Salon.com rebutts "Terror in the Skies..."

Here's a counter rant from Salon.com about the story titled "Terror in the Skies, Again?"


This guy is a pilot, he claims, yet he shows no mercy for passenger Ann Jacobsen or the crew of Northwest flight 327. His tirade accuses her and fellow passengers of experiencing an "emotional meltdown", and he further insults her personally with remarks like "worst grade-school prose" and "mindless hysterics and bigoted provocation." After ridiculing her, he starts his next paragraph with "Now, in fairness to Jacobsen..." Ya right. This rant is anything but.

Mr. Smith tips his liberal elitist hand in the next sentence when he says "She speaks of seven of the men standing in unison, a moment that, if unembellished, would have even the most culturally open-minded of us wide-eyed and grabbing our armrest."

Even as he concedes that the situation to virtually anyone with a pulse bore some attention to say the least, he still can't help digging a little more by adding "if unembellished", all the while claiming himself to be the "most culturally open-minded of us".

His "culturally open-minded" attitude and tone make it clear he would have been one of the first to have let one of those 19 highjackers claiming to be a pilot come in and sit in the jump seat in the cockpit without so much as raising an eyebrow. His words would drone on, touting how ridiculous it is to fear the Arab boogeyman, until he was stopped in mid-sentence by the glass in the windshield of his plane melting around his ears as the plane enters a building at 350 MPH.

Yes, these were apparently harmless musicians. We all know that. Now. Hindsight is perfect 20/20. And when you know the facts it's obvious to see she reacted unnecessarily. But that is in hindsight.

But she wasn't operating in hindsight. Her, her husband, other passengers and the crew were working in real-time. And the movements and actions of those 14 Syrians should have raised a red flag of attention. Not hysteria. Not drama. But at least awareness. And it did. From what I gather there was more than one Air Marshall on that flight. Unless we have developed a plethora of Air Marshals flying the 'friendly skies', that tells me that someone may have thought something was up before that flight ever left the ground. (Perhaps we haven't been told the whole story.)

Mr. Smith makes excuses for their standing en masse around the restrooms, as if they are to be excused for being unaware of in-flight rules.

As I understand it, it was not Jacobsen that called the Federal Welcoming Committee that was waiting for them when the plane landed. If this was all a crock and was so overblown, why were they there? Why isn't your rant against the Feds for trying to avert a potential disaster, Mr. Smith?

Or is your rant against the media for hyping the story? ('Plane Scare! Film at 11') Again, you can find fault here, but I don't think it's Jacobsen that's at fault.

Yes, pre-screening would have found that they were musicians. So what? Pre-screening, if it was widely known that that security measure had been put in place, would probably have found that the 19 9/11 highjackers (or the next 19 highjackers) were students, businessmen, and maybe even innocent musicians who were not on any terrorist list.

A TERRORIST IS NOT A TERRORIST UNTIL HE BLOWS SOMETHING UP.

Up until that moment he's just a guy (quite possibly with a funny accent, olive skin, maybe a little nervous, who might even play a musical instrument.)

What would you have everyone do, Mr. Smith, sit and wait until 14 innocent-looking young Arab passengers pull out box cutters and put them to the throats of passengers and stewardesses? Then you could say "Aha! You might be a terrorist!" Big Whoop.

We should be not looking for "terrorists". They're already easy enough to spot. They're the ones holding guns, box cutters or other various and sundry weapons up to the necks of the closest stewardess.

No, what we should be looking for are people who could be terrorists. Fortunately, most of us don't work for Norman Mineta so we can scruitinize more than two Arabs at a time. Behavior as described by Jacobsen certainly meets the logical criteria I would apply to what to look for. If it turns out to be nothing, fine. Better to be wrong than dead.

The argument that profiling is stupid because Muslim radicals and Syrian nationals come in different flavors and colors is another rant and is totally unrelated to his original rant. (Personally, I think he just wants to rant).

The fact is, 100% of the 19 highjackers, as well as most highjackers from previous highjackings were dark, olive-skinned, young Arabs. My money's on watching the Arabs. If and when they can recruit another flavor to do their bidding then we'll watch them too, but in the meantime let's focus on the obvious.

Smith finally dissolves into a rambling fit of rage so far that his arguments are no longer worth arguing. This is about the time they come and haul him away in the white suit with the funny sleeves. And after it all, we find that apparently this fit was just a ruse to plug his own book.

I don't think the point was to "remain frightened and draconian at all costs", as Smith suggests. I think the message is to be vigilant. Be aware. As time passes, for most of us the horror and the pain of what happened on September 11 tends to fade. We return to being complacent. We want to get back to "normal". Hell, before you know it, Mr. Smith and some of his fellow pilots will be allowing Arabs claiming to be pilots to ride in the jump seats in the cockpits again.

But we can't be complacent. There's a war on. A war of survival. And we know who the enemy is. And it is a testament to being the greatest, most free nation on Earth that we allow some of them to walk among us. There is nothing wrong with being aware and noting odd behavior, especially when they fit the PROFILE of so many previous highjackers. And if innocent Arab travelers are not as dumb as a board they understand that they are likely to be under closer scrutiny than ever because of their heritage or nationality. It's an unfortunate consequence, but it's a fact. Get over it.

As for Mr. Smith, well I wouldn't say that I would never fly with whatever airline he works for, but he certainly opened my eyes to the fact that there are some plain old dumb-ass pilots out there flying planes.

I think I'll just keep my ass on the ground.

Larry

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