This is damn scary.

A newly released inspector general report backs eyewitness accounts of suspicious behavior by 13 Middle Eastern men on a Northwest Airlines flight and reveals several missteps by government officials, including failing to file an incident report until a month after the matter became public.

According to the Homeland Security report, the “suspicious passengers,” 12 Syrians and their Lebanese-born promoter, were travelling on Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles on expired visas, which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services extended one week after the June 29, 2004 incident.

They lurk in our society…young angry Muslim men who plan and plot. One would think, 3 years after September 11th that the US would be on full alert to flight takeovers. Apparently this wasn’t the case here.

The report also says that a background check in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, which was performed June 18 as part of a visa-extension application, produced “positive hits” for past criminal records or suspicious behavior for eight of the 12 Syrians, who were traveling in the U.S. as a musical group.

In addition, the band’s promoter was listed in a seperate FBI database on case investigations, for acting suspiciously aboard a flight months earlier. He was detained a third time in September on a return trip to the U.S. from Istanbul, the details of which were redacted.

Please explain to me why we should not pay extra attention to those who fit the profile of the 9-11 terrorists who used our planes to destroy property and kill almost 3000 people (in less than one hour)??

The inspector general criticized the Homeland Security officials for not reporting the incident to the Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC), which serves as the nation’s nerve center for information sharing and domestic incident management.

Let’s see how long our Democrat controlled Congress takes action on this. Calls for investigations and hearings SHOULD happen but I bet they won’t.

An air marshal who told The Washington Times he has been involved personally in terror probes that were ignored by federal security managers, called such behavior typical.

“Agency management was not only covering-up numerous probes and dry-run encounters from Congress and other federal law enforcement agencies, it was also hiding these incidents from their own flying air marshals,” said P. Jeffrey Black, an air marshal stationed in Las Vegas.

Air marshal managers initially denied the 13 Syrians were behaving suspiciously, in ways that current and former air marshals say resemble a “dry run” for a hijacking, and blamed passengers who reported the incident to the media as behaving hysterically. However, the inspector general report shows air marshals had the group of men under surveillance before they boarded the plane.

What purpose would there be to withhold this vital info? I have no idea, but I suspect it might have something to do with keeping public panic levels under control. And I also suspect it might have to do with a politically sensitive environment in Washington; our leaders don’t want to upset the Muslims of this world. FUCK that bullshit.

“Prior to boarding, one of the air marshals noticed what he later characterized as ‘unusual behavior’ by about six Middle Eastern males, who arrived at the gate together, then separated, and acted as if they did not know each other,” the report said.

“According to the air marshals, these men were sweaty, appeared nervous, and arrived after the boarding announcement. The air marshals made eye contact with one another to ensure they were aware of this behavior,” the report said.

All the things we all look for when we’re at the airport awaiting a flight. Things we’re supposed to report. And things that would cause me to NOT board that flight.

“This report is evidence of Homeland Security executives attempting to downplay and cover-up an unmistakable dry-run that forced flight attendants to reveal the air marshals and compel the pilots to open the flight deck door,” said Robert MacLean, a former air marshal who was fired last year for revealing the service planned to cut back on protection for long-distance flights to save money.

To save money. GAWD dammit. Money will be the end of the world. In one way or another.

Flight 327 was “delayed for five minutes because one of the 13 suspicious passengers, who appeared not to understand English and walked with a limp, was seated in the emergency exit row. The flight attendant determined he was unable to operate the emergency procedures and delayed the flight while having him exchange seats.”

“On the flight, 13 Middle Eastern men behaved in a suspicious manner that aroused the attention and concern of the flight attendants, passengers, air marshals and pilots,” the report said. The men “walked in the aisle, appearing to count passengers,” and “several men spent excessive time in the lavatories.”

I can imagine the terror and horror passengers must have felt. Whoa.

“One man rushed to the front of the plane appearing to head for the cockpit. At the last moment he veered into the first class lavatory, remaining in it for about 20 minutes,” according to the report. One man carried a McDonalds bag into the lavatory, and “another man, upon returning from the lavatory, reeked strongly of what smelled like toilet bowl chemicals.”

“Some men hand signaled each other. The passenger who entered the lavatory with the McDonald’s bag made a thumbs-up signal to another man upon returning from the lavatory. Another man made a slashing motion across his throat, appearing to say ‘No.’ ”

WHAT was the air marshal doing? Observing? I would like to think he would have ended this bulloney with some well aimed gunshots or other means to subdue these terrorists.

The scariest part to this is the men were released. And have not been found. The so called music band did not include all 13 members of what I am calling a terrorist ring:

Flight 327 passengers were later shown a picture of the group that actually performed at the Sycuan Casino near San Diego. They could identify only one musician as having been on their flight.

What is disturbing to us as pilots is that there are now a number of incidents like this taking place across our industry and the vast majority of our flights are still defenseless,” said Captain David Mackett, president of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance.

“If I were a member of Congress, I’d be asking some hard questions about why such a small percentage of flights have armed pilots or air marshals aboard, while the TSA whistles past the graveyard, asking us to believe none of this is related to terrorism,” Mr. Mackett said.

If I were a person on board a flight and saw this stuff happening I would figure out how to STOP it. I wouldn’t wait for an air marshal or attendant or captain to “solve” it. And I certainly would not count on my government to protect me from incidents such as this, that could easily lead to another 9-11 style day of events.

Our government cannot prevent another 9-11…because it’s to big, to uncoordinated and to worried about being sensitive to the feelings of the people who want to kill us. It is up to we the people to keep a watchful eye, and to not stop being vigilant to the threats we still face.