Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Speak Engloish Or Else!
If you speak a foreign language on an airplane, and you have literature about flight, you may be a terrorist. Four out of five men detained by the FBI on Saturday, who spoke non-English, were Angolans; the fifth man was an Israeli. They’d been attending a helicopter training school in Texas and were headed home.
The passengers beccame alarmed and reported them to a federal marshal on the plane. That was enough.
It sure doesn’t take much. I wonder what would have happened if they'd been speaking, say, pig-latin...
C B C . C A N e w s - F u l l S t o r y :
Five men held after speaking foreign language on U.S. airliner
Last Updated Sat, 06 May 2006 22:38:55 EDT
CBC News
Five men were detained on an American Airlines plane Saturday because they spoke in foreign languages and had aircraft flight materials with them, police say.
But the men were released when FBI investigators discovered they were not a threat to U.S. national security.
The incident started when the passenger aircraft took off from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Saturday on its way to Newark Liberty International Airport, outside New York, with 126 passengers and crew.
Fellow passengers became suspicious of the men because they were speaking in foreign languages and had "aircraft flight materials" with them, said Steven Siegel, a spokesman for the FBI office in Newark.
A federal marshal on the plane notified authorities about the behaviour of the men, and they were taken into custody when the plane landed.
They were released a few hours later when the FBI discovered the men were not terrorists.
They were just four Angolan army personnel and an Israeli who were flying home after attending a helicopter training school in Texas.
Copyright ©2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved
The passengers beccame alarmed and reported them to a federal marshal on the plane. That was enough.
It sure doesn’t take much. I wonder what would have happened if they'd been speaking, say, pig-latin...
C B C . C A N e w s - F u l l S t o r y :
Five men held after speaking foreign language on U.S. airliner
Last Updated Sat, 06 May 2006 22:38:55 EDT
CBC News
Five men were detained on an American Airlines plane Saturday because they spoke in foreign languages and had aircraft flight materials with them, police say.
But the men were released when FBI investigators discovered they were not a threat to U.S. national security.
The incident started when the passenger aircraft took off from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Saturday on its way to Newark Liberty International Airport, outside New York, with 126 passengers and crew.
Fellow passengers became suspicious of the men because they were speaking in foreign languages and had "aircraft flight materials" with them, said Steven Siegel, a spokesman for the FBI office in Newark.
A federal marshal on the plane notified authorities about the behaviour of the men, and they were taken into custody when the plane landed.
They were released a few hours later when the FBI discovered the men were not terrorists.
They were just four Angolan army personnel and an Israeli who were flying home after attending a helicopter training school in Texas.
Copyright ©2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved
