German terror attacks planned

I had meant to write about this topic a few weeks back and got sidetracked. My friend, April isn't going to love this post because it's about airport security again. But, it's something I bring up because it was one of those items that if you weren't paying extremely close attention you probably missed it.

My mom forwarded me a portion of a blog article from the ABC News website. The title was, "U.S., Germans Fear Imminent Attack." The bottom line of the article was that there was information that terrorists were in the advanced planning stages of an attack on U.S. military personnel or tourists in Germany. U.S. Air Marshals have actually been diverted to provide expanded protection on U.S. flights.

Some of you may or may not be aware that Germany has been a hotbed for radical Islamic terrorists (and to be clear here, I have many Muslim friends, and I have no idea of an accurate percentage, but like any faith, I am sure these extremists are an infinitesimal percentage of the population of wonderful, faithful Muslims) to plan their attacks. 9/11 was planned in Germany. My mother often flies to Frankfurt and she and her fellow flight attendants are very careful and very aware as Americans traveling abroad of keeping a very low profile (They are encouraged to do so).

We know this article is accurate because of the recent flights she has had to Germany, many of them now include multiple air marshals which is a larger than average number (I originally included the actual number and then thought better of it). The marshals, of course, are playing the whole thing down officially, however, the German-speaking flight attendant on the plane watched the local German news and the Germans were talking about it quite a bit.

It makes me more than nervous that she is on these flights. I should feel better that there are more air marshals, but I do not. I wish more people realized the fact that in the new world we live in Flight Attendants are first responders, just like your firemen, your police, your EMTs, they are your first line of defense just as much (if not more so) than the marshals. You don't often hear about the FA's whose lives were sacrificed on the planes long before the planes hit the towers. In case you are wondering, their throats were slashed. The hijackers had to, because they needed to get into the cockpit and the FA's were trying to prevent that. And now, with the pilots having reinforced cockpit doors, believe me, they are not coming out. The FA's are being trained even more critically in spotting suspicious behavior which I will not go into because God forbid someone reads this and gets a bright idea on how to hurt us more.

My point in relaying this to you, in case you have been under a rock in the last week regarding the plot in NYC, people are still out to get us and we must remain vigilant, not vigilante and crazy, but vigilant. On our toes. And keeping our eye on the ball, which is what I want to hear talked about as we start heading into all these debates. Tell us how you are getting us out of Iraq, but tell us what the hell is actually going on in the War on Terror, because that is not the same thing as the War in Iraq, and I am sick and tired (and tired and sick) of being treated as if we are idiots and believe the two are synonymous.