NYC Airports Closed - Four in Pilot Uniforms Arrested
Join Date: Jul 2001
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TowerDog:
Fourth Degree coming up.....No silk gloves or human rights lawyers needed down at the station tonight. Wish I was there.
Fourth Degree coming up.....No silk gloves or human rights lawyers needed down at the station tonight. Wish I was there.
The countries that support this crap have just lost their mandate to exist.[/quote]
I whole heartedly agree.
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FYI, there follows an eyewitness account of a passenger on one of the two planes held back yesterday which was forwarded to me today. The gentleman in question was going to LAX on his way to SYD.
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 12:54 AM
Subject: Flying out of JFK was a mistake. period.
Okay.
Whoever told me I was sane in trying to fly out of JFK today should be
spanked.
I just had a thoroughly unsatisfactory air travel experience.
After hours of delayed flights, throughout which they assured us that we
would get to board our plane, we boarded. I sat, I chatted, I offered to
translate for the stranded Chinese woman behind me who spoke no English.
We waited and waited. 4 oclock had passed in the lobby (they told us the
flight crew was being briefed on new security measures). 5 oclcok passed on
the plane. and 6 and 7 oclock.
then at about 7:30 the pilot told us we were fine - we had finally mad
clearance and we were ready to go.
8 o clock - the back door to the plane silently opened and 15-20 SWAT team
members entered the plane, led by plane people. They screamed at u s " HEADS
DOWN" and rushed the plane with huge (rambo-sized) weapons and rushed
through the plane. They grabbed a guy ahead of me - a guy I had noticed on
the entry ramp (an Indian guy - sketchily claimed to only speak gujarati but
insisted his was a dialect nobody would know, also cliamed to speak some
chinese, hence my interest) . They cuffed him as he screamed and carried him
out over our heads. The same guy had deposited his luggage in separate parts
throughout the main cabin of the plane (aka 'economy section'). We kept
trying to look up but kept getting shouted down by hardcore no joke SWATy
people. They were all 'keep your heads down - you, keep your head down !
keep your baby down!' ) . vscary.
then we waited and stressed as they lesiurely removed the guys alleged
luggage. then, ten minutes later, they let us off the plane and revealed
that JFK had been closed for hours and all flights grounded, waiting for us.
It turns out 4 (four!) people were pulled off my plane from JFK. That is, as
they say in the spy business, a full cell of hijackers. Stressy stress.
Then I turned around and went home. Bringing with me a british lass (hi
sally!) i met on the plane and who had been stranded in a JFK ramada for
three days waiting for flight and sleeping on a red cross cot. also i ran
into a requisite yalie. also i am not sure about flying about the moment,
the country seems a bit, ah , scary right now.
But i am fine again - much more rattled. the SWAT team has big big guns.
Big guns.
After the fact I asked a cop what had happened. he said, and i quote "there
may have been some very very bad people on your plane".
Which is not exactly reassuring.
Australia? Hmm.
Best from my sanctum sanctorum in Brooklyn.
Cheers
PT
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 12:54 AM
Subject: Flying out of JFK was a mistake. period.
Okay.
Whoever told me I was sane in trying to fly out of JFK today should be
spanked.
I just had a thoroughly unsatisfactory air travel experience.
After hours of delayed flights, throughout which they assured us that we
would get to board our plane, we boarded. I sat, I chatted, I offered to
translate for the stranded Chinese woman behind me who spoke no English.
We waited and waited. 4 oclock had passed in the lobby (they told us the
flight crew was being briefed on new security measures). 5 oclcok passed on
the plane. and 6 and 7 oclock.
then at about 7:30 the pilot told us we were fine - we had finally mad
clearance and we were ready to go.
8 o clock - the back door to the plane silently opened and 15-20 SWAT team
members entered the plane, led by plane people. They screamed at u s " HEADS
DOWN" and rushed the plane with huge (rambo-sized) weapons and rushed
through the plane. They grabbed a guy ahead of me - a guy I had noticed on
the entry ramp (an Indian guy - sketchily claimed to only speak gujarati but
insisted his was a dialect nobody would know, also cliamed to speak some
chinese, hence my interest) . They cuffed him as he screamed and carried him
out over our heads. The same guy had deposited his luggage in separate parts
throughout the main cabin of the plane (aka 'economy section'). We kept
trying to look up but kept getting shouted down by hardcore no joke SWATy
people. They were all 'keep your heads down - you, keep your head down !
keep your baby down!' ) . vscary.
then we waited and stressed as they lesiurely removed the guys alleged
luggage. then, ten minutes later, they let us off the plane and revealed
that JFK had been closed for hours and all flights grounded, waiting for us.
It turns out 4 (four!) people were pulled off my plane from JFK. That is, as
they say in the spy business, a full cell of hijackers. Stressy stress.
Then I turned around and went home. Bringing with me a british lass (hi
sally!) i met on the plane and who had been stranded in a JFK ramada for
three days waiting for flight and sleeping on a red cross cot. also i ran
into a requisite yalie. also i am not sure about flying about the moment,
the country seems a bit, ah , scary right now.
But i am fine again - much more rattled. the SWAT team has big big guns.
Big guns.
After the fact I asked a cop what had happened. he said, and i quote "there
may have been some very very bad people on your plane".
Which is not exactly reassuring.
Australia? Hmm.
Best from my sanctum sanctorum in Brooklyn.
Cheers
PT
Tonight on our local (US) NBC tv station or on CNN, we learned that all of those pilots at JFK or wherever had been released, and really are pilots. One guy reportedly had his brother's identification card?
Despite the sizeable network which supported the attacks on the Pentagon and New York City, the horrible Oklahoma City bombing was the work of a Caucasian American (from upstate New York), the recently executed Timothy McVay, who was an Army soldier in Desert Storm (he later applied to the Green Berets). In the long run, could it be some of our home-grown Anglo-Saxon (anti-government) types who might be the most dangerous, because they never stand out in a crowd?
Don't get me wrong, but many of us jumped to the wrong conclusions right after the OK. City destruction.
Off the topic, but we live in a society which expects and demands not only instant arrests but results for everything, yet in a covert war, which might be a more appropriate but less rewarding response than a large, conventional attack against the wrong people (who are left behind when the bad guys scatter to caves...), we might not want the public to be aware of how ruthless these conflicts can be. A large body count fooled McNamara during Viet Nam: he believed that numbers of enemy dead equated to victory. As for surgical strikes, have you ever seen Harrison Ford in the movie which is based on a Tom Clancy book, in which some CIA personnel watch a night SAS attack on a North African desert training camp, hoping to zap some IRA murderers, transmitted via infrared? "Patriot Games"? We might need all of our Navy Seals, Green Berets, Delta Force (Red Cell?), the SAS and Mossad, possibly the Speznaz and many others, all working together, at least as the initial operation.
Despite the sizeable network which supported the attacks on the Pentagon and New York City, the horrible Oklahoma City bombing was the work of a Caucasian American (from upstate New York), the recently executed Timothy McVay, who was an Army soldier in Desert Storm (he later applied to the Green Berets). In the long run, could it be some of our home-grown Anglo-Saxon (anti-government) types who might be the most dangerous, because they never stand out in a crowd?
Don't get me wrong, but many of us jumped to the wrong conclusions right after the OK. City destruction.
Off the topic, but we live in a society which expects and demands not only instant arrests but results for everything, yet in a covert war, which might be a more appropriate but less rewarding response than a large, conventional attack against the wrong people (who are left behind when the bad guys scatter to caves...), we might not want the public to be aware of how ruthless these conflicts can be. A large body count fooled McNamara during Viet Nam: he believed that numbers of enemy dead equated to victory. As for surgical strikes, have you ever seen Harrison Ford in the movie which is based on a Tom Clancy book, in which some CIA personnel watch a night SAS attack on a North African desert training camp, hoping to zap some IRA murderers, transmitted via infrared? "Patriot Games"? We might need all of our Navy Seals, Green Berets, Delta Force (Red Cell?), the SAS and Mossad, possibly the Speznaz and many others, all working together, at least as the initial operation.
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Ignition
You are a very naughty boy. You are not suggesting that we might expect to see (or rather, not see) the sudden disappearance of the odd Talibandsman, or others, merely because they harbor, support or encourage terrorists?
Good grief, this is tantamount to, erm....,war.
Clear targets, minimum colateral, tempting,tempting.
You are a very naughty boy. You are not suggesting that we might expect to see (or rather, not see) the sudden disappearance of the odd Talibandsman, or others, merely because they harbor, support or encourage terrorists?
Good grief, this is tantamount to, erm....,war.
Clear targets, minimum colateral, tempting,tempting.
