Archive for February, 2007
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Czech Republic’s Official Report on Terrorist Dry Run
Last week I wrote about an American Airlines Paris-to-Miami flight which appears to have been a dry run. This has prompted a lot of email questions, the most interesting one being, has any foreign government ever acknowledged a dry run? The answer is yes — the Czech Republic.
In the fall of 2006, Czech security police […]
No Comments » - Posted in Dry Runs and Probes by Annie Jacobsen
Monday, February 26th, 2007
World Trade Center One
Fourteen years ago today, on February 26, 1993, Islamic terrorists tried to bring down the World Trade Center towers with a car bomb. The approximately 1,500 pound bomb killed six people and wounded one thousand. The blast caused 1/2 billion dollars in damage. The plan was to take down both towers; tower one was supposed […]
No Comments » - Posted in The Al-Qaeda Threat by Annie Jacobsen
Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Who’s Guarding the Homeland’s Hen House?
Before last week, there was one spot on the Homeland Security Committee that needed to be filled. With the Department of Homeland Security employee confidence at an all time low (DHS employees rate their agency the worst among 36 federal agencies to work for) what better way to boost morale than to fill the spot […]
No Comments » - Posted in U.S. Homeland Security by Annie Jacobsen
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
DHS: Dry Runs Signal “Imminent Terrorist Attack”
On November 29, 2006, The Department of Homeland Security, in a “Joint Homeland Security Assessment” with the FBI, released an ominous report. I viewed an unclassified version of the document, the purpose of which was “to provide readers with DHS and FBI analysis of terrorist use of dry runs before initiating an attack.” The assessment […]
No Comments » - Posted in Dry Runs and Probes, American: Flight 63 by Annie Jacobsen
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
Muslim Sensitivy Training for Air Marshals
Twenty-two days and counting on an answer back from the Department of Homeland Security as to whether or not they’ll send me a single copy of one of the 200,000 DVDs which DHS sent out to federal employees — the one that counsels federal folks how to deal with Muslims when encountering them in the […]
No Comments » - Posted in Federal Air Marshals by Annie Jacobsen
Monday, February 19th, 2007
Pilots vs. Air Marshals: An Unnecessary Battle
My WomensWallStreet.com article today, about the Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) program, is creating a controversy I did not expect. Pilots are sending me emails of support; air marshals are sending me angry ones. This newest installment called, “Annie Get Your Gun” is part of an ongoing series I write for the webzine about aviation […]
No Comments » - Posted in Federal Air Marshals by Annie Jacobsen
Friday, February 16th, 2007
Crew & Passengers Stopped Air Mauritania Hijack
There is a lot of new information on the heroics of the crew and passengers who ended yesterday’s Air Mauritania hijacking-ordeal without tragedy. This should not be confused with the mis-information coming from officials who report that the hijacker “was seeking political asylum” — as if that makes it okay to hijack a plane full […]
No Comments » - Posted in Terrorist Hijackings by Annie Jacobsen
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
Air Mauritania Hijacked, Zawahiri’s Mauritanian Jihad
Earlier in the week, press coverage of Ayman al Zawahiri’s newest video performance focused on Zawahiri’s colorful descriptions of our President. Al Qaeda’s number two called President Bush an “alcoholic” who was addicted to drinking, lying and gambling — and other compulsive pursuits. But at the end of the 40:42 minute diatribe, called “Tremendous Lessons […]