Terrorist Test Run in Orlando?

I am not sure if this site is alarmist, or if their analysis is accurate, but I am aware that there have been many reports over the last few years of "test runs" for attacks on the US. I heard this one discussed on a local talk show, but did not find all the details anywhere until today. This is chilling. Click on the title for the whole article, but I don't know how long it will be there.

The Untold Story of Delta Flight 1824
By Douglas J. Hagmann
Sunday, September 9, 2007

9 September 2007: The passengers aboard Delta Airlines Flight 1824 flying out of Orlando International Airport last Thursday at 7:15 a.m. heard the following statement over the intercom as they were preparing to taxi onto the runway on their way to Atlanta, Georgia:

Ladies and gentlemen, we have been informed that there is "a credible security risk with this aircraft" and we are returning to the terminal.

snip

During a routine test of the baggage, Transportation Security Administration authorities ran the luggage through x-ray detection and then conducted an explosive trace detection of the bags belonging to the 9 Middle Eastern passengers. The x-ray of the bags found questionable items inside the luggage, and the explosive trace detection tests resulted in a "positive hit" for explosives -- specifically, SEMTEX, an explosive commonly used by Islamic terrorists. To be certain, however, the luggage was test no less than 4 times by four different machines and operators. Each time, a "positive hit" for explosives was registered. "The presence of explosive traces was 'no mistake,'" stated one federal source talking to this agency on condition of anonymity.

snip

Even more disconcerting, TSA and security officials observed that two of the Middle Eastern men intended for the flight had smeared Vaseline on their arms and neck areas -- a common tactic among hand-to-hand fighters who want the advantage in the event someone tries to grab them or put them in a headlock. Covered by the greasy agent, they are better able to extricate themselves during close-quarters, hand-to-hand fighting.

Like I said, click on the title....

What is more disconcerting to me is that the FBI labeled this incident benign.

---Katie

ELW

Here is an interesting opinion of the ELW, our new hymnal:

The creation of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as I understand it, was generated by the convergence of two factors. One was the fervent desire on the part of a relative minority in the church to end the use of masculine pronouns (“he,” “him,” “his”) to refer to God. The other was the increasingly serious financial situation of the church’s publishing house, Augsburg Fortress. A new worship book would make congregations pray and talk about God in ways that the influential minority considered essential and would at the same time be a big seller to bail out the publisher. And so it has happened.

Click on the title to read more at Lutheran Forum.

You know, those two items above have been my opinion for awhile - it's interesting that others think the same thing.

---Katie