Sunday, June 11, 2006

I Never Knew This About Actor James Woods & 9/11

I was watching Raid On Entebbe on the History Channel and they gave a little fact about one of its actors, James Woods and 9/11. So I decided to look up James Woods on Wikipedia and found out more about it. Here's what it said about this very interesting incident:

On a flight to Los Angeles slightly more than a month before the September 11, 2001 attacks, Woods grew suspicious of four of his fellow-passengers: well-dressed men who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. Throughout the flight, the men stared straight ahead, did not speak with one another except in low, hushed tones, and did not eat or sleep. Woods became so convinced that the men were "casing" the plane that he kept his cutlery after lunch and shared his suspicions with a flight attendant. "I said, 'I think this plane is going to be hijacked.' I told her, 'I know how serious it is to say this,' and asked to speak to the captain." The first officer promptly assured Woods that the cockpit door would be kept locked and the plane landed safely.

On the evening of September 11th, Woods told the FBI in Los Angeles about the encounter. At six-forty-five the next morning he was roused by a telephone call from an FBI agent. "I said, 'I'll get ready and I'll come down to the federal building,'" Woods recalled. "He said, 'That's O.K. We're outside your house.'"
(I laughed myself silly over that line.) When he was shown photographs, Woods thought he recognized two of the hijackers - Hamza Alghamdi, who was on United Airlines Flight 175 (which struck the south tower of the World Trade Center) and Khalid Almihdhar, who was on American Airlines Flight 77 (which struck The Pentagon).

According to writer Annie Jacobsen, FBI agents told her in a private conversation that Mohammed Atta, who was the unofficial leader of the 9/11 hijackers, was in fact on the flight with Woods.


How wild is that??!

12 Comments:

At 1:12 PM, Blogger Sergeant America said...

DAMN! ... (pardon my french ;) )

 
At 5:26 PM, Blogger Dan Zaremba said...

I don't know if you noticed but Woods dosn't get many new roles.
Do you think it might have anything to do with his politics?

 
At 5:58 PM, Blogger Esther said...

LOL Sarge.

Actually, Felis, he does quite well -- his biggest obstacle is getting older. Sadly, Hollywood doesn't like that much. But he's had some great roles in movies and TV. His performance on ER (whole episode of him as character with Lou Gerhig's Disease -- ALS) was freaking amazing and will probably nominated for an Emmy.

 
At 6:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

esther,

I also watched Raid on Entebbe!!

I saw Woods on the Leno show where he recounted this. Remarkable.

 
At 2:15 AM, Blogger beakerkin said...

He was on the Family Guy. I want to see Steve Buschemi do a cameo on that show.

 
At 7:39 AM, Blogger Always On Watch said...

Esther,
I vaguely remember hearing this in the weeks following 9/11. Thank you for the reminder.

I certainly hope that airline personnel are more alert now!

 
At 9:33 PM, Blogger (((Thought Criminal))) said...

James Woods would so beat Tim Robbins' ass in a barfight.

 
At 4:59 AM, Blogger birdwoman said...

I don't think his politics are at all advertised here. He simply went through a scary incident which completely freaked him out, which he proceeded to share after 9/11.

It would be interesting to know if he is in support of the war on terror, and if he is, how much of that mindset is influenced by his experience.

(*)>

 
At 7:42 AM, Blogger Esther said...

Seawitch, I love that we were both watching that -- great film. Not my first time seeing it but I can watch it again and again. Did you know that practically the only Jew in that film (okay, some of the hostages were Jews but very few if any of the IDF were) was Yaphet Kotto, who played Idi Amin?

Gindy, that's interesting.

OK, Beak...lol.

You and me both, AOW.

Beamish, absolutely! Can we make it happen? ;)

BW, I think he does support the war, but I'm not positive.

 
At 11:48 AM, Blogger (((Thought Criminal))) said...

See if you can guess where James Woods stands from these attributed quotes:

On the September 11th attacks:

"Simple logic tells you that if somebody wants you dead you have one course of action: To get them deader sooner." He approvingly proposed that "if this had happened to the Russians, about three major cities in the Middle East would have been parking lots in twenty minutes."

On President Bush's handling of the war on terror:

"Now, of course, I think the President is doing an extraordinary job. It’s a good thing I’m not President because I would have just [motioned hand to press a button launching missiles] launched. Okay, I’m sorry, I just would have. But our President and I just, I love George Bush right now and I always have. I’m the only guy in LA who voted for him [audience applauded]. And I have to tell you the way he’s handling it is very deliberate, very careful and so on and doing the right thing."

On Iraq, January 2003:

"If they harbor terrorists, we should wipe them off the face of the Earth. Eventually, one of these terrorist diaper-heads is going to come around and do something more horrible."

From the sound of it, Woods is probably a moderate. ;0)

More Woods stuff

 
At 1:07 PM, Blogger elmers brother said...

I did not know this. Thanks for posting it Esther.

 
At 11:20 AM, Blogger L said...

Nice to know that Hollywood is not totally populated by spackheads.

BTW, we are both about to take flying lessons. Interested to see that met data for pilots in the UK is only accessible if you provide some personal details. While not liking this sort of thing, I am glad that the UK gov is at least marginally vigilant!

All in all though, too much is being missed by the intel guys on our side. But maybe I'm being over-harsh in criticising.

 

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