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Confirmed: Syrian Musicians Overstayed Visas; FAMA Approves of Jacobsen's Actions
Almost all of the Syrian musicians who were questioned by law-enforcement officials after exhibiting suspicious behavior aboard a Northwest Airlines flight were traveling on expired visas. The 14 men in the band were questioned by several agencies that make up the Joint Terrorism Task Force after the pilot aboard Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles on June 29 radioed for law-enforcement assistance. A spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that 13 of the 14 musicians entered the country May 30 and the visas expired June 10, but the men were not detained. The 14th musician is a U.S. resident and citizen... Similar activity was reported by flight attendants on American Airlines Flight 1732 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Feb. 15 to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. The six men involved worked for a cruise ship and were carrying musician's cases with instruments... The Jacobsens have become the subject of ridicule on some blogs and criticized in one media report by an unnamed government source, but the Federal Air Marshals Association (FAMA) issued a statement Sunday backing the family. FAMA also called on the government to release the recording of the pilot's call to air traffic control for law-enforcement assistance. The unnamed source suggested Mrs. Jacobsen was hysterical and was the reason that law-enforcement officials were called to the airport. Pilots and marshals say the flight crew and onboard marshals were obviously concerned and the Joint Terrorism Task Force would not be deployed in routine cases of upset or unruly passengers. "Dealing with upset plane passengers is not exactly new," the pilot said. The second air marshal said the Jacobsens did exactly what President Bush and Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge have asked U.S. citizens to do: Be vigilant and report suspicious behavior. It appears the idiot Syrians were "just musicians", but their behavior was odd enough to warrant the pilot calling for law enforcement to meet them at the gate. Oh, and similar behavior happened on another flight. But, hey, it's just "racist paranoia" to notice it. Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-07-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=39101 |