"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
Actually, before 9/11 it was not illegal to bring box cutters onto an
airplane. I don't know about mace. Anyway, didn't I hear somewhere that
the
box cutters were planted on the planes before the hijackings?

Mace has always been. More than once (prior to 9/11), my wife has forgotten
she was carrying and was forced to leave it behind as she went through
airport security. I'm surprised box cutters weren't illegal, but now that
you mention it, that sounds right. However, planting box cutters ahead of
time spells conspiracy, which is illegal.

That said, I don't know for a fact that the box cutters were planted. If
they weren't illegal, why would they need to be planted? And if they were
planted, who planted them, and why haven't they been arrested (or have they
and I just didn't notice)?

Anyway, my point is that most or all of the people involved in the 9/11
attacks were NOT squeaky clean.

I like that sentiment, but our lives would suck even worse if we made no
effort at all to protect and defend ourselves. We would all just end up as
slaves. The key is striking a proper balance between freedom and safety.
Just where that balance lies differs widely among the population and even
among each individual from day to day.

I agree and said as much. But the balance surely falls well beyond
suspecting people just because of how they look.

We had a recent event here in the Seattle area, in which a dark-skinned (not
even Middle-Eastern) person was questioned by several different law
enforcement personnel after he took pictures at the Ballard locks. They
even visited him at his home.

The people described on the plane did sound a little weird to me. However,
I wasn't there, and don't know for a fact that they were indeed acting
exactly as described. Prejudiced people "see" all sorts of things that
didn't actually happen. Furthermore, for all the author knows, they were
passing the time on the plane by playing some sort of game ("hide something
in the lavatory, or elsewhere on the plane, someone else find it", I
dunno...something like that), or were involved in some project unrelated to
terrorist activity.

But in any case, other than inspecting the areas of the airplane that
appeared to be of interest to the oddly behaving men, the authorities had no
reason to detain the men any further, without any concrete evidence.

Actually, I would have noticed their behavior.

For better or for worse, you are a unique individual. I seriously doubt
a more typical person would have.

There are many terrorist groups out there

Indeed there are. And as long as people continue to be scared half to death
every time they see an Arab board their airplane, they are going to have too
much tunnel vision to notice the real threats around them.

Pete