A couple weeks ago, Annie Jacobsen wrote a story titled "Terror in the Skies" I think it was, about a perceived potential threat. She saw a group of a dozen or so Arab men together on a plane, and she assumed they must be terrorists, everyone on the plane was in mortal peril, and even more safety precautions, restrictions on travel, and racial profiling were needed. Despite the fact that the flight attendants assured her several times that the situation was completely under control. Despite the fact that those checks are much more restrictive now than they were 3 years ago, and the fact that terrorists would never be so obvious. And most of all, despite the fact that terrorism is never completely preventable, and the terrorists have only really won when they've completely changed your way of life.
I first heard about it through some left-wing blogs, and two days ago atrios posted a link to that story I'm linking to now. Her stupidity and racism were the topic of discussion on all the web sites where I heard about it, and many people also questioned her honesty, because some elements of her story seemed either too convenient, or seemed like breaches of privacy or security. For example, the flight attendant told her some stuff about how the men were questioned by security, which seemed like a violation of privacy, and also told her that there were air marshalls on board, which seemed like a huge security breach. (If that's not clear, just Google on Salon and Annie Jacobsen - Salon does a good critique, which I'm just summarizing.) So was Jacobsen making it all up?
Well, according to this, no. You know what the most interesting this about this article is? The last three paragraphs:
The source said the air marshals on the flight were partially concerned Jacobsen’s actions could have been an effort by terrorists or attackers to create a disturbance on the plane to force the agents to identify themselves.
Air marshals’ only tactical advantage on a flight is their anonymity, the source said, and Jacobsen could have put the entire flight in danger.
“They have to be very cognizant of their surroundings,” spokesman Adams confirmed, “to make sure it isn’t a ruse to try and pull them out of their cover.”
The only threat on that flight was... Jacobsen herself.
(BTW, wondering why I'm linking to that article so much? Google bombing. My readership on this blog is probably about 3 people, but I figure if I and enough other people link her name to the small story correcting her rather than the popular, paranoid and inflammatory one she wrote, then the correction will turn up first on Google.)
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