Terror in the Skies Again…or how Donald Sensing is trying his best to discredit this story.

Update: A commenter on my site correctly points out that the Band that Donald claims sweeps the legs out from underneath the, Terror in the Skies Again story, arent even in the States YET, the tour starts in November. I wonder if that sweeps the legs out from underneath Donald Sensings attempts to discredit this story, probably not but this is an education on how error gets built into the way events are looked at by our law enforcement agencies. Donald is a former Army Investigator.

The FBI was skeptical of its agents when they wanted to examine Moussaui’s computer, Atta’s roommates telephone number was on that computer, one opportunity to stop 9/11, poof. Cause? Political Correctness and a unhealthy skepticism of the sort that causes people to ignore all sorts of warnings until it is too late to do anything about the disease the pain in their chest signified. The FBI was again skeptical of its Agents in Phoenix, when those agents sent messages that a disturbing number of Arab men with connections to Al Queda and Bin Laden were enrolling in Flight Training. Nothing was done, several of those men ended up flying planes into buildings.

So color me a bit skeptical when “Law Enforcement” types start treating regular peoples fears like something to be skeptical about because their instincts and abilities to detect trouble are so finely tuned. I think it bears remembering that while I respect our law enforcement officers tremendously, they may not respect regular citizens enough, maybe they should remember that it was a band of regular citizens who won the first victory on 9/11. Maybe dealing with criminals and suspects all day long colors their view of people, I don’t know but I do know that Donald Sensing is way out of line attacking Anne Jacobsen.

Now we have Donald claiming that this story is losing its legs rapidly because supposedly the band has been named. Not so fast Donald, I don’t believe that to be the case. Powerline Blog doesn’t claim to have found the BAND, Powerline found a band LIKE the band in Anne’s story. Except that this band is only 10 strong with 1 woman, she never mentioned a woman. The band mentioned in Powerline and LGF is similar because they are Syrians and happen to be touring the country right now. It is strange that Donald is doing so much to discredit this story, he is like a one man wrecking crew because of his credibility. Could it be possible that the Syrians were innocent? Of course, perhaps they were only scaring the crackers by acting conspiratorially, as if that behaviour is acceptable. For the answer to that question try saying the word hijack with a smile and see what the reaction is. Course maybe if you are a Syrian you will get a bye.

But I don’t happen to believe they were innocent Syrians, that the plane was met by FBI, LAPD, Federal Air Marshals and whatever other alphabet entities were present is indication that not only poor Anne Jacobsen was terrorized. Certainly it was NOT Anne Jacobsen who called them to meet the plane, certainly it was the pilot. Was the pilot acting out of panic? Were the flight attendants who certainly have flown with Muslims before acting unreasonably when they gave the pilots information that caused the pilots to call the authorities? Does Donald think it is reasonable for a group of 7 men to suddenly stand up and go to both the front and rear restroom after the pilot has declared that they are approaching landing? Is it reasonable that two more men would station themselves on the exit door opposite of the restroom?

Donald concentrates on items he feels he can ridicule but I wonder if he really believed some of the items. For instance.
The McDonald’s Bag he really has fun with this one..

Hmm… The bag was full, then it was “almost empty,” then it was gone. Sounds like what happens to my McDonald’s bag when I finish eating.

Really Donald? And you often go into a Airliners bathroom to eat your McDonald’s? What a fun spot to eat your food. But then again if you trying to smuggle something onto a plane a McDonald’s bag is poetic isn’t it?

Skepticism is healthy sometimes, but lets not forget that our Law Enforcement officers own skepticism was part of the reason that 9/11 happened. Lets also not forget that after the fact many people asked how the respective agencies could have missed all the clues…..perhaps it was this professional disdain for regular folks?
One Hand Clapping Syrian Band Named?
UPDATE: Finished this post late last night, edited some errors and tried to clean the article up overall.

Here are some links to other bits of this story around my site.
My original post on the Terror in the Skies story here.
Comment I left on Michelle Malkins site here.
My opinion of the reaction to Anne’s story, The Nation of Cowards here.
My response to Donald Sensings attack of the Article. Here
Thoughts on Anne Jacobsens follow up article. here

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3 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Thank you for the link. As I explained at the bottom of my original post, I am not a former investigator, nor a present one. I did serve on the staff of the US Army Criminal Investigation Command as the chief of public affairs.

I also made it clear that it was not certain the band named in my post was the band on the plane. I was just relaying a report that I found, and linked to, on Little Green Footballs.

What keyed me to say the story was losing its legs was the post by an active federal investigator who has extensive experience flying on Middle Eastern airlines, who wrote that the behavior Jacobsen described “was not unusual.” I’ll certainly take his word over the young and unworldly Annie Jacobsen.

I also think it’s worth noting that a pilot wrote Glenn Reynolds to say he shared my skepticism about Annie’s story.

Today Armed Liberal on Winds of Change has an excellent post on templating events, as I wrote Annie did, and so does a commenter on Dan Drezner’s blog.

Appreciate the discussion!

2. Donald Sensing on July 19th, 2004 at
Well that is fine as all I wanted to do was to discredit the notion that these guys were the band Anne mentions. The fact that they arent even here yet only adds to that.

Thanks for the information and the comments.

Pierre

3. Pierre Legrand on July 18th, 2004 at
Nope, you got it wrong. The band in question is NOT touring NOW. According to their Web site, their U.S. tour will be starting November.

4. John Smith on July 18th, 2004 at