Infinite Monkeys

Begin the CAIR lawsuit countdown...

This is a must read story from Thursday about a "dry run" by terrorists. You'll note that the link is from The Washington Times -- to date (according to a Google News search) the only MSM publication to report on the troubling report from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. And, mind you, this report is only public because The Washington Times, and my former colleague and friend Audrey Hudson, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get an unredacted version. (The original report had — no joke — all but two sentences redacted.

Here are some choice excerpts (but read the whole story, or better yet, read the IG's report-link opens PDF):

"On the flight, 13 Middle Eastern men behaved in a suspicious manner that aroused the attention and concern of the flight attendants, passengers, air marshals and pilots," the report said. The men "walked in the aisle, appearing to count passengers," and "several men spent excessive time in the lavatories."

"One man rushed to the front of the plane appearing to head for the cockpit. At the last moment, he veered into the first-class lavatory, remaining in it for about 20 minutes," according to the report. One man carried a McDonald's bag into the lavatory, and "another man, upon returning from the lavatory, reeked strongly of what smelled like toilet bowl chemicals."

"Some men hand signaled each other. The passenger who entered the lavatory with the McDonald's bag made a thumbs-up signal to another man upon returning from the lavatory. Another man made a slashing motion across his throat, appearing to say 'No.' "

As the flight descended into Los Angeles, the report said, "four of the suspicious individuals stood up and made their way to the back of the plane," where "the individuals used the rear lavatory, and one of the men was doing stretching exercises/knee bends by the exit door."

Sounds like the Flying Imams of Minnesota to me. CAIR spokesmen, call your office. This is serious, and scary, stuff. The guys are lucky that the passengers didn't pull a Richard Reid takedown of the jerks.

Homeland Security officials initially denied the complaints and blamed passengers who reported the incident to the press as behaving hysterically. However, the inspector general report shows that air marshals had the group of men under surveillance before they boarded the plane.

Who needs CAIR to file a complaint when our own government is (1) denying this even happened and then (2) blame the sharp and patriotic messengers?

The coverup gets worse....

"This report is evidence of Homeland Security executives attempting to downplay and cover up an unmistakable dry run that forced flight attendants to reveal the air marshals and compel the pilots to open the flight deck door," said Robert MacLean, a former air marshal who was fired last year for revealing that the service planned to cut back on protection for long-distance flights to save money.

What the hell is going on in our government? An air marshal complains — not about the crummy hours and travel and (probably) low pay — but that the service should be working harder to keep Americans safer. And he's fired?

Meanwhile Granny is expected to endure fondling by strangers without complaint. Just hand over your nail clippers and keep quiet about real threatening behavior.

And as a footnote, Citizenship and Immigration Services extended the expired visas of these suspicious "musicians" after the flight — which they shouldn't have been able to get on in the first place because of...expired visas.

And we're supposed to take Bush seriously when he says that government can solve problems?

Posted by Dr. Zaius at May 31, 2007 06:41 PM