Middle-Eastern Men Scare Timid White People
A must-read, one of those Rashomon-in-real-life stories that mean entirely different things depending on your personal perspective. The actual story in question comes from Annie Jacobsen, a writer for Women’s Wall Street, who got really scared on an airplane flight recently because of the suspicious behavior of a group of Syrian men on the plane. Her story reads like an Alfred Hitchcock movie: Terror in the skies, again?
Courtesy World O’Crap, which has a nice round-up of blog commentary on the story, plus mockery: Terror in the Skies!!!
July 17th, 2004 at 6:16 pm
I’m just curious…. what does she propose would have happened if the men had been interrogated at length before being allowed to board the plane? That they would have left their musical instruments behind rather than scaring her with those “thin, flat, 18 long” cases? That they would not have had time to stop for fast food, and thus wouldn’t have had the terrifying bag of burgers? (And what would she do after eating fast food on an airplaine – stuff the garbage into the seat pocket in front of her, or throw the garbage away?)
From what she posts, had the pre-flight interrogation occurred – of men suspect only because they were all from an Arab country – they would have been cleared to fly. Yet the author (and her husband) would still have been terrified of the men. So the moral apparently intended by the author is, we should detain and interrogate all Arab men before they board airplanes because… all Arab men are really, really scary.
The World O’Crap dissection is good, but it makes no comment about this: “The 14 Syrians had been hired as musicians to play at a casino in the desert. …. None had arrest records (in America, I presume)”. Because *all* Arab men have criminal records *somewhere*, right? [eyeroll]
July 19th, 2004 at 9:05 am
So a pretty simple thing that nobody is telling us is… did the guys play at the Casino? And, were they any good?
July 20th, 2004 at 9:20 am
Too much “political correctness” is standing in the way of our fight against terrorism.
The Democratic Party hero, President Franklin Roosevelt, would not stand for such pussyfooting.
In this case, middle eastern profiling is correct. Where did the
9-11 attackers come from, other than the middle east. We are losing a lot of time not facing up to “political correctness” with it going mad.
The Muslims are winning by our delaying. For instance, they now know how we interogate their people, even to the limits we go to. “Political correctness” hounding the Administration is tearing down this country. I believe that is the intent.
July 22nd, 2004 at 12:40 pm
Everybody focusing on racism is missing the point. Whether they were Syrian men or Finnish men – how many men go to the bathroom together?
July 22nd, 2004 at 12:46 pm
I dont know what it takes for us to be suspicious enough to protect ourselves. I’m not a war freak nor am I uncomfortable in a diverse group of people but I don’t need to see the same movie twice to get the point. People still want to attack us and they will. Who will it be and when, hmmm. But if I’m wondering about it while staring it in the face , well, stupid me!
July 24th, 2004 at 2:23 pm
my only comment that leaves me skeptical about this incident is that from what i have been told flight attendents do not know who the air marshalls are on the flight, and they would never tell a passenger if they did know. if this is what happened the flight attendent should be fired.
July 24th, 2004 at 2:26 pm
Actually, there’s more to the story. See here, for example:
http://www.lies.com/wp/2004/07/23/annie-jacobsen-national-security-threat/