There’s not
much new in that new Annie Jacobsen piece K-Lo linked to, except that she reports having heard from “dozens” of
pilots, flight attendants and airline industry types saying that stuff like
this goes on all the time, and that they think the terrorists are “probing”
us.
I spoke an hour or so ago with Dave Adams, the spokesman for the Federal Air
Marshals Service. He confirmed to me, as he did on Friday to Michelle
Malkin (who’s been all over this story, as you know), that
everything Annie Jacobsen quoted him as saying was accurate. He further told
me that there were indeed air marshals on that flight, and that they had
done their jobs well. He said that yes, these men were all Syrian musicians,
and that they had been hired to play in a casino “just outside Los Angeles.”
I wanted to know: what’s the name of this band of musicians, and what’s the
name of the casino where they were supposed to have played? Adams wouldn’t
tell me, citing privacy concerns (“These guys didn’t do anything wrong,” he
said). Surely some media outlet is calling L.A.-area casinos (how many of
them could there be?). I later spoke to the publicist handling media calls
for Women’sWallStreet.com, which first published Jacobsen’s account. She
told me that they’ve had all kinds of media interest in the past few days,
and that to her knowledge, reporters for mainstream media outlets (I don’t
want to name any) are looking into this information. She said that Annie
Jacobsen will be on MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country” tonight, and on ABC’s
“Good Morning America” in the morning.