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People are freaking out over this story.  ** Snope Update **

Anonymous 1: Doing a bit of research on the article...

The Marshall Doug Adams apparently does work in the position stated, and reportedly has confirmed his quotes to the author.

The mention of it being illegal for airline security to question more than 2 middle eastern men at one time seems questionable, I can't find anything to validate the claim.

Possible explanation for lavatory trips:
"One thing that I expected to see by way of explanation was the trips to the lavatory. I suspect that, given the long duration of the flight, at least some of the men going to the lavatory would probably have been performing ritual ablution and prayer. I have several Muslim associates who do this very discreetly at work. At least one of these associates prays in the lavatory of airplanes on long flights as a way to faithfully practice his religion while remaining tastefully discreet. Of course I can't know for sure, but this seems as likely an explanation as anything
else." - taken from a comment board

So, is it all paranoia on the author's part, or was something up? You'd
think they'd have found something on the men or in the lavatories if
anything was being assembled.

Anonymous 2: I'm not really sure what to think about the article. A1 makes a good point about the men going to the bathroom to perform ritual ablution and prayer. Not only would the bathroom give them privacy but it is necessary to cleanse yourself with water in a ritual manner before praying. Devout muslims pray 5 times a day. These times are fairly specific so it would make sense that they would all be getting up to use the bathroom at the same time. Secondly, The Detroit are has a farily large arab-american population so it would make sense to see a few muslims on Detroit flights. This story may very well be true and these men could have been up to something. I'm just a natural skeptic especially when the source is the internet.

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