Please see the following link from at least a reputable journalist (unlike Jacobsen). It is titled

False alarm
July 19 Video: NBC's Pete Williams clarifies the Jacobsen's story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/
I find it MUCH more scary that there are so many individuals that jump to conclusions from such miniscule evidence. To say this is not about racism is completely false. If the men involved appeared to be white Americans no one would be this hysterical.

bonniebroad,

I re-read the article. You're right that some of the complained of behavior took place after the fasten seatbelt light came ON prior to landing.

So the closest thing I can see to improper behavior on the part of these men is, while the seatbelt light was on, leaving their seats to use the lavatory.

I stand by my comment that a journalist has no business publishing fears and suspicions that, while no doubt appearing real at the moment, are actually unfounded. Isn't it the job of journalists to track down the facts and THEN write the story?

From one beach bum to another, let me know if I'm understanding you correctly, beach_dweller. You wrote, "Is it a newsworthy event when nothing happened--BUT IT MIGHT HAVE!" So, is that to say that events leading up to 9/11 (guys taking flying lessons, etc.) only became newsworthy after the tragedy?

And RBC, to say profiling is racist is ludicrous. The historical fact pattern is that most terrorism has been perpetrated by people with similar ethnicity. To ignore that is negligent. What would you think of a detective who listed as a suspect a japanese man, when the description of the criminal was caucasian?

Profiling may not be effective, but if the goal is to stop terrorism, and at the same minimize inconvenience to the travelling public, what do you suggest as an alternative?

"a journalist has no business publishing fears and suspicions that, while no doubt appearing real at the moment, are actually unfounded".

She has every right to and i am glad that she did, I want to know about these things before they actually turn into what you consider a news worthy event. No one wants another 9/11, and by your thinking we should have no information about possiable terriorist activity becasue it did not happen yet? If we have this information wether it comes from the goverment, or a personal experience there are many things americans can do to protect themselves, (ie not fly, or at least know what to look for when flying) I am very outraged that the goverment has not made us aware of this incident and anyother incident like it. I think the goverment is worried people wont fly and the air line indusrty will fold, and people will lose thier jobs, and thats why they are not releaseing any information to us.

From reading both articles, she did appear to do as much research as she could. The author and her husband were questioned by the FBI, she found information that the men had been hired as musicians and that's why they were traveling. She found out they had one way tickets on different airlines for the outbound and return flights. She confirmed the men were from the middle east (Syria), etc...

On Scarborough country they discussed the possibility that terrorists could try to individually take in separate pieces of a bomb that they could assmble on the aircraft. The pilot said that the activity described by these men was not normal and he would have taken that seriously.

Everyone who's interested in this story should read salon.com's most excellent article by Patrick Smith: 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." Patrick brings just the right note of reason to this non-event, and "deconstructs" as it were, Ms. Jacobsen's article.

Also in the Atlanta Constitution today: Shaunti Feldhahn's article "Fear of Racial Profiling Makes Skies Less Safe." Again, there are legitimate public policy issues that can be debated regarding whether, and to what extent, persons of Middle Eastern descent should be more rigorously screened than others, but that is a wholly different matter than Ms. Jacobsen's gratuituous over-dramatization of NW Air Flight 327.

"The historical fact pattern is that most terrorism has been perpetrated by people with similar ethnicity."
You are correct most terrorists in the USA were of the same ethnicity, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Ted Kasinsky and nearly all KKK members were all Caucasian, as are most people who are in hysteria over this non-event.

For a further update, I recommend the "Ask the Pilot" piece on salon.com http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/...t95/index.html

In addition, it has been suggested that there is indeed a Syrian band touring the US called Kulna Sawa. I wonder that none of the musicians (assuming that's who/what they were) has been contacted or spoken up or been willing to comment.

As someone who studies the media for a living (pittance), I am fascinated by how all this is playing out. I would like to comment that the most salient thing I've noticed is that there has been no discussion of it that hasn't taken on a strong political coloration, in one direction, the other, or both. That in itself raises a red flag about the Jacobsen report.

But I hasten to add that Jacobsen's piece is NOT presented as a normal bit of "reportage" -- not, that is to say, a news story in which the reporter is as undetectable as possible and the facts are presented "objectively" with as little emotion or interpretation as possible. What she wrote was a personal recollection and featured as such, like a memoir. The fact that she pulled in other sources (whatever you may think of them) was more in evidence that she wasn't a complete nutcase and had some professional standing. But you should neither condemn her for slipshod or opinionated reporting nor praise her for the quality of her "facts." Her piece was more like the genre of travel reporting ("my terrible experience in Lower Dystonia") than a by-lined frontpage news story, and/but it was womenswallstreet.com that made it a front page piece.

I, too, recommend the Patrick Smith column. Good stuff.

I said it on the other thread and I'll say it again...if you're frightened by silly, inlfated stuff like this, maybe you shouldn't be flying.

I agree with AAFlyer regarding racial profiling. They arrested a Somalian (Black) here in Columbus for trying to blow up a Mall and Hamas has resorted to using female suicide bombers in Israel.

beachbum,

what I am saying is that it is irresponsible journalism to report on unsubstantiated suspicions--to imply a sinister plot before the facts exist to support that implication.

To use your example about the pre-9/11 pilots in training, I think it would be an appropriate topic for journalistic investigation whether a group of Arab pilots-in-training had ties to terrorism. And if the result of that investigation was the discovery of facts to support the terrorist connection, then by all means report them. If a thorough ivestigation had been done (whether by journalists or authorities), I am certain the facts would have, and should have, come to light.

On the other hand, say a group of Latvian pre-9/11 pilots-in-training were also suspected of having terrorism connections. The suspicion, while unconfirmed, is not newsworthy (or informative). It would only become valuable and accurate news if the facts confirmed the suspicion.

I am simply saying that speculation prior to obtaining available factual confirmation has little value and can in fact be harmful.

For the actual facts and not paranoid hysteria please see:

http://www.nationalreview.com/commen...0407211921.asp

The Syrians are actually musicians and Jacobsen seems to be as much of a nut case as Ann Coulter

Quote: "I talked to James Cullen of Anthem Artists who confirms that Nour Mehana's large band did arrive on Northwest Flight 327. Some of them came in from Detroit, and some from Lebanon. Cullen says they never said anything about a disturbance on the flight to him, even though "I stayed in the same hotel, they were nice, they stayed right above me." He said that they were fine musicians, put on a great show, and he would work with them again in the future.

Cullen did receive a follow-up e-mail from the Department of Homeland Security, asking him to confirm that the band had played their gig at Sycuan. He had read Jacobsen's article and concluded that some "people are just paranoid." A pilot himself, Cullen insisted that the patterns Jacobsen perceived wouldn't occur to him. "We should take pride in our system. We've got to trust our system."

I read the article in Salon.com and agree with the writer that this woman is paranoid and should not fly. People like her see what they want to see. Every innocent gesture is seen as a suspicious act. Does anyone here watch Airline on A&E? One episode with a loud, obnoxious group of skateboarders and their adult guardians were a total threat to the plane because they were out of control. The brats were calling the Chicago Police motherf*****s and still were allowed to make their connection save for one adult.

That woman in the article is the kind of person throughout history that can stir up trouble on a whim. She's probably the reincarnation of those village idiots that burned girls at the stake they believed to be witches! It's sad that she's out there breeding and voting.

I think the National Review article referenced in RBC's post above pretty much puts this whole thing to bed. I appreciate that the article is fairly balanced in its final assessment of the incident unlike many of the posters on this thread.

FYI:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/natio...1403-1508r.htm

Interesting, in light, of the discussion on this thread. This columnist was on FoxNews this morning for a major discussion of air security.

I hope Jacobsen and Women's Wall Street have very good insurance. It is completely irresponsible to accuse and libel innocent musicians as terrorists particularly if you are a journalist. Aren't journalists supposed to check all the facts before publishing? If I were the musicians I would sue for libel. Hopefully this will backfire and perhaps the musicians will get more bookings and a recording contract out of the publicity from a hysterical passenger who should stay off of airlines.

Bonniebroad, thought-provoking article. RBC - check it out. BTW, the press "gets it wrong" a lot. In Jacobsen's case there were a lot of unknowns - not to say she wasn't biased - like most journalists, she was.

And RBC-re Cullen's quote on trusting the system-this remark mirrors my own, which is, that the post 9-11 aviation security system, from curbside to cockpit, that starts with pre-screening of passengers, reinforced air cargo security, checked baggage screening through the use of explosive detection systems (EDS), thorough checkpoint screening of pax, new technology-such as the use of explosive detection portals to detect explosives on the person, as opposed to the baggage-use of government terrorist watch lists, FAMS on board in the cabin, Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDOs) in the cockpit-and finally state, local and federal law enforcement authorities sharing information and working proactively to deal with threats to aviation security -this reinforced, post 9/11 aviation security system WORKS.

Whether you like Jacobsen or not, and whether she over dramatized what took place aboard the Northwest Airlines flight or not, it seems to me that at the very least, some important issues have been brought into the spotlight as a result of this arrticle. I don't understand why it took this long for pilots, FAM's and other airline officials to come forward and tell the public about the "probes" aboard these airliners.

The Washington Times article clearly points out that there have been several incidents aboard airplanes during flight that should be raising huge red flags. What is it going to take to secure flights? Sadly, I fear it will take another tragedy.

Biased or not, the facts of the story point towards clear inadequacies in air travel security and safety. You all okay with that? It's dumbfounding to me that many of you seem more concerned about "fair and balanced" reporting.