Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Real Jihad: Dry Runs and Probes

Those culturally enriched air travelers are at it again, this time on a flight coming into San Francisco, among others.

According to Fox News (h.t. Doug Ross; emphasis added):

SAN FRANCISCO — The passengers sat stunned as they watched a man walk quickly toward the front of American Airlines Flight 1561 as it was descending toward San Francisco. He was screaming and then began pounding on the cockpit door.

“I kept saying to myself: ‘What’s he doing? Does he have a bomb? Is he armed?’” passenger Angelina Marty said.

Within moments Sunday, a flight attendant tackled Rageh Almurisi. Authorities do not yet have a motive.

OK, so far the story is keeping to the script. The guy was just some kind of nut case. Yes, crazy people do this sort of thing from time to time. Who knows why?

The report continues to follow the standard template — next comes the disclaimer mandated by the Department of Homeland security:

While authorities said that Almurisi, 28, of Vallejo, Calif., has no clear or known ties to terrorism, the incident underscored fears that extremists may try to mount attacks to retaliate for the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden last week.

So far, so good. The perp and the reporter are both playing by the rules. The only shadow on this otherwise pristine account is the name of the alleged suspect: Rageh Almurisi. Alarmingly close to “raghead”, isn’t it? But that surname could be Italian, right? Couldn’t it?

The cloud on the horizon then gets a little darker with this:

Federal agents are investigating Almurisi’s background. He was carrying a Yemeni passport and a California identification card, authorities said.

Whoops! Even if we scrub the forbidden “of Middle Eastern appearance” from all the descriptions in the news reports, that Yemeni passport drops a little stink bomb into the DHS media spin.

But maybe the California ID card will fix things up — in fact, you know that’s the game plan, since the headline assigned to this piece by Fox is “Suspect in flight disturbance had Calif. ID”.

So this guy was nothing more than a good ol’ California boy, with his surfboard and blond hair and jams. He just couldn’t wait to get back home and catch a wave.

Right? Right??

Well, maybe not. There remain a few little niggling details about the incident, which were unfortunately revealed by fellow passengers who happen to understand certain Arabic phrases. The TSA evidently failed to explain to these well-meaning but misguided people how important it was that they remain silent — for the sake of our national security, of course:
Marty, 35, recalled that she and other passengers on the plane were stunned when they saw Almurisi walking down the aisle. She said a woman in a row across from her who speaks Arabic translated that Almurisi said “God is Great!” in Arabic.

Andrew Wai, another passenger, told KGO-TV on Monday that the wife of one of the men who took Almurisi down later said Almurisi was yelling “Allahu Akbar.”

"There was no question in everybody's mind that he was going to do something," Marty said.

Really? D’you think?

Let’s recap the talking points that Fox and the TSA would like us to remember about this incident:

1. It was the work of a deranged loner.
2. It had no known connection with terrorism.
3. The man who acted out was a member of a tiny minority of extremists.
4. He was a California resident.
5. This has nothing to do with Islam.
6. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

In a sense, the incident on Flight 1561 really did have nothing to do with terrorism. The alleged Mr. Almurisi never really intended to highjack the plane or blow anything up — if he had planned such an action, his “Allahu Akhbar!” would have waited until after the stewardesses were dead, the passengers were subdued, and the bomb was about to explode. No real terrorist would have been so spectacularly obvious until the situation was completely under his control.

So what was he up to? Was he a really a “deranged loner” after all?

Probably not. In an article at the American Thinker, Lee DeCovnick offers some insightful suggestions about what was actually going on:

As details emerge about the incident on an American Airlines flight to San Francisco, it looks increasingly like a dry run.

The term “dry run” goes back to Prohibition. Moonshiners paid drivers to made practice runs during the day to identify landmarks and spot escape routes without carrying any untaxed corn liquor.

[…]

There were a couple of disturbing items in this dry run. First, this was a single “dry runner” who was most likely timing the walk from the rear lavatory and the noting response from the aircrew, while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” We also know that other dry runs have had up to 13 possible hijackers on a single flight. Was this a dry run of the initial diversion, where the real action may start in the rear of the aircraft, where aircrews are often located?

Second, this dry run was so blatant, so unsubtle, that you have to wonder if this incident itself was a diversion from other airline or routes. Or conversely, because this was so blatant, will the authorities continue to give special significance to these particular circumstances? That’s a tough call by the Homeland Security either way.

We need to be vigilant as air passengers. The false sense of security, the Kabuki theater of the absurd, what we call the TSA screening process is simply a joke.

Mr. DeCovnick has hit the nail on the head. And there could have been additional elements to this “dry run” — for instance, the alleged dry-runner (or possibly fellow conspirators who were “sleepers” among the passengers) could have been gauging typical passenger responses to his behavior. The mujahideen know very well that the passengers, and not the crew or the air marshals, would most likely be the first line of defense against their intended attack.

But there is another important aspect of the incident: it was a probe. That is, it was designed to test the system and discover weak points that could be exploited in a later operation, which may be of a totally different sort.

It’s not just the cabin crew, the passengers, and the cockpit door that are being tested here. The people who planned this operation knew that their man would be subdued, arrested, and interrogated. Each of those actions offers the possibility of a lawsuit or lawsuits — for “profiling”, discrimination, harassment, wrongful detention, and so on, directed at the government, the airline, the crew, and the passengers who intervened.

With Eric Holder running the Justice Department, it’s even conceivable that federal civil rights charges could be brought against some of those alert responders if they somehow managed to display insufficient sensitivity to Mr. Almurisi’s religious and cultural sensibilities.

The Syrian “musicians” that Annie Jacobsen exposed to the world were a probe. The “Flying Imams” were a probe. The Danish cartoon provocation was a probe. The violence that used Terry Jones as a pretext was a probe.

Every time Muslims engage in loud, violent, outrageous, or litigious behavior, they are probing us. They know the kuffar are weak and indecisive. They know we are vulnerable on multiple fronts, so they are constantly probing us on all those fronts, to see where we are likely to cave in and accede to their demands in order to avoid further mau-mauing.

Osama bin Laden is not the main point. He is a sideshow, but a necessary sideshow: Osama and his ilk are a warning that helps keep us in line, meek and submissive as sheep. The image of the crazed mujahid with his bomb belt or exploding underwear is always out there to make us aware of what a “tiny minority of extremists” may do to us if we don’t give in to the persistent and unremitting demands of the “vast majority of peace-loving Muslims”.

Blatant probes like this one serve as a constant reminder that Osama’s heirs are everywhere. Their oft-repeated assertion that “we love death more than you love life” wears down our will to resist and makes us ready to accept the piecemeal application of sharia law in the West.

12 comments:

Dymphna said...

Blatant probes like this one serve as a constant reminder that Osama’s heirs are everywhere...

I know you meant that metaphorically, but has anyone mentioned his real heirs, I mean how many children he left behind?

Dymphna said...

Another thing I just noticed: the essay of Lee DeCovnick's that you linked in the post has this chilling question:

Did Osama Bin Laden leave instructions following his death for vengeful strikes against one or more of the 26,000 commercial flighs that crisscross US airspace each day?

Does anyone know where the meat of that question was originally made?

I looked at the comments on that post and one fellow, Galen Hoover, had this to say --

From the USMC "rules of gun fights": 21. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet. (The Boy Scout Motto for adults in the modern world.)

I believe it needs to become a rule that every American, even when unarmed, uses during presence at a likely target for terrorism. Wrestling the perp to the ground may be an option during one of their dry runs, but during the real deal it will be a fight to the death.

Dear Lord, it comes to this? Hyper-vigilance? Sigh. We are now Israel.


Oh well. We've been the Big Satan to Israel's mini-me since way back when Harry Truman pushed for UN recognition over the opposition of many factotums in gov't back then.

Too bad we can't use Israel's common-sense security protocols...

That "Boy Scout Motto for Adults in the modern world" is apt for those of you condemned to fly.

So yeah, there is an upside to not being able to afford plane fare after all. Money matters aside, I'm still with Philip Larkin: wouldn't mind a visit to China if I could be home in time for supper...

mace said...

Here in Australia the media still use "of Middle Eastern appearance" or my favorite, at the end of the very PC main text reporting a gang related crime-"the Middle Eastern Crime Squad is investigating"-aren't they naughty?

Zenster said...

Every time Muslims engage in loud, violent, outrageous, or litigious behavior, they are probing us.

This is the reason why making halal slaughter illegal, banning the burqa and many other seemingly minor measures are, in actuality, so important. The West must make it a habit of being inhospitable to Muslims in every possible way.

It is our own "dry run" on slowly polarizing public opinion until no more Islamic nonsense will be tolerated whatsoever on pain of instant deportation with the threat of mass expulsion looming on the horizon.

Rageh Almurisi, with his Yemeni passport, needs to be drop-kicked back to Sana'a faster than you can say "piss off, scumbag!"

Their oft-repeated assertion that “we love death more than you love life” wears down our will to resist and makes us ready to accept the piecemeal application of sharia law in the West.

First off, it is important to note how very few Muslims ever rise up in indignation at this preposterous declaration. Please recall the words of a Spanish journalist:

After a while, silence is no longer consent. To remain silent is to lie.

It is time to test the lie and see just how willing Muslims are to really give up their lives.

Doing so requires that we take all these declarations of war and other hyperbolic Islamic propaganda ― like this rubbish of “we love death more than you love life” ― directly at face value.

After the next terrorist atrocity ― and you know there will be more of them ― we need to give several thousand Muslims a chance to prove just how much they "love death".

Killing individual Muslims ― even ones of bin Laden's rarefied pedigree ― will never have sufficient collective impact upon the Arab street as an entire metropolis disappearing in a fire storm. No nuclear weapons are needed as we have conventional non-radioactive ones of nearly equivalent strength.

Individual Muslims need to feel as though they are put at ready and immediate risk by the actions of their fellow jihadis. After enough of these supposedly "peaceful" types perish en masse, maybe then we will have started getting the mule's attention.

A primary test of just how much Muslims "love death" is when whole family lines disappear at once. By now it is abundantly obvious that an occasional shock chlorination does not pose much of menace to large Arab families. Emptying an entire gene pool is one of the few palpable threats that Muslims will understand and take to heart.

What is also abundantly clear is that the West is incapable of policing Islam. Of even greater importance is the simple fact that such housecleaning is a task that Islam alone bears responsibility for.

If Muslims continue to demonstrate such reluctance to purge their ranks of the jihads, then it is time for some serious demonstrations of our collective displeasure pour encouragé les autres.

True success will only be attained when ― with each new terrorist atrocity ― Muslims one and all, fearful of massively disproportionate retaliation by the West, race down to their corner mosque and slit the throat of whichever jihadist imam preaches there.

Only such sincere exhibitions, showing a genuine love of life, should ever serve to dissuade the West from imposing a harsh regimen of collective punishment upon Islam for its indiscriminate and barbaric slaughter of all who do not follow it.

Anyone who is so squeamish as to protest the notion of collective punishment had best sit down and ponder the simple fact that Islamic terrorist attacks are the ne plus ultra of collective punishment.

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

In this case, only such a piquant pottage is likely to stick in Islam's craw. We have already spent enough time watching Muslims swallow the terrorist camel whole whilst choking on cartoon gnats.

Anonymous said...

I saw (or heard?) a report to the effect that he was shouting something incomprehensible in Arabic. Even I know what Allahu akhbar signifies. Shouldn't be incomprehensible to anyone.

Anonymous said...

I have to plug my favorite meme here: this story, reported by the San Francisco Chronicle (ultra-progressive rag), initially was titled "Vallejo man ...." The response from the comments was so overwhelming, the online edition changed the title to a more neutral one: "Man..."

The story got over 400 comments as of last night, haven't looked at today's comments yet. Over 90% of the comments, and this is on a commie paper, could have been from Gates of Vienna readers. There were a few, "he was probably having a reaction to Ambien," etc., but most people knew exactly what was going on.

Anyone who thinks the CJ is a "conservative" movement really needs to read the comments on this type of story, at the SF Chron. My neighbors are totally with you on this, except for the usual commie trolls, which everyone abuses openly now.

Zenster said...

latté island: Anyone who thinks the CJ is a "conservative" movement really needs to read the comments on this type of story, at the SF Chron.

Perhaps most telling of all is how one commenter expresses wonder that the article was ever published in such detail by the SF Chronicle:

d94705 11:14 PM on May 9, 2011

How did this story ever sneak by the Chron's hide-bound political correctness monitors? In the past, news like this would likely have been squashed completely or reported without relevant details - like a man shouting Allahu Akbar or his name (Rageh Ahmed Mohammed Al-Murisi) or nationality (Yemeni). Now if they could only report the religion of these terrorists.


Here is a link to the comments page. I must concur with latté island that, coming from the über-liberal SF Bay Area, the tenor of these comments is most heartening.

Evidently, Americas are fed up to the teeth with Islam. Now onto the next stage in this timely progression where we make Islam fed up to the teeth with Massively Disproportionate Retaliation.

Wanna bet who cries "uncle" first?

Lawrence said...

Zenster said... "Evidently, Americas are fed up to the teeth with Islam. Now onto the next stage in this timely progression where we make Islam fed up to the teeth with Massively Disproportionate Retaliation.

Wanna bet who cries "uncle" first?"


Our own pandering politicians, I Hope.

Zenster said...

Lawrence: Our own pandering politicians, I Hope.

The vast majority of them did so long ago when they adopted Politically Correct Multiculturalism as their new religion. They are spilt milk, water over the dam and, as of now, oats through the horse.

As can be seen from the reader responses that I linked to in my previous comment, even ultra-Liberal Californians are fed up with Islam. All of this holds out some promise of BHO being the one-term-wonder that he deserves to be.

It's long past tea for America and the West to give Islam a lingering taste of the Total War that Muslims are so fond of threatening us with. It takes a special kind of stupid to ignore the Wet's peculiar talent for mechanized warfare and Islam is in dire need of an in-depth refresher course on the subject.

Islam is all turban and no camels. Faced with confronting our troops in genuine battle, Muslims would fold their tents faster than Allah in an Indy car.

All we need is a leader with enough intestinal fortitude to call upon our military's dedication to life, liberty and the pursuit of all who threaten it.

matism said...

My question is, why is he still alive?

Zenster said...

matism: My question is, why is he still alive?

Answer: Only because the West continues to retain an excess of humanity and decency.

One day after the 9-11 atrocity, I published my "Revised Airline Passenger Protocol"; which bluntly stated that any malefactor attempting to interfere with the safe operation of a civilian flight in progress should be rendered permanently incapable of all further meddling.

Erring on the side of safety for hundreds of fellow passengers, and many more on the ground, makes a few broken limbs for the offending perpetrator rather insignificant.

As a seated jury member, I would even have difficulty in penalizing a broken spine. Let's see a cadre of wheelchair-bound jihadis stir up some terrorist crap. It sure as Hell won't be much trouble chasing them down.

In Hoc Signo Vinces† said...

@Dymphna,

I mean how many children he left behind?

Osama Bin Laden's family tree.