with death" on a plane with ... a group of Middle Eastern musicians! -- she wrote a long article that has been flying all over the Internet.

She and her husband are making the rounds on TV, trying to scare everyone to death.

Get yourself a day pass on Salon and read the truth!

snip:

"..... 'What I experienced during that flight,' breathes Jacobsen, 'has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats.'

Intriguing, no? ... Pray tell, what happened? Gunfight at 37,000 feet? Valiant passengers wrestle a grenade from a suicidal operative? Hero pilots beat back a cockpit takeover?

Well, no. As a matter of fact, nothing happened. Turns out the Syrians are part of a musical ensemble hired to play at a hotel. The men talk to one another. They glance around. They pee. That's it? That's it. ...

Most disturbing of all has been the pickup from Internet bloggers and news sources, including ABC, CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times. ..."

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I hope this woman is ashamed of herself, trying to frighten

everyone like that.

[NeonLX]

2. Freeper idiots are never ashamed.

They're always right. Just ask them.

[Jo March]

3. She quotes Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter has got to be the most racist person I've ever heard or seen.

The author of this article is suspect from the get-go.

Besides, I always distrust people who go out of their way to tell you how they aren't racists.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Welcome to DU. *wave*

[wildeyed]

10. This landed in my inbox

last night, and that is basically what I told the sender. If you need to quote Ann Coulter to make your point, you don't have much of a point to make. Coulter lies and she does shoddy research.

The scary thing is, it was forwarded from someone I usually consider a good dem.

[Fescue4u]

5. Depends on how much she embellished

Frankly seeing 6 middle easterns get up simulatenously from their seats would scare me to.

Then if one did do the "knife across the neck motion", my radar would be on full alert.

[trumad]

7. You say if....

If is this whole piece... The ladies a fucking liar through and through... Like a flight attendant is going to tell her that there are several sky marshalls on board...Lie number one... The she says that the flight attendant asked her to write down a description of the men... Please! Bullshit 101

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. What didn't she embellish?? She needs to check her med dosage.

[Fescue4u]

33. yep

[gauguin57]

6. Holy crap! I went over 1,000 posts

and didn't even notice!

:) :) :)

[DinahMoeHum]

8. Here's another paranoid "security mom" re USA Today. . .

Link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-07-20-malkin_x.htm

Sheeesh. These ladies really need to get a life.

:evilfrown:

[livinginphotographs]

14. WTF?!!!!

"We have educated our 4-year-old daughter about Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. She knows that there are bad men in the world trying to kill Americans everywhere."

I'm not sure how scaring the shit out of a 4-year-old is going to keep her safe, but whatever...

[tkmorris]

18. Probably something like.....

"You'd better eat your vegetables or Osama will find out". Sick people.

[DavidFL]

27. Shame on USA Today for not telling readers who Michelle Malkin is...

She's one of the conservative "fembots" that frequently contributes to TownHall.com and WorldNet Daily pissing and moaning how liberals and our loose morals are taking this country on a one-way trip straight to hell. Apparently, Malkin is also fond of labelling others as skanks, too.

Here's the witch herself speaking on C-Span advocating deportation, instead of amnesty, for illegal aliens:

[kcwayne]

9. The author makes a number of good points, but misses on this one

"The notion that 14 saboteurs, replete with silk-screened track suits effectively advertising themselves as such, would obviously and boisterously proceed in and out of an airplane lavatory, taking turns to construct a bomb, is so over-the-top ludicrous it deserves its own comedy sketch."


Yet one of the World Trade Center bombers went back to the truck rental location demanding a refund because the truck that had been used to deliver and be the bomb was "stolen" from him. This was a key break in the case as it turns out.

So maybe he wasn't a complete idiot and thought he ought to do this or there would be suspicions about him, which is true, but why the hell wouldn't the planning be to do the deed and get the hell out of Dodge before the flatfoots get around to checking you out.

You can't assume that the terrorists are necessarily smart. After all, some of them do want to blow themselves up for "insults to Islam" that occurred 1000 years ago. It doesn't get any more over the top in my book.

[killbotfactory]

12. Paranoid, bigoted BS, says killbotfactory

That stupid lady should be ashamed of herself.

And so should all the fucking right wing racists who embrace that stupid story.

[trumad]

13. kick

[Hamlette]

15. her husband was worse

on some infotainment show recently (I put most cable news in that category). He said he decided to write in his journal when it was happening then read from it on air. Freaky. "I'm sure I'm going to die, I will never see my home again" blah blah (words to that effect).

I'd never heard of the incident before the report on TV and kept thinking, throughout the story, "how is this scary, or news?" I was waiting for some government official to come on and say "there was a breach of security, we stopped a hijacking" something! Nada.

I'm wondering if the the 24 hours news cycle, coupled with the fact that they've pulled the plug on investigative journalists ("too expensive, we need pretty anchor boys instead and they cost real money") now must seach the web for news and reporting it without reflection. ("Well, it happened, doesn't that make it news?")

[killbotfactory]

17. I bet those Syrians never knew they had so much power to frighten...

bored, racist, white folks by just being born travelling the world.

[Ms. Clio]

20. Plenty of racists right here who embraced this story

I read it here last week, I think, and thought it was complete and total crap then.

[VolcanoJen]

16. MUST READ... kick!

As a travel-buff, I've been a fan of Patrick Smith's column for awhile now. He provides fascinating insight into the profession of flying planes for a living, and is a fantastic writer, to boot.

Most frustrating, accurate passage of this piece, for me:

Most disturbing of all has been the pickup from Internet bloggers and news sources, including ABC, CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times. The writer hops a flight to California on which absolutely nothing of danger occurs, and the following are among the citations:

"Harrowing piece"
"The frightening true story"
"Disturbing account"
"Riveting article"
"An absolute must-read"

"Read all about the breaking Northwest airlines scare," advertises TheLosAngelesNews.com, suggesting perhaps a narrowly averted crash, a bomb defused during flight or a thwarted skyjacking. Click on over to hear instead about the toilet habits of a group of Syrian minstrels and one middle-aged woman's alarmist reaction to them. No matter; over the past week or so Jacobsen has found herself linked and excerpted in every last crevice of the Web. Those of you not convinced of just how paranoid and xenophobic Americans can be, look no further than the following online posts, which, along with thousands like them, have emerged in direct response to this story:

"You will never, ever, catch me on an airplane again!"

"My advice would be to de-plane as soon as I counted 14 Arabs as passengers. "


Everyone, please read this article when you have a moment.

[gauguin57]

19. bump for

the night shift

[Kanary]

21. Is her name Annie Jacobsen, or Jacobson?

I just saw her on CNN, Aaron Brown, and didn't see your post.....

Guess I now have a dupe....

sigh......

Kanary

[Warren DeMontague]

22. But they congregated menacingly...

and got up to use the bathroom.. while the seat belt sign was still illuminated! (Now, I know you god-fearing good Merkins never do anything like that, especially not now that they use that stupid seat belt light for crowd control-- to keep people from getting in the way of the damn drink carts...)

[Must_B_Free]

23. This is more than just Bullshit

This is a concerted, funded piece of scare propaganda. I'd like to see the think tank connections that thought of this one.

[Kanary]

24. No reply to my question, but I'll add that on Aaron Brown, he confronted

her, and asked if they hadn't been Middle Eastern, if she would have paid any attention.

He got her to finally admit that she was worried *BECAUSE* of their ethnicity.....

Pogroms, anyone?

Kanary

[Ms. Clio]

26. Read this entire thread, and you will see exactly the same sentiments

expressed at least once.

[Kanary]

28. Actually, it wasn't a "sentiment", it was a QUESTION

Asking for information.

There's a difference.

[Ms. Clio]

29. I was responding to this STATEMENT

"He got her to finally admit that she was worried *BECAUSE* of their ethnicity....."

But whatever.

[Kanary]

30. Yup, whatever......

[Ms. Clio]

31. Yeah, okay

Whatever you do, don't admit you were wrong.

No one here ever does.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ms. Clio]

34. Well, let' see, darling--you asked the question in post #21

I did not respond to that, did I?

No, I responded to post #24.

Yeah, it's silly, and I could make a personal attack about reading comprehension, couldn't I?

On edit: And what is really sad, is that I was just trying to point out that Jacobsen's SENTIMENTS are echoed on this thread, without calling out another DUer.

[Fleshdancer]

25. Could you imagine what it would be like to be one of the Syrian men?

I wonder if this group knows about this story and how much this country is talking about them right now. I'd be interested in hearing their side of the story.