Annie Jacobsen will not let the

story of Northwest Flight 327

go. Good for her. She’s back today with another

on-the-record interview with a fellow passenger, who brings important — and

disturbing — new details to light. She’s also been on the phone arguing

with Dave Adams of the Federal Air Marshals service, who says that the FBI

considers this matter an “ongoing investigation.” Hmm.

I accept that the Syrians were, as Clinton Taylor first reported in NRO, a

legitimate band of musicians hired to play at a casino. But does that mean

that at least some of them weren’t up to no good? I’m still bothered by a

few things here. First, I don’t like the way the government authorities are

handling this. When I spoke personally to Dave Adams right after Jacobsen’s

initial story broke, he was very polite and thorough, and confirmed that the

Syrian behavior Jacobsen says she saw on the flight really took place — he

only disputed the dire conclusions she drew from it. A couple of weeks

later, after Jacobsen’s story became a national sensation, the FAMS marched

out an anonymous air marshal who claimed to have been on the flight, making

this person available to Time magazine for an interview in which the marshal

painted Jacobsen as some sort of hysteric. I don’t buy it at all — and if

she was a hysteric, then so were the others on that flight who have now come

forward with detailed, corroborative accounts of Jacobsen’s initial story.

Second, if this is such and open-and-shut case, why is the FBI still

investigating it? Why did the booking agent for the concert refuse to answer

media queries about it after Taylor’s article ran, saying that Homeland

Security had told his people not to talk to the press ( here and

here)?