Actor's travel tale is plane-ly chilling - terrorist's dry run????greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News : One Thread |
September 18, 2001 -- Actor's travel tale is plane-ly chillingMOVIE STAR James Woods met with the FBI this week on the events that happened last week. It was a real-life scenario. It was chilling.
Jimmy is devoted to his mom, whom fans will recall was his date at the Oscars. She lives in Boston. He lives in Los Angeles. He sees her often. He thus makes the Logan-LAX run regularly.
Exactly one week before Terrorist Tuesday, Jimmy made the identical flight from Boston's Logan Airport to L.A.
He related this episode to two friends of mine Sunday. Both repeated it to me almost verbatim. As we go to press I have been unable to reach James Woods, whom I know. I therefore repeat this story using his words as they were told to me.
James Woods sat in first class. The section was empty except for four other passengers. All male. All Middle Eastern.
He was acutely aware of them because of what he termed their "bizarre" behavior. On this entire flight which crosses the whole country not once did one of them partake of a single morsel. Not one even had a sip of water. They did not read. Did not nod off for an instant. Did not slouch down. Did not make themselves comfortable. Did not say a word to the attendants. Did not speak aloud. They were clandestine. Spoke only to each other in inaudible tones. And stared straight ahead.
Jimmy is quoted as saying, "They were clearly very uptight."
An actor reads body language. An actor is trained to see into someone. To silently probe their psyche. An actor's laserlike slice into the heart of a foreign situation or human being is what enables him to don the mantle and play that other person. An actor's insight into behavior and manner can be as telling as a photograph.
Award-winning James Woods felt uneasy. Sufficiently concerned to mention what he'd noticed to a flight attendant who shrugged it off. He also mentioned it to ground authorities who seemed unwilling to become involved.
Wednesday, the day after the World Trade Center hit, Jimmy rang the FBI to report his experience. They said thousands of tips were coming in and they're checking all out as fast as they can. Thursday, 7 a.m., they called and said they're coming to see him. Like now.
A team arrived at his door. They said something to the effect of, "We cannot tell you anything. We cannot answer any of your questions. You can think whatever you choose to think. Now tell us every detail you remember."
As is now known, not the airlines, not Logan security - which Woods supposedly said, "was so lax that I particularly noted it" - not our own intelligence operation picked up vibes in advance of Terrorist Tuesday because, ostensibly, the strike was so swift. However, this would appear that, in fact, somebody should have picked it up because it was not so swift. Because these men had made a dry run exactly the week before.
Multiple men. Non-American nationals. Traveling in one group. Arabic names. Foreign passports. Reportedly paying cash. This does not trip some computer somehow, somewhere, someplace? And barring an omniscent all-seeing, all-noticing James Woods being a fellow passenger, might similar advance teams not have replicated this same type trial run on at least four other planes?
-- Anonymous, September 18, 2001
Sorry, hit submit too soon. This came from luciannehttp://www.nypost.com/gossip/cindy.htm
-- Anonymous, September 18, 2001
And by now you all have probably heard some of the reports coming out that there were indeed other dry runs by the terrorists.
-- Anonymous, September 18, 2001