> The arabs were detained, questioned and
> searched after the flight landed, but were
> released because there was nothing to hold them.
NPR ran something on this last night. They were detained, questioned
and released after their stories were verified. They are a band, en
route to a casino gig in California. Every element about their story
was fully investigated, down to contacting the casino manager, the
band's manager, the hotel rooms, return flight, etc.
Their behaviour apparently disturbed several people on the plane, not
just the marshals.
The reason NPR ran their story was to 'expose' the real problem -
nobody called Immigration. The FBI, Homeland Security, local police
and California State police were all involved in questioning the men,
and no one called Immigration. The upshot was that most of them have
expired visas. They are all back in Syria now. The creepy part of
all this is that DHS didn't have a clear plan for interrogating
suspected terrorists, and apparently hadn't considered whom to contact
outside of DHS. This, more than 2 years after DHS was formed.
Immigration spokesperson claims that oversight has been remedied, but
DHS and FBI were unavailable for comment at the time of the story.
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3627233
--buck
