I was sent the link to this article this morning. It is fairly lengthy, but well-written and quite spell-binding. I wonder what you all think of what our rights as passengers might be if we feel uncomfortable getting on an airplane for whatever reasons. Would the airlines let us change to another flight...for no additional cost? I doubt it.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14249

[ July 16, 2004, 12:04 PM: Message edited by: WizardofZA ]

WizardofZA,

Thank you for the link. Will check it out this afternoon.

If I felt uncomfortable on a flight; felt that I might be in danger, I would get off the plane and make other arrangements.

When that 'gut' feeling hits me--whether I'm on a plane, in a store or someone passes me and I feel danger, I move out! Too much evil in the world; we all must take head of our conscience--it will never let you down.

Just read the article and I can now see that once the plane is in the air, it's a whole different story.

From this article I can see that there are still major flaws in the inspection of foreigners, when boarding a plan.

This is scary and gives me pause on flying in the near future. I'm glad you brought this article to our attention.

I think the woman in the article did the right thing in reporting what she saw and she and her family tried to remain calm..I believe most people if they feel threatened, would take some kind of avasive action---something of an offensive nature. I know I would.

Interesting and frightening piece..

All I can say is that I'm so glad I'm home safe and sound from the Bahamas.

Fortunately security was very tight while we were traveling. All I had to fret about were the storms all over the east coast.

I can't imagine how the writer of that story lasted all those hours in the air. I was terrified just reading it! Isn't it crazy the predicaments we can get ourselves into trying to vacation?

The silverware thought is valid. Not only do they have silverware in the restaurants after you've gone through security, but they sell cheese knives prior to the security gate. I bought one without thinking, went through security, they never caught it, and it dawned on me when I got home!

Ross recently flew with two corkscrews in his carry-on bag that weren't picked up either.

Ross and I traveled to New York City by train. We never saw a sign of security coming or going. That really surprised me.

As a supposed powerful country, the United States has some of the dumbest, ineffective laws and rules of any nation. We are doomed if we persist on the idea of not stepping on these foreigners toes, ruffling feathers etc.
WE ARE AT WAR... and we had better take our heads out of our butts and act like it, or 9-11 will seem like a walk in the park compared to what these terrorists will do to us next. Wake up people and write, call, scream to your congressmen and any news media that will listen that we WILL NOT be put at risk by our own government ever again. They were warned and could have stopped the 9-11 disaster.

Man! That was quite an article!! I think I would have been trying to get into that forward bathroom to check things out for myself! (I know, I know! Not the brainiest thing to do, but I would still do it anyway!) And I would be praying like crazy.

Watched a news program last night and apparently these foreign gentlemen had been thoroughly checked out before boarding this plane while the woman writing the article was a connecting flight and didn't know how thoroughly they were screened before boarding this plane. They did however interview her and her husband on the show and she was told to continue her awareness of what is going on around her and that all Americans should be equally cautious of whats going on around them. Still scary to me...Its not like the media and officials don't lie to us to cover their behinds...

We all complain about airport security, but enduring endless searches, extended delays, and even a degree of discrimination is far superior to the terror described in this article. Now it seems that some of that type of terrifying information is being kept from us. Possibly that is for good reason. Putting it on television to terrorize the American public only empowers the terrorists and accomplishes their ultimate goal of destroying our country from within.

Each individual is ultimately responsible for his or her own actions, but our judicial system is also responsible. They contribute to that type of terrorism by placing individual rights above the security of the American public. Individual rights are extremely important in a free society, but WE ARE AT WAR and some of those rights have to be subrogated to the overall security of the public. Large corporations should not be afraid to do all that they can to protect the passenger. They should not have to fear lawsuits, bad publicity, and the possible destruction of their corporations against the safety of their passengers.

Judges are appointed by elected officials and we as American citizens have the ultimate responsibility for electing our leaders. We have an obligation to exercise our authority in the only way we can . At the polls.
smile

Chatty, do you remember what program that was? I'd love to read a transcript if one is available.

Thanks!