In the aftermath of the explosion in Boston, Muslims again appear the target of arbitrary suspicion and detention. On a flight from Boston to Chicago, passengers became alarmed when two different passengers were heard speaking in Arabic. The two passengers were not traveling or seated together but the flight crew returned to the gate to have the two passengers detained.
Several passengers were marathoners. The two men were removed from the plane and detained . . . for speaking one of the most common languages on Earth.
Putting aside the prejudice in the treatment of Arabic speakers, it is illogical to think that terrorists would speak in Arabic if they were truly going to harm passengers. True terrorists try to blend in with population.
The airline bears responsibility for this conduct. There should be more than simply speaking Arabic to have a plane returned to the gate and passengers detained.
Just for the record, estimates indicate that there are 422 million Arabic speakers in this world. I am not sure what is required from Arabic speaking people? Should they simply not speak in public while traveling in the United States to avoid security alerts and detention?
SOURCE: KRMG
Barkingdog , you mean someone like Bill Ayers, it fits his MO
More likely our own government was behind the bombing than any Tea Party person
Flee speech.
Gary, do you remember the attempted bombing of the Seattle MLK day parade, or the Olympic Park bombing, or the Speedway Bomber, to name a few?
Bob, I do remember the Olympic Park bombing, that was against an institution.
The MLK bombing would be a partial exception to that trend, it was meant to terrorize a subpopulation of Americans though for ideological reasons, not a cross section of random Americans, as was 911 and the Boston Marathon (unless someone has some deep hatred against long distance runners).
As to the Speedway Bomber, that was a ruse to distract authorities from a concurrent criminal act, it does not really count as canonical terrorism.
So you say….. And with faux news running full bombardments…. Of course we will….
While we have very little evidence to suggest exactly who is responsible for the tragedy in Boston, it would be pure obscurantism to ignore the fact that much of the threat to US security originates among Arabic speakers from the Middle East. Fifty plus years of living supports this observation. And while JT is correct that Arabic is a common language, it is not a common language on US domestic flights. Using a foreign language to disguise communication is certainly nothing new. We might recall similar conduct by four of the 9-11 hijackers on a flight that was observed by actor James Woods.
Caution in the face of crisis is no vice and while discrimination is always regrettable it is certainly understandable given the terrible consequences of ignoring similar warning signs in the past. We need not ignore reality in service to principle. If so, what value is there in those principles.
Ok, when it happened, as to what type of terrorist it was, this is what I concluded:
Generally American domestic terrorists have traditionally targeted public institutions, and have tried to minimize the injuries to regular people. Just list all the American terrorist attacks in the last 40 years.
Foreign, usually islamic, based attacks have been directed towards American people, cause damage to people and they consider anything else just gravy on top.
Based on that analysis, I would predict when our authorities find out who did this, it will be foreign in influence if not directly non-nationals.
This attack was not designed to harm anything but people, and that was the basis of the terrorism.
It was obviously a pre-planned, scheduled operation, albeit with lower technology than the usual materials Al Qaeda likes to use. But that is not unusual, even the 911 was essentially a low tech operation.
(Also, I do not include thespate of insane gunmen directly attacking their victims to be canonical terrorism, although it is obviously terrible. A distinction is they don’t care that everyone knows they did it, are impulsive about it and don’t put too much planning into it, are doing it for a personal statement, and they usually expose themselves to subsequent death or capture.)
The only one to make that decision is the pilot…he is responsible for ANYTHING, so he makes the decisions for EVERYTHING.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/16/american-airlines-grounds-entire-fleet
“American Airlines said its computer systems were restored after intermittent outages that lasted several hours on Tuesday, but it cautioned that flight delays and cancellations were still expected for the rest of the day.
The problems led American to ground its flights for much of the afternoon, stranding travelers across the country. American, a unit of AMR Corp, operates more than 3,500 daily flights worldwide.
The AMR Corp unit added in a statement that it saw no evidence that its technical outage was related to recent events in Boston.
Other carriers have also had problems with system outages. Last year, computer outages at United Continental Holdings stranded passengers at airports around the country.
American plans to merge with rival US Airways Group to form the world’s biggest air carrier.”
Darren
i bet the two of you do a lovely version of “99 luftballons”. 🙂
I believe that the bomber is the son or daughter of a hippy couple that happened to have two pressure cookers in the home. Follow the pressure cookers. Leave the arabs at the airport and dont bother them.
BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) – Sources told FOX 25 there was an American Airlines flight that was headed to Chicago.
Read more: http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/21988916/2013/04/16/plane-brought-back-to-gate-at-logan-airport#ixzz2QhHfPlAm
American Airlines.
Fear will make people do stupid things. Don’t have fear have Christ in you. Have him in you be good to people. Have Christ in you have a soul that will never die. People were not good to those Arabic people.
Kraaken, maybe the bomber is a prominent Democrat. Get a life, The article was about prejudice against arabs in the aftermath of the bombing. Don’t join the ranks of our idiotic news media and blame the tea party.
shameful behavior by AA
Should be an easy civil rights lawsuit.
Place of public accommodation, blatant discrimination.
We will find out who it is eventually. I think it is a domestic Eric Rudolf type but this is PURELY speculation on my part. I don’t know what the motivations are, not that they are the same as Rudolph’s but the evil is the same.
Rafflaw, X2.
Maybe the marathon bomber is a member of a radical wing of the Tea Party. Jus’ sayin.
I wonder if my wife and I conversed in German we could get detained for being Nazis or maybe roadies for the band “Nena”? That would add to the excitement of an othewise boring flight.
Wonder what would happen if two men dressed in traditional Arabic clothing and said in unison the Lord’s Prayer in Latin. It would be the Monty Python “Confuse a Cat” equavalent for the TSA.
Seriously, this shows the hysteria that people can whip themselves up into. Any reasonable LEO would have just said “what were these two men accused of doing?” the answer “speaking in Arabic” “What did they say, anything threatening?” “I don’t know but it was in Arabic.” “Sorry ma’am it is not a crime. Have a good flight” Case closed.
But, the race to investigate something that is obviously not a crime or a threat doesn’t matter when people’s unrealistic fears come into play.
Makes airline travel all the more of an irritation.
Disgusting. I am betting the marathon bombing is a domestic person or persons and people are afraid of Arabic apeaking people. Crazy.