Don't sit next to brown people on airliners. They might be trying to make explosives, or maybe they're doing something worse - talking on cell phones (the shock!!) or moving from their assigned seats (the horror!!)
From the Greg Gordon article in the Star Tribune:
U.S. government officials, who requested anonymity, said crew members and air marshals observed the passengers in the rear of the wide-bodied DC-10 trying to use cell phones and passing them around during and shortly after takeoff from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Cell phone use is barred on both U.S. and international flights. Some of the passengers also were trying to change seats, they said.
While cell phone use in general is a bane on society, it's a venal sin, not a cardinal one. And changing seats??? Has anyone flown lately? Airport seating algorithms are based on a combination of mystic runes and profit-maximization. On a half-empty flight (150 of 250 seats full) there's whole rows at the back empty, so some lucky and quick mover gets to lay down for the whole long flight.
Of course, these annoying and/or understandable behaviors become gross security risks if someone's brown. (Or Jerry Garcia, in this case...)
Nelson said he watched Dutch police come aboard in threes and escort a dozen men, 10 of them appearing to be of Pakistani or Middle Eastern descent, from the plane one by one in a remote parking area at the airport.
"Some they handcuffed before they took them out," he said. "One guy was a white guy, with a tie-dyed shirt, a beard and dreadlocks. He looked like a hippie. There was an older man who appeared to be of Indian descent."
My sweet love was asking me tonight what was up with all this. "Are they trying to make us afraid, or make us secure. I mean, we have to keep flying or the airlines will go bankrupt..." "More bankrupt" "Right, more bankrupt. So which is it? Fear or secure?"
The answer is 1) we feel fear, and 2) we are glad the vigilant pricks of the Bush administration are here to keep us alive. (Sorry - did I say vigilant pricks? I meant flaccid dicks. Bad me.)
Thankfully, the Big Lie is wearing thin. The Brit paper the Guardian calls it the "Alleged transatlantic airliners plot," while several people are pointing out either the bullshit or the US involvement - like where Scotland Yard tells the FBI to fucking shut their traps and blowing the investigation. Meanwhile, those arrested in the UK? "Police need more time..." to cover their asses, because they don't have much at all. (They got the extra time.)
The mental age that the Bush administration seems to be reaching for is that of a 6 year old boy. This is good propaganda technique; Adolf Hitler himself recommended it.
“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”
But it can come crumbling down, and the Nazis knew this could happen as well. Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister, had this to say:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
The political consequences of being a swaggering pack of whiny bullies are coming due. The economic consequences of raping the poor and middle class to benefit the rich are coming due. The military consequences of keeping the economy on a war footing and tying down the forces in an attempt to seize control of mideast oil are coming due.
Look for greater attempts to repress dissent, since it's all coming apart.
[UPDATE]
Lawdy, lawdy! Who'd'a thunk it? Turns out these dangerous types weren't dangerous after all!!
Terrorism not involved in diverted NWA flight, report says: AP
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands --The interrogation of 12 men who were removed from a Northwest Airlines flight after they aroused the suspicions of air marshals and crew produced no evidence of terrorism, the Justice Ministry said Thursday.
Flight NW0042 to Bombay, India, returned to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday escorted by Dutch fighter jets, and the 12 were questioned and arrested.
"From what is known until now, it does not appear that this is terrorism related," Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner told reporters in The Hague.
You wanna know what I think? I think Mr. Justice Minister needs to get with the program! C'mon!! FEAR!! FEEEEAAARRRR!!!!
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