Why were these men allowed to mill about, and go to the restroom as the plane descended and the seat-belt lights were on? Why did the flight attendants not insist they take their seats, as I've always seen them do with your Average Joe passenger? Then if they did not follow orders, the air marshals insist? Were the FA's overly P.C. because they were Middle-Eastern? That really aggravates me if this is the case. Everyone should be treated the same........ no one should be allowed to be out of their seat about when the plane is descending!

Bonniebroad: do you believe everything you read from a journalist? Is it possible she might have been embellishing a bit to make her story more forceful?

No, Spygirl, the fact that these men were allowed to engage in this strange behavior has been confirmed by the flight attendants and the authorities investigating this thing.

Wrong, Bonniebroad. Read my previous email, above. The point about being out of their seats when the plane was landing has most assuredly NOT been supported.

I read what YOU wrote, Spygirl. And the head of the air marshals has confirmed that the behavior was as described....... but not why it was allowed to proceed as it did, with no interference. we'll have to disagree there.

Why are people so hysterical over a group of people using the restroom? The only reason seems to be the men were middle eastern. It is stupid and ridiculous to use racial profiling. Richard Reed (the shoe bomber) is British. The only thing the men did was to use to lavatory when the seat belt sign was on. This has been done by passengers on every flight I've ever flown. The original article is causing unnecessary hysteria and paranoia.

You're factually incorrect there, the PR spokesman for the FAM Service did NOT confirm everything about the Jacobsens story! But one will believe what one wants to believe. And I am not saying that a little bit of paranoia is a bad thing...only that you have to take a journalists' account of an on-board incident with a grain of salt-just as any lawyer has to when faced with several eyewitnesses to a car accident-everyone may agree about the major details, i.e., that an accident occured-but HOW it occurred will vary widely according to each account!

I am paranoid when it comes to terrorists using planes as bombs - you bet. My having been in the WTC not five minutes before it exploded might contribute to that. Watching a plane smash into a building that you walk in and out of everyday, can tend to do that to people.

Am I concerned about 14 Syrian men flying together, no not because they are Syrian. I concerned because the simple fact is that we still have major lapses in airport security, the process has become politicized by both parties, and the aviation industry/FAA has a history of fixing problems after a catastrophe has occurred.

So, I wouldn't say I'm paranoid. I'd call it frustrated by those who are content to bury their head in the sand and pretend that we've solved the problem.

The air marshals' spokesman, Dave Adams, has told several columnists (Michelle Malkin, Joe Sharkey, also Joe Scarborough, etc.) that the incidents on the plane were "pretty much as Annie Jacobsen described", he wasn't disagreeing with her facts regarding the behavior of the 14 men, but that he disagreed with her interpretation of those facts and what they meant.

My question is this: out of the other 170-ish passengers, why aren't some of them speaking up? Even if some authority asked them not to discuss the incident, out of that many people, some will surely talk! I still haven't made up my mind as to exactly what I think the truth is, in regard to this incident.

I know this doesn't go the whole way in explaining all the alleged behavior, but is it possible the men were nervous and therefore acting a little weird knowing that as a group of young Middle Eastern men flying in American, everyone would be watching them?

Overall, this story is indeed strange. I don't know exactly what to think, it is jus

opps. What I was writing was that since 9-11 virtually everyone of stories like this turns out to be wrong or fabricated, including the seemingly thousands of e-mail forwards I have received and even many of the people arrested by the government. Being suspicious of the story itself doesn't mean that I don't think we need to vastly improve security in the US. And in part, I probably don't want to believe the story is true, but that also doesn't mean I don't think we shouldn't talk about imporving security -- but without scaring everyone into a panic.

Vacationdreamer, I really don't think this was a case of the men being nervous; in fact, if their actions were as described, I think they were intentionally behaving bizarrely - but not quite to the point that anything could be done about it. Having "one over" on the P.C. authorities, so to speak.

Remember the incident down South, shortly after 9/11, when the two Middle-Eastern guys purposely said provocative things within earshot of their waitress, and the FBI was called in and it was a stunt? Could be that kind of thing........

All strange, indeed!

I think it is a quite leap to use an example of a couple of jack@#$es at a restaurant to argue that a group of 14 men would make up this stunt on a plane. IMHO that is, by far, the least likely scenario.

Here's the problem I have with what you said -- they were having one over on the "P.C. authorities." But the alleged actions - white, black, or Middle Eastern - deserve to be questioned, which apparently happened. Do you think they should have been arrested solely for acting weird even though it wasn't criminal just becuase they were Middle Eastern? If so, why not arrest every white man driving a Ryder truck in a weird way after Oklahoma City? If TSA is doing a proper law enforcement job, these men should now be on a watch list, being followed or traced, etc., just as the police do with a suspect they do not have the evidence to arrest. If not, that isn't a "P.C." issue but an issue with how the TSA/FBI/CIA/Homeland Security are doing their jobs.

Being in NY, and knowing people who lost friends on 9/11, I have a particular interest in seeing this country made safe again. But you also don't want to turn the rest of the Muslim world into extremists against us, creating far more terrorists in the long run, by how we prosecute the war on terror. It also a lot harder to turn a blind eye to racism when I know good Middle Eastern-Americans, many immigrants, who were just as sickened and saddened by the events of 9/11 as the rest of America was.

LN: And this is what I wrote:

Capturing one person isn't going to stop terrorism.

Nor will "destroying" the Taliban. Will you feel completely safe when and if these people are ever captured? Will that mean that there are no other cells out there out to get us? That's where the naivety comes in.

My views are not so concerned with political parties, but with the ability to think for myself, and not what the President will have us believe.

Vacationdreamer, what I'm saying is, whatever color/race/religion 14 people are who mill about and ignore the seat-belt light and flight attendants' instructions when a plane is descending, they should be dealt with and told to SIT DOWN! If they don't they should be arrested, yes! WHOEVER they are! That's my point..........

If anyone is claiming that this story is a hoax, they are wrong. It's quite legitimate. The NY Times covered it yesterday in their Business Travel section (sub-section of business section).

Mcat

Our views on bin Laden and the Taliban may be completely different (and, of course, I hope my views do come true). But I must agree with you on using one/s own mind and ignoring the political flap that goes on.

Hope you have a good day!!

I read this thread/story last night and then watched Scarborough Country and it was discussed with several airline/Air Security people that confirmed her story and commended them for alerting the flight attendant. He asked for anyone else that was on that flight to contact him along with anyone else that has had similar things happen on any other flights since 9/11. If you watch Scarborough Country tonight he'll have more info on it.

Apparently this story is 100% true and I am a little shocked that we haven't seen this blasted all over the news sooner. There is nothing racial about this. If 3 or more white guys were congregating at the bathrooms while the seat belt sign was on I would have wondered what the heck was going on. However with all the facts of 9/11 and the war in Iraq we would be absolutly blind not to be suspicious about the events that happened on that airline. The article says the passengers were scheduled to fly back on another airline (Jetblue?). Maybe it's nothing or maybe they are testing how secure various airlines are.

Many of you are asserting that Jacobsen's article states the men in question were standing and using the lavatory when the seatbelt light was on. That is false. If you read her article, she clearly says that all of this (with the possible execption of the flight's descent) took place when the seatbelt light went OFF.

Also, I read her article and will summarize the facts that inspired her concerns: the men made eye contact with one another; spoke to each other in arabic; carried a McDonald's bag, a camera, and a cellphone into the lavatory; went to the lavatory; stood up; read a few pages from a book; congregated; one *ran his forefinger across his neck and mouthed the word No* to another man; and finally, one man refused to smile back at Ms. Jacobsen, instead giving her a *cold, defiant look.*

I can see that encountering all of this in flight could be unnerving. However, to publish the account after it turns out that NOTHING criminal happened seems irresponsible for a journalist. Is it a newsworthy event when nothing happened--BUT IT MIGHT HAVE!

beach_dweller, in all my comments, I've made it very clear that I was speaking especially about the men's behavior DURING THE DESCENT of the plane, when the seatbelt lights would most certainly be on!