In Spain recently, 150 passengers on board Monarch‘s Malaga-Manchester flight staged a revolt, refusing to board the plane until two Asian passengers were removed [thanks Chickpea]:

The trouble in Malaga flared last Wednesday as two British citizens in their 20s waited in the departure lounge to board the pre-dawn flight and were heard talking what passengers took to be Arabic. Worries spread after a female passenger said she had heard something that alarmed her. Passengers noticed that, despite the heat, the pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers and were regularly checking their watches. [Link]

As the revolt spread, more and more passengers either refused to board or left the airplane. The staff responded, not by allaying people’s suspicions, but by removing the two men. They were not detained or charged, and flew back to the UK on a later flight:

… the aircraft was cleared while police did a thorough security sweep. Nothing was found and the plane took off – three hours late and without the two men on board. Monarch arranged for them to spend the rest of the night in an airport hotel and flew them back to Manchester later on Wednesday. [Link]

Conservatives in the UK called the passengers’ actions a victory for the terrorists:

Patrick Mercer, the Tory Homeland Security spokesman, said last night: “This is a victory for terrorists. These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally. For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense.” [Link]

Can you imagine American conservatives defending the two men who were removed and criticizing the passengers for acting crazy? I’d plotz if I saw that on Fox News. Continue reading →

After threats in a handwritten letter from some al-Qaeda fan indicated that one of the world’s most famous and beloved monuments was in danger yesterday, the Taj Mahal was surrounded by paramilitary soldiers on 24-hour guard (Thanks, DJ Drrrty Poonjabi).

“Police are verifying the source of the letter,” said Ashok Kumar, a senior government official in Uttar Pradesh state where the Taj Mahal is located. “The letter could be false but we cannot afford to be complacent. We are not taking any chances and have enhanced security at the Taj.”

…The state government has asked the federal civil aviation authorities and IndiaÂ’s air force to declare a no-fly zone within a 2.5-mile radius of the Taj Mahal, said N. C. Bajpei, Uttar PradeshÂ’s highest official.[link]

After recent events, security-based prohibitions against carrying liquids of any kind don’t really surprise me, but what does shock me is how an iconic structure which I associate with Islam is being targeted. WTF?

In similar head-scratching developments, details about the letter are…interesting:

“The letter is written in Hindi. The writing resembles either that of a junior class student or may have been written with the left hand,” Juneja told TOI on Friday evening.

How sinister.

“As the writing is similar to that of the two previous letters, it can be safely said that it has been sent by the same person. We have picked up matching fingerprints from the three letters,” he said.

“Though Thursday’s letter bears a local postal stamp, the earlier ones had no such identification and may have been delivered by hand,” said another senior police officer, adding, “in place of the sender’s name, the letters carry the term ‘MM009’.”[link]

Smile, you’re on a not-so-candid camera:

“We have also launched an extensive drive to photograph every individual who has access within 500m radius of the monument,” said Juneja.[link]

So, one of the greatest physical manifestations of love the world has ever known is now endangered because of hate. Everyone says the former is sightless, but I think the latter is what’s blind. How else could anyone aim such evil at something so magnificent? 🙁 Continue reading →

When the UK authorities brought various accused terrorists into custody, American sources said that the bad guys had been mere days away from a dry run. That is, a 9/11 type event was narrowly averted. But how close were they, really?

Some critics say that the evidence from the UK is weak, and the evidence from Pakistan unreliable:

Imminent threat? They had no bombs, no labs, no tickets, and no passports.None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn’t be a plane bomber for quite some time. What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year … Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests.

Then an interrogation in Pakistan revealed the details of this amazing plot to blow up multiple planes – which, rather extraordinarily, had not turned up in a year of surveillance. Of course, the interrogators of the Pakistani dictator have their ways of making people sing like canaries… Trouble is it always tends to give the interrogators all they might want, and more, in a desperate effort to stop or avert torture. What it doesn’t give is the truth. [Link]

Much to my surprise, even security hawks like Andrew Sullivan have voiced skepticism:

So far, no one has been charged in the alleged terror plot to blow up several airplanes across the Atlantic. No evidence has been produced supporting the contention that such a plot was indeed imminent. … Remember: the British authorities had all these people under surveillance; they did not want to act last week; there was no imminent threat of anything but a possible “dummy-run,” … How could they even stage a dummy-run with no passports? [Link]

Continue reading →

[UPDATE: It is easy to donate to Webb if you wish. Give him $20.01 or an amount of your choice w/ an added one cent at the end to mark the donation as coming from the blogosphere. ]

Allen has changed his story in a small but important way. He no longer claims that he made up the word Macaca on the spot, instead he repeated something that he heard his staff say:

… several Allen campaign aides and advisers are telling allies that the word was a made-up, off-the-cuff neologism that these aides occasionally used to refer to tracker S.R. Sidarth well before last Saturday’s videotaped encounter. According to two Republicans who heard the word used, “macaca” was a mash-up of “Mohawk,” referring to Sidarth’s distinctive hair, and “caca,” Spanish slang for excrement, or “shit.”

Said one Republican close to the campaign: “In other words, he was a shit-head, an annoyance.” Allen, according to Republicans, heard members of his traveling entourage and Virginia Republicans use the phrase and picked it up. It was the first word that came to his mind when he spied Sidarth at the weekend’s event, according to Republicans who have been briefed on Allen’s version of the event. [Link]

Allen wants to shift blame because coverage of this story brings up his long history of racial insensitivity / insult towards blacks which could torpedo his chance at the Presidential nomination:

As governor Allen had a stormy relationship with African-American voters in Virginia, many of whom criticized his policies and his embrace of the Confederate flag, which the NAACP condemned as a symbol of racism and hate. As a lawyer, Allen also had a noose hanging from a ficus tree in his office, a decoration critics have charged was racially insensitive, but which Allen has explained as a symbol of his tough stance on law-and-order issues…
In 1995, 1996, and 1997, Allen proclaimed April as Confederate History and Heritage Month and called the Civil War “a four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights.” The proclamation did not mention slavery and was subsequently repudiated by Allen’s Republican successor, Governor James Gilmore. [Link]

Under educational guidelines proposed by Allen’s administration, which were revised after an uproar, students would have been taught that slaves were “settlers…” [Link]

“Stormy relationship” is an understatement. The man is completely obsessed by the confederate flag: Continue reading →

Apparently, a flight from London to Washington, D.C. just landed in Boston instead, because the pilot was concerned about a passenger’s actions:

A flight from London to Washington, D.C. was diverted to Boston Wednesday morning after the pilot declared an emergency because of a passenger disturbance, the airline said.

United Flight 923 with 182 passengers and 12 crew members landed safely at Boston’s Logan International Airport, United spokesman Brandon Borrman said.

A Logan spokesman said three passengers had a confrontation with the flight crew. State Police took control of the plane after it landed. All the passengers were being taken off the plane and their carry-on luggage was being checked, said spokesman Phil Orlandella.

What got MY attention was the clip NBC just showed– passengers slowly exiting the plane in Boston. To be expected, right? Sure, except all of those shown during the few seconds of footage were wearing Salwar Kameez. Way to zero in on a visual, there.

Developing… Continue reading →

Yesterday the state supreme court in Arizona commuted to life without parole the death sentence of Frank Roque, the man who killed gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodi after 9/11 because he thought he was Muslim (thanks Atul for the news tip):

The high court unanimously agreed that Frank Silva Roque’s mental illness and low IQ were mitigating factors and should have resulted in the lesser sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.

“We have such a doubt in this case, and therefore conclude that the death penalty should not be imposed,” Vice Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch wrote. “Because of the serious nature of Roque’s crimes, however, we conclude that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his natural life and never be released.”

A gracious reaction from the victim’s family:

“As long as he is away from society and our family, it’s fine,” said his brother, Rana Singh Sodhi, though he questioned the high court’s assertion that Roque is mentally ill.

“I don’t think mentally ill people can make those (deliberate decisions about) targets,” he said.

Not much to add here, but the news — a victory for justice, since the conviction was upheld, and (in my opinion) for humanity, since another life won’t be unnecessarily taken — seems significant enough to disseminate. Here’s Ennis’s post on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of Balbir Singh Sodhi’s death, last September. Continue reading →