Likely Terror Attack ‘Dry Run’ Exposes Dangerous TSA Missteps (Updated)
Update (1:50 PM PDT): Several news outlets including the NYT and the AP are saying terror ties in the Amsterdam arrests are now being “doubted.” The insinuation by the NYT reporter speaking on NPR just a little while ago was that Brian Ross, who broke the story for ABC, got burned. Not so fast. The TSA bureaucracy continues to have a total lock down on speaking to reporters on the record about any of this and all questions are being fielded through parent agency DHS. If the NYT is willing to toe the DHS party line without looking further, that’s certainly their choice but it should by no means be taken as the final word.
DHS won’t confirm if in fact one of the men had been in the U.S. on an expired Yemeni visa. And they won’t answer the question, “why were the men arrested in the first place?” In these situations, suspects are far more commonly held for questioning and then released.
Customs and Border Patrol confirmed with me that both men would have had to fill out an I-94 form when they left the United States. Since that information goes to flight attendants and not federal agents, the men could have easily misrepresented their visa status. But that would not have triggered an arrest in Amsterdam.
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UPDATE: Holes continue to grow in the dry run story. Interviews with law enforcement and airline personnel have brought up a key question.
It remains unreported where exactly al Soofi went through customs — namely in Birmingham or Chicago. This would help explain whether or not al Soofi’s luggage had been cleared all the way to Yemen in Alabama. If not, he would have had access to the box cutters and knives in his bags, as well as his mock bombs, at the airport in Chicago when he retrieved them to transfer to an international flight. If he was cleared all the way to Yemen, then when he was in Chicago he would have moved through a secure area during his transfer process. Once an international passenger has been cleared by U.S. customs, the federal security rules change considerably. If al Soofi was cleared for international travel in Birmingham, Alabama, then he should not have been able to change his ticket to an entirely different continent (Europe) so easily in Chicago — certainly not without his bags coming off the Yemen-bound airplane. The air carrier involved in the Yemen-bound flight has not been named and United Airlines has not returned calls.
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Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, a Yemeni man residing in Detroit, and Hezem al Murisi, a Yemeni man in the U.S. on an expired visa, were arrested in Amsterdam on Monday at Schiphol Airport after having conducted what federal law enforcement are saying was a dry run for a terrorist attack.
“This was almost certainly a dry run, a test,” a senior law enforcement official told ABC News.
The two men flew to Amsterdam on United Airlines Flight 908 from Chicago. CNN reports there were federal air marshals on board the transcontinental flight. At least one of the men is being accused of placing mock bombs in the cargo hold of a different aircraft. “What good [is it] having federal air marshals on the plane if terrorists can get bombs on the plane through incompetent TSA screening?” a retired federal air marshal told PJ Media.
It appears al Soofi and al Murisi met up in Chicago for the Amsterdam-bound flight after flying in earlier in the day from Alabama and Tennessee, respectively. Al Soofi began his journey in Birmingham, where he had been picked out for secondary screening after a TSA screener found his baggy clothing to be suspicious. According to law enforcement, the suspicion triggered a baggage search in Alabama and revealed that al Soofi had mock bombs, large knives, and box cutters in his checked baggage — none of which are illegal when placed inside the belly of an airplane. Al Soofi’s mock bombs were made of cell phones and several watches taped to various sized plastic bottles. These are historically the components terrorists use to create improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
Because al Soofi’s mock bombs did not contain actual explosive material, TSA allowed him to board the plane and fly to Chicago. While defying common sense, carrying mock IEDs does not defy TSA security. Apparently neither does the fact that al Soofi was carrying $7,000 in cash and was destined for Yemen.
Taping a cell phone to a plastic bottle…..nothing suspicious there.
Someone should be fired over that.
So if I tape a bunch of road flares together and attach a cell phone to them then I am good to fly….?
Road flares are flammable, so NO.
Dear Abby… ..how about this?…I wear a Nitroglycerin Skin-Patch on my chest every day for my Veterans Administration diagnosed/treated heart condition and would be carrying a small supply of clearly labeled extras on any flight…..what do I do?
Yes, you are. Enjoy your flight.
Anonymous: it depends.
If you are an 80 year old WWII vet, a 60 year old nun, a 40 year old white businessman or a 20 year old college girl, you will be pulled aside and get a naked scan pic or a full body cavity search and not be allowed onto the flight.
BUT if you are a Muslim male, you’re good to fly. After all, the TSA would rather be called “pedophile” for taking a naked scan pic of your ten year old girl than be accused of “islamophobia” over subjecting some arab to extra scrutiny.
Oh that’s hilarious
You’re right! You’re right! We are so scre@#%!
TSA employees are Democrat-voting contituency– they get paid lots of money for being present eight hours a day, look as if they’re working and like it that way.
One can be forgiven for thinking, perhaps TSA heads want a terror attack to succeed, or, perhaps the TSA has so many employees all over the system who ‘sympathize’ with Muslim terrorists and this is why they keep making ‘mistakes’.
Seems to me not a whole lot of checking is going on in the right direction.
Simply stupidity, laxity, I don’t think so….
Seems to me we are wasting a lot of money on show while leaving the door wide open to those we are supposed to stop. I like Annie’s analytical approach to this story. Maybe it will focus enough eyes on the problem for someone to see and report the truth. That should be to our advantage.
Another question is what is wrong with profiling? We use it every day as we go about our own personal business. Not all impression are in the bulls eye but most are still on target. The ones who complain are the ones that need profiling.
These men get by with possibly terrorist actions because our wonderful tsa agents are busy harassing people like me who take a 6AM flight with little sleep and try to carry on a small container of yogurt for breakfast and due to that are subjected to extreme physical checks in front of everyone else in line while my purse with all ID and money is left on the conveyor out of my sight because i am told to keep my back to the conveyor and with no one watching and easily available for anyone to life it and I am not allowed to retrieve it
We know that we are going to be hit again, some how and big…it’s like waiting for the other shoe to fall. Our securities are a joke and I hate being afraid to fly!!!
Your yogurt story makes me really angry. It is utterly amazing how tolerant Americans are. Anytime we take a trip we have to be pushed around, inconvenienced and have our privacy violated by idiots so everything will look “fair”. God forbid we should be “unfair” to a group of people whose “holy book” says they should kill us. Why should it surprise ANYONE that the more we know about Muslims as an undifferentiated group, the less we are inclined to like them?
It’s Islamophobia. What a bunch of raaacists.
The first ‘Free Soofi’ fundraiser will be held at the Cordoba Center, Manhatten, NYC on September 11.
Wasn’t the TSA employing illegals at one stage to make crippled grannies take off their shoes and walk unaided?
Not sure about the illegal part, but definitely il-qualified.
The author of this piece is either willfully ignorant of aviation security history or has acute myopia. Before coming down on TSA for not having a man arrested for items that posed no danger to the flight, consider that the TSA had a man arrested two years ago in Orlando for having *actual bomb making materials* in his checked bag but was allowed to walk after his lawyer proved he had no intention of downing the flight: (http://go-jamaica.com/news/read_article.php?id=10090)
Plus, it’s not as if the original screeners never saw the fake bombs. They did, and did the right thing by reporting it up the line. Every news story indicates that the Birmingham screeners observed and reported. With no immediate threat to the aircraft, it seems reasonable to observe the fellow, see who else he talks to, and what his next move is. Who knows, we may have just learned something about dry runs we didn’t know before?
I’m no expert, but when it comes to potentially having a terror suspect walk because of a slick lawyer, or actually gathering intelligence and catching the sizzle with the steak, I’d rather choose the route that works.
Good points. And I think asking what TSA is doing with its $8B budget, based on this incident, is childish. Look, I think TSA is doing a lot of stupid things. Every sentient person knows that strip searching Norwegian grandmothers from Wisconsin is a preposterous waste of TSA resources and passengers’ time. But our air security record overall has been pretty outstanding since 9/11, and TSA must be doing a few things right with its $8B. Criticism/questions about this episode? Of course. Blanket condemnation of TSA’s whole operation? How is that justified?
I kind of remember when (in 1992-3?) a German tourist once begged to go to the restroom before takeoff and he used colloquialism “the roof will go” to emphasize the point. He spent 9 months in federal prison. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-10-21/news/9310210052_1_german-speaking-flight-flight-attendant-grzeganek
The point is, one cannot jokingly refer to bombs on airplane, or presumably anywhere inside the secure area – but the TSA doesn’t seem to mind if you carry props.
For Anonymous:
No, the road flares are considered weapons, so they’ll get you for that. ESPECIALLY if you’re Christian. Or Jewish. Or a 90 year old grandma. Because they have to stay ONE STEP AHEAD of the terrorists. Who are definitely NOT Muslim. Or male. Or in their twenties. Because Islam is the Religion of Peace!
Our course is plain. We must step up the body searches of nuns, infants and elderly Americans with walkers. Also, the bureaucracy must be made more elephantine and sluggish, and let no one, friend or foe, mistake our commitment to political correctness.
The TSI are a bunch of incompetent boobs. The very fact they were even allowed to check their baggage & board the flight clearly demonstrates how dumb these people are. Simply put, the TSA is worthless. Fire ‘em all, hire a bunch of mean retired cops, profile passengers & do NOT let any Muslims fly period. I’m really sick of this gross negligence & stupidity as I’ve flown w/ my family several times to & from the States via Amsterdam. EVERY passenger on EVERY flight should be guaranteed the SAME safety & security of flying as the President. The one thing the TSA does very well is jam up airport lines, confiscate your water & check meaningless & safe items. Once I had to strip off my shirt (as a white middle aged Christian male travelling alone)so they could see my money belt. But anyone from the Middle East just passed right along,la ti dah. I am sick of standing around in line waiting for these dullards to have me take off my shoes & belt while they allow terrorists & potential terrorist to board basically anytime they wish. Geeze, gimme a break! Traveling by air was safe back in the 1950s when there was no TSA!
You’re the unwanted ally that screws the rest of us over. Stop being an idiot. We need to have some security changes, but not letting any Muslims fly? You’re kidding me right?
agreed
from a security standpoint a few things occur to me
1 – it would have been much better to NOT arrest these guys put to try to figure out there contacts, co-conspirators etc. through surveillance etc. (But maybe there wasn’t time to get the Dutch intelligence folks geared up – I don’t know)
2 – I would much prefer the media do not report the details of WHY they were suspected – the bad guys now know a liitle more about what draws suspicion (in this case, the baggy clothes)
He is not kidding you, right or left. You are kidding yourself by not being able to consider an idea seriously and with due respect. Bulgaricus offers a logical solution to the problem, perhaps a little hastily. To take his line of thinking further, the eminently practical solution would, of course, be to have some flights reserved for adherents of Mohammed only (no alcoholic beverages served), and the rest for the regular folks who do not do bombing unless employed by the armed services.
Let the Muslims fly! It’s their “right”! However, in lieu of security screening, everyone must eat a pork sandwich before boarding!
See, everyone wins!
What about having naked stewardesses?
Stews in burqas.
Hell yes do not let them fly. Problem solved. So what if they have to take one for the team? The rest of us have been doing so since 9-11. Don’t like thinking about it? Grow up.
I have watched my son returning to be shipped back to Iraq strip searched, a woman obviously over eighty pulled out of her wheelchair, and on the same flight five muslim men in their twenties and early thirties stroll by without being checked at all.
Why should an eighty year old grandmother be forced through the pain and humiliation? Why should a decorated Marine returning to Iraq be strip searched? Why should we pretend it is anyone but muslim men doing this?
Well sure and meanwhile I am inconvenienced more than these dudes merely because the studs on my jeans set off the metal detector. Man, do I feel safer now!
This might have actually been perfectly reasonable behavior. The TSA folks might have let him on the plane so they could trace his movements and understand what he was doing. That sounds perfectly defensible to me, since they did make sure the “bomb” was not real before allowing him to proceed.
Now we know one of their plans is to get a bomb on a flight that they don’t actually take, and that strikes me as extremely useful information.
Perhaps a good, not a bad, job by the TSA?
D
seems like a good idea to me to allow the scheme to move along knowing there was no danger and see what the plan really was. If the man was taken out at Al. who would know the rest of the plan?
Its amazing to me how the commentors seem to ignore this….as well as Anne
So would the subject in question continue to carry out the plan with the knowledge that the TSA was aware of the contents his luggage?
Yeah, probably a larger pool of volunteers too if the bomb carrier doesn’t actually have to go down with the plane…..
The problem as I see it is that if the common sense solution is effective it is discriminatory, which it would be. We are discriminating against terrorist attack rather than against Muslim or Arab. If the terrorist happens to be both Arab and Muslim then are we are discriminating against race and religion? We need to reexamine our application of discrimination. As with profiling we all profile and we all discriminate. Both are unavoidable. But we can base either or both on experience or prejudice and prejudice is hard to justify.
I guess you can dress like Mohamed carry simulated bombs and fake guns and you are good to go, but God forbid you try and get grandma and her walker through security with out a pat down. What moron is making TSA rules, and what moron follows these stupid rules? OH! We can’t offend Muslims they may not like us if we do!
I suspect that the likes of the A.C.L.U. or some such outfit’s threats of “lawfare” are greatly inhibiting the common sense application that should’ve been automatically triggered here. The idea that this bomb-like wired up apparatus is not technically illegal is a tort lawyer’s dream on a platter.
….good grief! …expired visa!…Yemeni! national from Detroit!…last minute changing flights!…..bundles of cash dollars!…let’s profile, profile, profile, and be done with our politically correct b.s.
That roaring, crackling rumble you hear in the background is the knee-slapping, choking, side-pain-tearful laughter wafting in from those Islamist/Muslims dudes newly in from those eastern dunes and oil revenue-fueled rocking skyscrapers risen from their formerly camel-dung infected deserts. [...am I overdoing the hype here? I don't give a flyin' bearded-robed-turban-kaffiyeh, sometimes it takes rank exaggeration to make a point...]
…I’m hoping also that what we don’t know about this ‘Grade C’ made-for-TV caper will exonerate this Marx Bros. behavior…..really hoping.
I think if the names were Smith and Jones the response would have been different.
One would prefer to think that what appears to be inept behavior by TSA when it detects somethng like a “dry run” really reflects a realization that no real danger is posed by the contraptions in the luggage, and a considered patience intended to let the plot develop and learn as much as possuble about the plotters and the plot before arrests are made.
One would prefer to think.
and the likelihood they will be prosecuted?
Notifying Chicago would have been racial profiling.
One of the safest ways to travel these days appears be having the moniker “Mohamed” or “al-” (as in ‘al qaeda’) in ones name.
I get you sarcasm, but no, road flares contain a known combustible.
What I’d like to know is How did the TSA agents determine the liquids were safe?
::guzzle guzzle:: ::burp::
Naw they’re good to go.
Sure, you’re fine to fly. Just don’t you dare get ing the security line and make a joke about your flares and cell phone.
Why should DHS be worried about real terrorists. After all, in their eyes, anyone espousing the Constitution is the real threat.
What I want to know is why my local TV news this morning and radio news breaks (FOX Affiliates both) did not mention the men’s names, only that they were from Detroit. I guess this was all most people need to understand they were Muslims. The press is certainly doing all they can to reduce Islamophobia, but at what cost?
What is wrong with those people!??? This is beyond stupid, it’s brain dead!
And I’m worried about putting 2 boxes of make at home spicy citrus glazed shrimp and angel hair pasta in my checked luggage?????
In the first week of August, 2001 I was laying over for a flight from O hare to Rochester. It had been an extended wait and I decided to go through security to get a smoke. On my way out I noticed a confrontation between a female security guard and two Arabic males. They were trying to bring in box cutters and she was having none of it. The reason that it sticks in my mind is that I had an Xacto knife set in my carry-on. I decided _not_ to have that cigarette.
As soon as I learned that the 9-11 terrorists had used box knives I called the FBI and told them my tale. I never heard back. In retrospect I think I would rather have that private security guard then what we now have watching our safety. We’ve had hard knowledge that AQ has been doing dry runs since the mid-90′s. We know that they dry ran us before 9-11 and _still_ these people can’t figure it out?
The country is in the best of hands!
Under this administration the no fly list is regulated by your surname. We certainly don’t want any profiling, safety and common sense are not factors. The DHS and the TSA have become the laughingstock of the free world. Putting the country’s security in the hands of inept political hacks is a disaster in the making.
Nothing to see here people. Move along.
I’m finding it a little hard to be sarcastic about this one. Exactly what do you have to do to get pulled from a flight? I remember once that I booked a flight to the US in an airport in Europe. I faced a lot of increased security because I purchased the tickets on the spot instead of in advance. I was targeted for purchasing a ticket to board a few hours before the flight because this looked suspicious to them. I was taken aside and asked questions about my previous trips and intended final destination. I was asked what my connection was to this final destination. Would someone be waiting for me? How was I supposed to contact them? Did I have a rental car or hotel reserved? Would I be staying with family or friends? I saw absolutely no problem with the questions. They seemed perfectly acceptable considering my purchase of tickets at the airport. Why was this not done there, under circumstances that seem far more suspect? Other than going berserk in the airport, what exactly do you have to do to get pulled?
I hope the TSA agent didn’t check wth a supervisor. I would feel safer, maybe, if I thought that the bad link in our mighty security chain was some dingus with a GED burning a hole in his pocket. If a supervisor made the decision to let the terror trainees board, then god help us. Oh, what the hell. From the top down TSA is a ridiculous idea put into motion by and for stupid people who’ll trade off their liberty for a false sense of security.
Here’s what I think – TSA let the two Muslims on because they had nothing illegal on them. They were suspicious, though. The way they taped phones to things was suspicious. Tickets to Yemen and seven large in cash was suspicious…TSA cannot be perceived as a government organization that profiles passengers. So in the interest of not offending Muslims, hundreds of people will eventually die.
Enjoy your next flight.
It may not be illegal to check a mock bomb, but shouldn’t it be considered probable cause for arrest?
If authorities knew from the Alabama baggage check that this was a dry run, it would make sense to let the plan play out as far as they could to see what or who else was involved.
Come on, people, they didn’t have orange juice or bottles of water—that would have been the danger sign. What’s a few cellphones and box cutters got to do with terrorism?
Picky, picky, picky.
Well, it looks like we have to do something to jam cell phone transmissions to the cargo area of aircraft now. They can block cell phones in a hospital, so could they do that in cargo? I think we’d better find out.
I don’t want cell phone signals blocked from the passenger area, though. It was those defying FAA regs and calling on their cells that helped alert us on 9/11 to the attack.
um – if you are out of cell-tower range, then you cannot use a cell phone to make a call – no matter how close they are – signals go from sending handset to tower to receiving handset…
But here’s a thing – perhaps this is a REALLY good reason to stop airlines making their planes cell-phone friendly (the nuisance factor was not an adequate reason to stop the airline execs doing this – but the prospect of getting their planes blown out of the sky might focus the minds a bir)
I know you need a tower, and thus the idea of calling a bomb in one plane from another plane wouldn’t work over the ocean. But would it work over land? Or, from land to a plane? My son, who gets chest pains when he’s away from electromagnetic fields, says a cell wouldn’t work “very well” in the cargo hold, but it only has to work “well enough”, I suspect.
“…mock bombs, large knives, and box cutters in his checked baggage — none of which are illegal when placed inside the belly of an airplane.”
God Almighty – help us. It SHOULD be illegal for someone to pack this kind of thing, but ESPECIALLY FOR MUSLIMS to be carrying anything like this. I’ll be called a bigot. They’ll say “you can’t tell who is Muslim and who is not. Really? But when you CAN tell, when they’re named things like “al Soofi and al Murisi”, and they’re wearing their pointy little beards, and bowing down in the aisles to pray, or leering threateningly at others, or carrying their Korans, and when they’re flying to any of the myriad terror hotspots, aka anywhere in the Muslims world, Muslims should not fly.
One of the triggers for suspicion MUST be the fact that terrorism is MUSLIM affair, so being Muslim is pertinent. But in this insane PC world, mainly to appease the always dyspeptic Islamic ummah, we ALL must endure massive checks and delays so that Muslim rage isn’t invoked. How’s that working out? The Muslims call us bigots no matter what we do. It’s part of their Jihad. Despite our ongoing pains and expense, all of which are brought about solely by the fact that Muslims travel and live freely among us, Muslims still assert they’re “discriminated against” – at this point, I say ‘so what?’
Since 9/11, it seems to me Muslims have done just about everything possible to force our hand. Ongoing terror incitement in Mosques across the country. Ongoing recruitment too, along with a growing stream of young Jihadis attempting to carry out terror ops in America and abroad. Could this all be part of of their bigger Jihad? At this point, we must ask the question.
Here’s how it works: no matter what, hate the “infidel”. Claim victimhood at his hands at every turn – if he “discriminates” against any Muslim, it thus retroactively justifies hating him – if he does nothing, it justifies hating him. In every case, hatred of the infidel is justified, and the only possible path open to him is to make way for Muslims to dominate.
Muslim provocation is all part of the Jihad. This is true whether it’s the girl suddenly insisting on wearing her hijab at work at Disneyland, or the flying Imams stunt, or the numerous other dry runs by Arab men including the one above. This is in addition to the more obvious terror ops Muslims are conducting like the Fort Hood atrocity, Times Square attempt, or failed “Christmas Bombing”. Muslims are up to their eyeballs in here in America in terror recruitment, incitement, provocation, Jihad funding and subversion.
It that’s the mental place Muslims are operating from, i reject the notion that Muslims should remain among us. Radical? It won’t look radical once they succeed at killing thousands or tens of thousands more in Jihad terror. It won’t look radical when the smuggled nukes start detonating, or wide swaths of America are poisoned for eternity…
its only a matter of time and degree of severity
Occam’s Razor – The simplest explanation is the most likely. TSA is incompetent not clever.
Either a “dry-run” or another “flying imams” set up.
I vote for both!
Why are we allowing people to fly to Yemen or Pakistan at all? If we can ban travel to Cuba, why can’t we ban travel to countries that actually pose a threat of something more immediate than lung cancer from good cigars?
“It may not be illegal to check a mock bomb, but shouldn’t it be considered probable cause for arrest?”
What should be and what is aren’t the same thing.
I have to say I don’t see where the TSA screwed up here. They identified a suspect, made sure he wasn’t carrying anything that could be a threat, and watched. Letting the guy travel to a jurisdiction where he could be taken into custody seems like a wise move to me, though in any interrogation my guess is the Yemenis would have been a little more “persuasive” than the Dutch. Too bad he changed destinations.
The security flaw demonstrated here isn’t TSA incompetence, but the insanity of treating enemy soldiers as though they’re civilian criminals.
“I’m no expert, but when it comes to potentially having a terror suspect walk because of a slick lawyer, or actually gathering intelligence and catching the sizzle with the steak, I’d rather choose the route that works.”
The TSA was not gathering intelligence. They were following the rules.
You are also welcome to believe the NYT version of the story. Here’s what al Soofi’s cousin told their reporters:
“Omar Sufi of Detroit, who said he was a cousin of the passenger who boarded in Alabama, said his relative’s actions did not sound unusual.He said that his cousin had most likely been trying to take medication and phones back to his family, and that it was common to bind together items meant for the same recipient. ‘This is our culture,’ he said.”
Culture problem?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/us/31plane.html?hp
Annie, I have kept up with you as much as possible from your first reports. You have reported a number of unlikely incidents like this as they happened and they are still more unlikely than a Rube Goldberg sequence. There is only one sure thing about a liar, he does not tell the truth. The Muslim, unlike the Christian, has no restriction on lying.
The Other Point I wanted to touch on is the information overload in our “security” system. Information overload is as effective as absolute silence since the significant parts gets lost in the flood. This is as much strategy and any other well planned attack. We cannot let the enemy keep calling the shots. We know whats right and we should not concern ourselves with what others think. Not talking about being arrogant but about standing on OUR principles rather than bowing to their “principles”. We need to throw out all these Trojan horses.
Where is Mitch Rapp when we need him? Why don’t we simply put a bullet in the heads of these 7th Century Islamic Doofus Boys?
It’s time to disavow any type of Sharia Law or Islamic Political Action that is inimical to our Constitution. If Muslims in the United States can’t accept that then GOODBYE. I’ll be happy to contribute to the cost of “repatriating” these Muslim ingrates to the sand pit of their origin/s.
Where is Mitch Rapp when we need him?
Indeed.
And where is any confidence at all that most TSA employees are even up to the task ?
And what might that task be? Maybe they are doing what they are supposed to do. We have not guarantee that that task is to insure safe flying. When a fraud is advertising a fraud he does not bill it as fraud but as a golden opportunity. If it produced as advertised it wouldn’t be fraud would it. The one promoting the fraud knows it to be a fraud. Why can’t we use those tools we know works?
For those espousing the, not illogical, idea that the authorities let this go through to observe the whole plan, I would suggest that airport security grant the rest of us the same level of observation when the studs on our jeans set off their metal detectors. Let’s just see what we’re actually up to. Did these bozos have to take their shoes off, by the way?
Would you like to know why these people got as far as they did? Because they were not the people our government made the body scanners for,they are not who the TSA wants to cavity search. It is pretty clear that our government passed the oppressive Patriot Act,and made all of the time consuming check points for average Americans,not people who look middle eastern.
Our 4th amendment says that we are not subjected to illegal search and seizure. We have had similar problems to this issue since the founding of the Republic yet have never gotten rid of the Constitution. The TSA is a joke. It does nothing and any terrorist who desired to bring down a plane could do so with little difficulty.
We need to come to the realization that we are at war with Islam. Exclude Muslims from flights and I am sure that the desire to kill innocents would quickly be dropped from the Koran. Excluding Muslims would be inline with the Constitution and could be easily accomplished as the FBI has a database on each and everyone.
We need to tell the TSA that enough is enough with hasseling average citizens. By the way, the X-ray machine that is being used in dangerous. We would not use such a device in medicine.
The behaviour of the TSA is symptomatic of the box-ticking mentality taking hold throughout the West: anything which is not technically against the rules is positively encouraged.
Also just see on Drudge: Passengers spooked when men removed from Tampa flight. Very reminiscent of Ms Jacobsen’s experience on flight 327. Any anniversaries coming up, or anything that might have riled the followers of the religion of peace lately?
The TSA didn’t do the job they were hired to do, namely intercepting potential terrorists, because their employees are too busy stealing valuables from checked-in suitcases, something that happened to me at Miami Airport. The TSA denied “responsibility” in spite of all the evidence I have. Their answer: “Sue us.”
I guess that when they opened these guys’ suitcases they probably didn’t see the value of discarded plastic bottles and cellphones and let them go.
Islam is not a religion, it is an Ideology at war with western and non-islamic culture. Declare it to be “a terrorist organization” and Muslims lose protection as a religious organization. They can still fly, but enter the airport via a separate gate, are profiled and undergo rigorous screening. Steer them to “islamic”airlines and allow them to carry anything they wish, perhaps the love that the Sunnis and Shiites have for each other will win out!
The Times describes Soofi and Nasser as US residents.
It is not clear to me why Soofi’s luggage would have had to clear customs since there’s no indication he and that luggage had recently arrived in the USA.
Our basic problem is that we no longer trust our government in either its supposed good intentions or ability to executive.
Someone has said, “When a man’s heart turns against a man, anything that man does becomes further cause to hate him.”
Barry Poppins probably doesn’t understand that as we discover more and more evidence that his heart is hard against our nation, our hearts will increasingly harden against him. We no longer need much by way of example to illustrate “why” we don’t trust him/them. So then we may be accused of paranoia. Guess what? Don’t much care. They have richly earned our distrust, fury, suspicion and fear.
The people get the government they elect, or the government that is deceptive enough to con it’s way into office.
How many Americans would have voted to arrest these guys at the beginning of their trip. Probably 90% or more.
Yet this sort of thing happens regularly.
Personally, I couldn’t care less about the excuses or the investigation. Who cares how many “mistakes” were made? The problem isn’t with TSA, the problem starts at the top of the government.
A big bang is inevitable. And we know whose fault it will be, even before it happens. Booooooosh.
You can’t reason with the criminals who got on the plane or the criminals who set the policies that let them on the plane. They have to be destroyed.
This is silly. Just plain silly. I am steadily, surely, becoming used to the idea that Islam should be banned in the USA. I just can’t see any good coming out of permitting these people here. Since 9/11 i have heard less than a handful of Islamic “Moderates” stand up and say the right things to comfort me. These people and their religion have had nearly a decade to show us they are not murderous thugs like the September terrorists. Here in the ‘burbs in sunny Chicago, many stay away from the malls in certain areas due to Islamic rudeness/abuse. These people do not want any form of integration. I see it daily. So do you. Now the Arabic gangs are integrating with the inner city gangs for money laundering. These gangsters will do ANYTHING for money and power. I assume that means killing large numbers of their fellow countrymen and women if the price is right. They do it daily as it is. Only on a much smaller scale.
Wrong, there is no federal clearance of outbound passengers. TSA performs all security checks at airports. CBP sometimes spot checks outbound passengers for export violations or immigration checks, but asside from receiving the passenger manifest, there are no checks. Only in special cases does CBP check the manifest, as in the case of the search for the Times Square Bomber.
It appears the problems with the luggage on a flight without a passenger, a TSA concern, were because of missed flights.
What this reveals is that ICE is not looking for illegal aliens in the U.S. and that CBP does not inspect all departing international passengers.
Federale is correct. No CBP on the way out. Just I-94 forms to flight attendants.
Bloomberg already let the cat out of the bag that they were Tea Party sympathizers made about Health Care.
The President will apologize for the arrest of the peaceful muslims, who have obviously been the victims of a right-wing conspiracy.
I can see him coming on TV and saying that the Police in Amsterdam acted stupidly.
Just making Mohammad proud. What Mosque did they learn to hate at, and what is their Imam name?
Silly people. The AP has announced that they weren’t traveling together and they weren’t planning anything. By now you would think that you would recognize a bridge building exercise when you see one.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/08/31/ap-source-unlikely-that-suspects-on-flight-were-planning-terror-attack/
I mean, c’mon guys. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes and try to light them for once. Let’s say you are here on an expired visa and decide to take a trip from Detroit to Alabama to Chicago to DC to Dubai to Yemen. I mean, for a trip like that where else would you put your box cutters and long knives? And with all those layovers, and airport food, you might need something for indigestion, when you access your bags for the international flight you don’t take. Don’t you hate when that happens?
Taping timing devices to cell phones and plastic bottles filled with liquid less than two weeks before September 11, is a symbolic gesture to bridge building, you paranoid ninnies. I mean, don’t you dress up in extra baggy clothes, get into that special toga feeling in preparation for a long trip? Especially if there are 72 hot babes waiting for you.
You silly gooses think this was a probing exercise, trying to determine where any weaknesses are in the defense systems of our flying public. You simply cannot see a bridge being built right in front of your very eyes. They have every legal right to do exactly what they did. And that’s the only important point to this story. The legal rights to prepare for…bridges.
Very good.
Anyone notice that that was a 12 ounce bottle of Pepto bismol? I can’t get a 3.1 ounce container of shampoo on board, but this guy got a full 12 ounces past their eagle eyed scrutiny?
I am sick of the theater.
It was in checked luggage. Do you know people can check massive wine bottles in their checked luggage? In their checked luggage (beneath plane..you know..no contact with it) people can have all sortsa stuff they cannot take in carry on. Please know the facts before you give your harsh criticizes.
I suggest, just as with Charlie Manson, istead of letting them run free to do whatever they’d like, we look at what they did last time and treat them accordingly.
To be fair, we could do the same with little-old-ladies.
The government is now doing more damage than the terrorists and drugs combined, where’s Congress? out in left field.
If there is a revolution coming it will not be a test.
If you or I get stopped by the police on I-10 in Louisiana and they discover $7,000 in cash you are considered a drug dealer and the police will take your money until you can prove otherwise. Probably different rules if you are a muslim though.
this is true…also a couple of other states…but LA has been known for this.. However, you do not need to be a known drug dealer to have your property confiscated.
This whole “it wasn’t a dry run” is just the current administration in full damage control.
But then, I guess it’s the current way for an absent minded person to find their meds. Strap a cell phone on it. Yeah, sure.
Next time it will be a portable radio with silly putty stuffed into the battery compartment. Nothing suspicious there!
TSA = Tub Stacking Authority
Okay here’s the deal. I’m going to be very frank about this. You don’t know who is your enemy. Many of you say Muslims. Okay I get that, but with white people that are muslims like Jihad Jane and Daniel Patrick Boyd this muddies the water. You cannot by any law of the Constitution of the USA ask , “Do you belong to (insert name of religion)?” and refuse them air travel on those grounds. My question is how would you be able to tell who is a muslim or not. But then we also have to worry about other threats that do go on. There are other threats as well as the Neo Nazis and the Sovereign Citizen Whackos-such as a few that claim to belong to the Empire of Southern Wa. (yes they do travel quite frequently and they do stir up trouble, you just don’t hear about it). If there is no way you can determine those factors-for all you know they may be using “mules” which from an organized crime perspective does happen like a 80 year old granny with a pistol in her bra that her son forced her to take.
My other issue is that a majority of you guys really have no idea about aviation history or realize what’s going on. Arch Radish is quite correct in his thinking. If it was in checked baggage tons of knives, swords, and what not go through there all the time. Interestingly enough, mostly explosive materials or items that like drugs are the things that are detected down there. If there is no chemical detected there probably won’t be a pull over from what I understand. But I could be wrong. However,if detected, they checked and seen if they were not a threat and probably have tagged these people. TSA works with other forces in DHS and most likely gave their info to another agency, possibly to find out where these guys were heading to see if they could have got more of them, but the media (being as ridiculous as it is) said something and something had to be done.
And for the people who keep claiming TSA officers are stupid and hold up lines. Here’s something for you to think about. Watch the line instead of them. I’m a frequent traveler and I know a lot of officers (yes they are indeed officers) and I watch the lines and think to myself, “Are all these people retarded.” The Liquid ban has been in effect for 4 years and I still see have huge crap in their bag. Their answer is, “I didn’t know,” and that’s when there are announcements and signs that tell you what you should do. The lines aren’t being held up by TSA, it’s by your fellow passengers who don’t understand “gold is a metal” you have no idea how many times I’ve heard that; or the person every 40 minutes that wants to argue that “water isn’t a liquid.” “what is it? “water!” For the truth most TSA officers are prior military and usually vote republican (75% it has been counted have prior military service, active or retired). I have talked with many of them and they blame long lines on,” Stupid socialist sheep that can’t think for themselves,” and for someone who travels a majority of the time, I empathize with them because a majority of the passengers are (8 of 10) mentally deficient.
So when you talk about TSA mouth breathes, please don’t let it be the guy who saved your butt fighting in Afghanistan, because they already get that crap from the Commiecrats. Because the average TSA officer has to deal with ignorant clods all day and they don’t get paid much at all. Now TSA management? That’s another story…
Let me get this straight – making a joke about having a bomb in the luggage will get you thrown in prison, but having an actual mock bomb in your luggage is ok?
Please, it’s “toe the line”, not “tow the line”. Mistakes like this can make PJM look like amateurs, and it’s important that people believe that they can rely on PJM for accurate and competent news and commentary.
Blame our school system rather than PJM for these types of typos. I see such all the time. Also I know I am prone to make typos and have to review and spell check and still have some get through. If you are grading a paper, sure, that’s just fine but when you read a message are you hearing the message?
You want security here’s what you do. If a terrorists boards a flight and he is successful with his mission all TSA personnel are fired immediately nation wide. This is what strikes the fear in the TSA employees nation wide to do the job they were hired to do. One screwup and they are all history. It’s a little rough but so is a bomb.
It is also unrealistic and counter productive. Why not profile? A good profile can give an accurate account of what we can expect from the one profiled. For instance a good linebacker in football would not have the same profile as a champion at basket ball but both profiles could be extremely accurate. Annie is a good reporter and I am also sure she can wash dishes.
It makes me wonder why my post is ignored.
If these guys weren’t on any ‘watch list’ before, you can bet they are now! Inotherwards, they are two al-Qaeda sleepers who are forevermore useless to al-Qaeda.
Does Islamo-fascism really have *that* many sleeprs that they can afford to waste two like that?
I’m afraid you won’t like the answer to that question….
“Because al Soofi’s mock bombs did not contain actual explosive material, TSA allowed him to board the plane and fly to Chicago”
Just wondering how they knew this to be the case. There are no pink explosive liquids? Did they ask a TSA agent who had too much airport food for lunch to drink some and then wait to see if things quieted down in there?
Next time they try to confiscate my 5 ounce tube of hair gel, I will ask them to try some, i.e. tease up the lettuce and see how it holds and looks. Explosives do not give you that silky smooth look.
What I’m curious about is the inventory of less conspicuous items in the suitcase of the quiet, reserved traveler in the next aisle over, as the attention of most of the TSA personnel in the vicinity would have been drawn to the belongings of Soofi the Red Herring.
Just a thought.
I only fly on my Lear Jet anymore, not with you commom people.
“f al Soofi was cleared for international travel in Birmingham, Alabama, then he should not have been able to change his ticket to an entirely different continent (Europe) so easily in Chicago — certainly not without his bags coming off the Yemen-bound airplane. The air carrier involved in the Yemen-bound flight has not been named and United Airlines has not returned calls.”
There’s a very easy way around that, and that’s having 2 tickets originating in Alabama.
2 people check in there, one on a flight to Amsterdam via Chicago, the other to Yemen from Chicago.
Both use the same name, both use false passports.
In Chicago, one never shows up for the flight to Yemen, the other shows up for the flight to Amsterdam.
All Chicago notices is that a passenger arriving from Birmingham bound for Yemen doesn’t show up for his flight, while a passenger with the same name boards a flight to Amsterdam.
My guess is that’s how they did it and somehow the records failed to show that there was more than one person with the same name arriving from Birmingham that day.
Poorly constructed search criteria in some database can cause that to happen easily.
Information overload? That seems built into this system with a good reason for it to be their. This would be in keeping wit h the rest of the observed foolishness.
Kinda got a little jumpy, eh folks? Juuuuust a little jumpy. Itchy trigger finger you might say.
Brave Betty Nose! So much smarter than bitter clingers! I bet you’re terrified of global warming, however.
You all should read the explaination in the other story that is now on this website. That DHS says it was the airline mistake. Lunatics, all of them.
I do believe the TSA has been vigilant in its business, I pray, this was just a thump and if so, it has scared them into a higher level of vigilance moving forward. I am trying to give the benefit of the doubt here… The terrorists are like ‘prisoners’ they are always trying to manipulate, test and look for weaknesses…TSA and Homeland Security must always be on their guard.
The solution with Arizona, the Middle East, and any other peoples accusing the US of “profiling” “discrimination” etc.. is (and non-guilty Americans need to be patient with this) just search, stop, question EVERYONE. If everyone gets questioned, so be it. If Grand-ma has to get her bag or person searched so be it. That will SHUT EVERYONE UP – Then no one can “accuse’ any one or the US of so called ‘profiling’. Thats ‘equal justice’ Besides, at least I can see first hand the powers that be are doing their job!
The only people who worry about “profiling” are those who are ‘guilty’ or those who have ‘something to hide’. Not guilty then nothing to worry about right?
“Social Justice” is ruining America.
Lastly, do a search on ‘Documents needed to enter Saudi Arabia’ (or any other Middle East Country) see what it says about US Citizens.
J. T. Wenting #72:
More likely this: Passenger has two reservations/tickets: One is Birmingham to Yemen with connection in Chicago. Second ticket shows local board in Chicago for Amsterdam. Passenger and/or accomplice get on-line boarding pass for Chicago-Amsterdam flight ahead of time. Passenger checks in and is cleared to fly in Birmingham and that gets him into international boarding area in Chicago. He then uses on-line boarding pass to board different aircraft perhaps using different name.
Box cutters and fake IEDs in luggage? Testing/taunting TSA. Farther deponent sayeth not.
We need to go ahead a pick the next (9-11) Commision members and be sure Imam Rauf is one of them. To get a head start on the next terror inquiry. I am just saying, just in case.