AIR FRANCE PLANE DIVERTED TO BANGOR ME

[MADem]

No link yet....

Apparently it is another "Cat Stevens" scenario.

[Maddy McCall]

1. What are you watching?

Tv channel?

[MADem]

4. MSNBC--Ron Reagan gave the blurb

Not sure where it was headed, but I'm guessing it is the flight to Dulles. After the incident yesterday, they are probably looking at flight lists six ways to Sunday, but it would be nice if they would run this shit BEFORE the aircraft takes off.

[Double T]

2. More smokescreens and misdirects as Bolton is nominated to..

..UN post.

[johnfunk]

3. Damn, you nearly stole my PUNCHLINE!

My immediateimpulse to the thread topic was tro reply as follows:

"This can mean only one thing: Cat Stevens 2005 World Tour has begun!"

[MaineDem]

5. Flight was headed to Boston

Noon Bangor news had a report.

News crew ont he way to BIA now. Apparently, this is a case of someone on the passenger list matching someone on the watch list.

Flight was due into Logan around 3:30.

[KittyWampus]

6. Ted Kennedy Maybe?

[MADem]

8. Hell, he was on the NO FLY list!!!

He was denied boarding in Boston--took a shitload of phone calls and intimidation to get on the plane. Apparently, it was some GOP schmuck's idea of a joke. Funny how they never investigated that appropriately....

[MADem]

7. Ah, home of many BinLadins, no wonder!!!

Quick, everyone, be very AFRAID!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still seeking link, no joy...they just don't "get" the net in the lamestream media, do they?

[havocmom]

13. Noon Bangor? Nooner bang would be better

just a thought...

[MaineDem]

18. Gimme a break

:eyes:

[Gormy Cuss]

20. Cute, but

Bangor is pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable and the r is silent. Well, mostly silent.
Damn that "King of the Road" song.

[Richard Steele]

42. Banger, BanGOR...whatever. Visit PA, and spend a day in INTERCOURSE!

http://www.idcide.com/hotels/pa/intercourse.htm

[Cooley Hurd]

38. You shouldn't pick on other people's states, you know...

;):hi:

[justsomegirl]

9. Sir:

The poll numbers are down-
Scare them! Scare them!

[rooboy]

10. Oh what a wonderful time we had the day we went to Bangor.... n/t

[TahitiNut]

11. This is such complete nonsense. More Kabuki.

So, if a terrorist hijacked a transatlantic flight (with near-empty fuel tanks) they'd happily comply with rerouting to Bangor, huh?

Do the citizens of Bangor agree? (The last I heard, Bangor had more people than 3,000.) Maybe Senators Collins and Snowe want the landing fees, huh?

[MADem]

14. Probably another ChimpCo effort to screw with the French

I have to go shopping, think I will buy some of that "Freedom" wine while I am at it. Gotta do my bit to support the "Freedom" economy...

MSNBC just mentioned the story again. Still no details--"potential match on the US NO FLY LIST" is all they said -- love the word "potential." Suspicion is enough, now. Never mind that passengers are still hyper vigilant. We aren't talking five matches, we are talking one. Notify the crew, lie to the guy and tell him his seat is pushing on a wire that is shorting out, move him to the back and watch him like a hawk...sheesh.

[Sufi Marmot]

33. Bangor is the major American airport closest to Europe...

Whenever there's an air rage incident on a trans-Atlantic flight, the plane gets diverted to Bangor - apparently it's become a fairly lucrative source of income for both Bangor International Airport and the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office. I'm sure they want the landing fees, service contracts, and, in the case of air rage or other malfeasance, legal fees.

Still, it would be nice if they'd give the Watch List at least a cursory glance BEFORE the plane takes off...

-SM

[KDLarsen]

35. I'm sure AF is going to love this..

.. 201 nm from BGR to BOS, yet the plane is forced to BGR? Why not Canada, since they more or less HAVE to come across there? Or is this just another case of "Oh hey, that's right, I should have checked that list 6 hours ago, I might as well do it now...".

[Roland99]

12. Jesus Christ!! Fake grenade, Cessna, Air France diverted

What's next? Fake anthrax?

[MADem]

15. Didn't that already happen with fake ricin, or something?

[havocmom]

16. Well, a trash bin at the Capital went up in smoke last night

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1464455

[Roland99]

17. Good grief...anyone got a pic of *'s face on the boy who cried wolf?

I'd make that my PC background.

[TahitiNut]

21. The Air France plane won't land for another TWO HOURS!

Thus, we'll witness another media WARGASM for at least three hours - bullshit distraction and beating the tom-toms of Terra! Terra! Terra! (Bolton? Filibuster? Huh?)

[eek]

29. Ridge had just said that elevating alert status

was oftentimes unneccessary.
yet to-day he said that the alerts saved DC or some such BS

Bolton
Smoking Gun memo
Filibusters

etc

[MaineDem]

19. LINK...

http://www.wmtw.com/news/4481417/detail.html

International Flight Diverted To Bangor

Edited to provide shorter link.

[MADem]

22. Thanks, MaineDem!!!

I was having no luck!

[librechik]

23. punishing France again

while letting "Air Gonzales" fly anywhere with potential suspects for torture.

[msanthrope]

24. Third "Scare" in Three Days...Bush's ratings must be tanking!!!n/t

[thecrow]

27. I knew they would have a third!

These things always come in threes..

[meganmonkey]

25. Question about the No-Fly list enforcement on Internat'l flights:

Why don't US authorities know that there is a matching name BEFORE the flight takes off? Are foreign airlines not sharing their flight lists with us? Or is the administrative process on our end just too incompetent to make the match before the flight takes off?

Just curious about how this all works. It seems like we are always at least one step behind on hassling folks like Cat Stevens for no good reason :P

[MADem]

30. The media is already spinning this as "blame France!!"

I shit you not--that creepy ex-Nixon post-Presidential "aide" just stated that France is the problem, because they don't forward their pax list until after the plane rolls away from the gate.

How can you know who is actually on the plane until you seal the door, I ask? We need to be willing to put a liaison in every airport if we want better service. Why should other nations have to get intensive over the process, and expend their cash, to suit us?

We aren't handling this shit right.

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. Bangor?

I hardly knew her!

[MaineDem]

28. That actually makes no sense since it's pronounced...

Bang - GORE

Sheesh

[Freddie Stubbs]

34. There is a Bangor in Pennsylvania

Where its pronounced Banger. You can make a pretty good pun with it and another neighboring town, Mt. Bethel.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

36. LOL

I've always found it irritating how non-Mainers pronounce Bangor too.

[slackmaster]

31. The passengers should all get free lobster dinners

:dunce:

[MADem]

32. Paid for by the Department of Homegrown Security

Let's not make the good citizens of ME, or the Air France folks, foot the bill....at the end of the day, we ALL pay for the screwups of this misadministration....

[woosh]

37. US Government to Bangor: F-You!!

[MADem]

39. OOOOOOOOOOOPS!!!! I think our gubmint has realized they

...fucked it up YET AGAIN!

MSNBC reported that the pax is an Egyptian, travelling with wife and kid(s), with a "similar name" to one that appears on the famous Watch List.

I've heard the phrase "abundance of caution" used three times in the last 15 minutes. Watch the little shits back away...this is so absurd, it isn't funny anymore...it's SAD.

I'll bet right after they gave the divert order, they got the security camera feed of a say, a short, bald, older, graying chubby Egyptian with wife and kids in tow, who did not match the skinny, lush haired, tall, young and wild eyed guy they had in mind.

Wonder how many people have had their connections totally screwed? Wonder how many pax on standby for oversold flights out of Boston are leaping for joy right now????

[MaineDem]

40. Update: Diverted Flight Arrives In Bangor

News 8 has confirmed that the name of a male passenger aboard flight 332 came up as being on the government's "no fly" list about three hours outside of U.S. air space.

The plane had 169 passengers and at least six crew members on board.

The plane, which left Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport earlier Thursday, was scheduled to land at Logan International Airport at 3 p.m. It arrived in Bangor at 2:30 p.m.

Agents from the FBI, immigration and the TSA were on hand to greet the plane.

http://www.wmtw.com/news/4481417/detail.html

[Roland99]

41. "Bob Zarqawi"?

[ArmchairMeme]

43. Probably better to go to Maine

Traffic here in MA has been a diversion with three major truck crash and burn on highways in past three days tying up traffic for hours mostly during rush hours. One truck took down six power poles/lines, one crashed on a bridge and burned up and another hit the median and burned up.

[MaineDem]

44. Actually, the same thing happened in Maine today

A truck of "explosives" has overturned closing all lanes ont he Turnpike in Kennebunk.

Hey, your first post! Welcome to DU. :hi:

[Obamarama]

45. I didn't know Alice from the Brady Bunch worked for the TSA!?

From the Yahoo! article:

"Flight 332 was sent to Maine because one of its 169 passengers had the same name as someone on the U.S. government's no-fly list, said Ann Davis, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration in Boston"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/france_us_flight_diverted

[Ilsa]

47. I bet her middle initial is "B." and she won't use it. ;) eom.

[Maine-ah]

46. could they please stop sending them to Maine!

J/K. First I have heard about this today, but then again, I've been trapped at work. The radio is right behind my desk, and nothing on the news this afternoon.

Thanks for posting this, I'll have to make sure to watch the news tonight!

[pnutchuck]

48. Jet diverted over US terror fear

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4542117.stm

An Air France flight from Paris to Boston has been diverted to another US airport because US authorities wanted to intercept a passenger on board.
The plane was ordered to land at Bangor airport in the state of Maine.

One of the 165 passengers on board the plane was named on a terror watch list, US security officials said.

The information emerged while the plane was in the air and it was diverted from Boston "out of an abundance of caution", a spokeswoman said.

more

[CoffeeCat]

49. Ummmmm...

If this "terrorist" was on a "terrorist watch list" why in the heck was he allowed to board the plane in the first place?

[endarkenment]

51. so the 'suspect' could disappear into our gulag. EOM

[pnutchuck]

52. maybe there's a time delay for the transfer of the passenger list.

I just came back to the states about a month ago after living in Paris for 2 yrs. I always use Air France so, this is kind of startling to me.

[CoffeeCat]

55. This just seems a little odd to me...

I mean, a TERRORIST ON THE TERROR WATCH LIST, boards the plane.

However--when I (a middle-aged mommy) try to board a plane--I was forced to: Remove my shoes, get felt up by a security guard who made friends with my bra, watch security search through my purse and wait while they conducted explosives-residue tests on the underwear and pajamas that were in my carry-on bag!

I mean...really now...who's running this circus?

[pnutchuck]

56. Also, while I wait in line at the ticket counter, security goes through

and checks passports and grills me about how long I've been in France, why, where I stay, and what does my French boyfriend do. Yeah, it's a little odd that the guy made it through all that and only got flagged mid air.

[smoogatz]

50. Cat Stevens again?

He's being followed by more than a moonshadow.

[Jacobin]

53. I think it was Minnie Pearl

No, wait, she's dead.

[chomskysright]

54. terror alert bullshit: terror alerts as electoral weapons

whether this is a 'true' event of not:

1. you cannot depend on the BUSH II administration to speak anything RESEMBLING TRUTH.

2. they use these terror alerts to scare the citizens so that they may work their bullshit re: 'we make you safer.'


New Evidence : Terror Alerts Were Used As Electoral Weapons by Chris Bowers

05/11/05 - - Via Parker's diary on the subject. Remember the chart that showed the relationship between Bush's approval rating and terror alters? The chart clearly suggested that terror alerts were used more frequently during times of unpopularity for Bush. Now, new evidence, from Tom Ridge himself, suggests that there was indeed massive outside pressure on the department on homeland to security to often raise the terror alert despite flimsy evidence:
The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says. Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled. His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation's homeland security apparatus. Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002. "More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "
Combined with what Ridge has said, and the chart linked above, can there be any doubt that the Bush administration was frequently raising the terror alerts to help his election chances and increase his political capital rather than to signal actual threats? As Parker says, Howard Dean was right. Terror alerts have undoubtedly been used as a electoral weapon rather than as a safety measure. For more on this subject, JuliusBlog. (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8814.htm