Ticket agent suspected Atta but let him go

World Net Daily ^ | February 26, 2005

[spectrout]

An airline ticket agent who checked in hijacker Mohamed Atta the morning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks says he had a feeling he was looking at an Arab terrorist but gave in to political correctness and let him through.

Michael Tuohey, who works for U.S. Airways in Portland, Maine, told his story recently to Michael Smerconish, Philadelphia Daily News columnist and author of "Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post-9/11."

Touhey now kicks himself for not acting, but Smerconish says if he had, the federal government probably would have punished him, noting three major airlines have been fined for alleged racial profiling.

The ticket agent, a veteran of 34 years now, says that at 5:43 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, two men wearing sport coats and ties approached his counter with just 17 minutes to spare before their flight to Boston.

He suspects they arrived late to take advantage of an airline system that was then "more concerned about on-time departure than effective screening."

Traveling with Atta was another 9-11 hijacker, Abdul Aziz al Omari.

Touhey told Smerconish:

"I looked up, and asked them the standard questions. The one guy was looking at me. It sent a chill through me. Something in my stomach churned. And subconsciously, I said to myself, 'If they don't look like Arab terrorists, nothing does.' "Then I gave myself a mental slap. In over 34 years, I had checked in thousands of Arab travelers, and I never thought this before. I said to myself, 'That's not nice to think. They are just two Arab businessmen.'"

And with that, Smerconish writes, Tuohey handed them their boarding passes.

Touhey thought it unusual that they each had a $2,500 first-class, one-way ticket to Los Angeles, via Boston, but the second warning flag was much more subjective.

"It was just the look on the one man's face, his eyes," Tuohey said of Atta.

The agent said Atta looked like a "walking corpse."

"He looked so angry. And he wouldn't look directly at me."

Omari, Touhey said, was "young and had a goofy smile, I can't believe he knew he was going to die that day."

After leaving Touhey's sight, Atta and Omari took off their coats and ties then went through the metal detectors.

The terrorists arrived in Boston at 6:45 a.m. where they joined Satam al Suqami, Wail al Shehri and Waleed al Shehri to board American Airlines Flight 11 for Los Angeles.

When Touhey received word the flight crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower at 8:46 a.m., he thought is was an accident and was "sorry I had judged them."

But at 9:03 a.m., when United Airlines No. 175 hit the South Tower, Smerconish writes, Tuohey knew his first instinct had been correct.

"As soon as someone told me news of the second flight, I had a knot in my stomach."

But Smerconish points to the irony.

"While Michael Tuohey still second-guesses himself about his conduct on that day, the reality is that, had he taken action, he probably would have been punished by our government!"

In the aftermath of 9-11, American, United, Continental and Delta airlines were fined millions of dollars by the Department of Transportation for factoring race, gender, ethnicity, religion or appearance into security-screening decisions.

Tuohey said he was not aware of the fines until he read Smerconish's book.

"Here you have an industry in mortal peril, and you are fining them for political correctness?" Tuohey asked.

[Diogenesis]

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith,
but to become dominant. The Qur'an should be the highest authority in America,
and Islam the only accepted religion on earth"

--Omar Ahmed, Chairman of the Board of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), San Ramon Valley Herald, July 1998

Qur’an 8:12 “I shall terrorize the infidels.
So wound their bodies and incapacitate them
because they oppose Allah and His Apostle.”

Qur’an 8:57 “If you gain mastery over them in battle,
inflict such a defeat as would terrorize them,
so that they would learn a lesson and be warned.”

ABBREVIATED PARTIAL LIST OF ISLAMIC TERRORIST MURDERS AND PLOTS

1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated
1972 Munich Olympics Sep-5,1972 (Black September)
1976 Entebbe Hostage Crisis, June 27, 1976
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, Nov. 4, 1979 444 days
1979 Grand Mosque Seizure, Nov 20,1979
1981 Assassination of Egyptian President, Oct 6,1981
1982 Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister, Sept 14, 1982
1983 Bombing of US Embassy in Beirut6, April 18,1983
1983 Bombing of Maring Barricks, Beruit, Oct 23,1983
1984 Hizballah Restaurant Bombing, April 12,1984
1985 Egyptian Airliner Hijacking, Nov 23,1985
1985 Rome Airport murders
1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacked, U.S. Navy diver murdered
1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, Homacidal maniac lived in saddams Iraq
1986 Aircraft Bombing in Greece, March 30, 1986
1988 Pan Am 747 Flight 103 Bombing, Lockerbie, 100's murdered
1988 Berlin Discoteque Bombing, Dec 21,1988
1992 Bombing in Israeli Embassy in Argentina, March 17,1992
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured, Billions
1994 Air France Hijacking, Dec 24,1994
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1995 Saudi Military Installation Attack, Nov 13, 1995
1995 Kashmiri Hostage taking, July 4,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1996 Sudanese Missionarys Kidnapping, Aug 17,1996
1996 Paris Subway Explosion, Dec 3,1996
1997 Israeli Shopping Mall Bombing, Sept 4, 1997
1997 Yemeni Kidnappings, Oct 30,1997
1998 Somali Hostage taking crisis, April 15,1998
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted)
2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered
2000-2003 Intifada against Israel - 100's dead and injured
2000 Manila Bombing, Dec 30,2000
2001 4 Commercial airliners hijacked, 250+ murdered
2001 World Trade Center attacked, 2800+ murdered
2001 Flight 93 murders
2001 Pentagon attacked, 180+ murdered
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and murdered
2002 Philippines American missionary, Filipino nurse killed
2002 July 4, El Al attack Los Angeles LAX, several murdered
2002 Bali bombing - 200 dead, 300 injured
2002 Yemen, French Oil Tanker attacked
2002 Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait
2002 Washington D.C. sniper
2002 Russian Theater attacked, 100+ dead
2002 Nigerian riots against Miss World Pageant, 200 dead, dozens injured
2002 Mombasa Hotel Attacked, 12 dead, dozens injured
2002 Israeli Boeing 757 attacked by missiles, fortunately no one injured
2002 August Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 12 dead, dozens injured.
2003 Rusian concert bombing
2003 Phillipines airport and market bombing
2003 Foiled SAM plot in the USA
2003 UN Baghdad HQ Bombing
on and on and on and on it goes .........

[finnman69]

What if.....Atta missed his flight?

[ovrtaxt]

"I looked up, and asked them the standard questions. The one guy was looking at me. It sent a chill through me. Something in my stomach churned. And subconsciously, I said to myself, 'If they don't look like Arab terrorists, nothing does.' "Then I gave myself a mental slap. In over 34 years, I had checked in thousands of Arab travelers, and I never thought this before. I said to myself, 'That's not nice to think. They are just two Arab businessmen.'"

That's a good little PC drone. Don't discriminate! Don't judge!

Where will this stupidity end? We, as a society, still won't admit this foolishness to ourselves.

[stopem]

Those images............PC be damned!

[Imaverygooddriver]

Racial profiling. I like how they make it sound racist. You know some lib scum came up with that term. How about "Logical profiling"?

[KateatRFM]

So what if he'd been "punished by our government" for doing the right thing? This guy would have made a rotten Minuteman, not to mention a terrible failure as a Civil Rights marcher or even Neighbourhood Watchman. "Oh, oh, I can't turn in that terrorist/child stalker/peeping tom! I can't stand up for my country! MAMA WOULD SPANK ME!"

Why is this country breeding so many cowards? What ever happened to fighting for the right, without question or pause -- or marching into Hell for a heavenly cause?

[Jet Jaguar]

Thank You for posting those pictures. Some forget, some deny, and some repress.

[Imaverygooddriver]

Remember that fire that broke out in that night club last year, it was the club where that band "Great White" was playing at? While they were playing, they set off some pyrotechnics which ignited some flammable insulation, and 96 people died. If you ever saw the photos of the entrance of that club that night, the people where piled one on top of each other trying to get out. If you look closely, the same exact thing is happening in those windows of the World Trade center. That`s why people jumped.

[Vigilanteman]

That quotation, that list and those images need to be posted on every thread about Islam with the same fevour that pictures must be posted on every column by Ann Coulter.

[maica]

Moral of the story: Obey that feeling in the pit of your stomach. Humans have survived for millenia by being aware of surroundings and acting accordingly.

The primitive functions of our brain are the most critical. Breathing, for example. I would put recognizing evil up close in the category of primitive, reflexive emotions.

If anyone had had a concern about the plane's readiness, the flight would have been held without question. But a human threat had to be ignored in obeisance to PC.

[ovrtaxt]

I miss your GST threads. Do you post them elsewhere on the net?

[marktwain]

So what if he'd been "punished by our government" for doing the right thing? This guy would have made a rotten Minuteman, not to mention a terrible failure as a Civil Rights marcher or even Neighbourhood Watchman.

Hindsight is 100%.

All of our views changed after 9/11. It opened up many people's eyes.

[ken21]

the u.s. government ought to tell saudia arabia the next time something like 9.11 happens, we're sending some cruise missiles into mecca. period.

what if it's a pakistani?

no problema. cruise missiles to mecca.

it's your job to ride herd on your camel drivers.

[Pharmboy]

Bzzzzt!! Liberals are anything BUT logical.

[NHResident]

" All of our views changed after 9/11. It opened up many people's eyes." - Unfortunately it didn't help at all for some 48% of the population and their anti-American political maggot friends (Soros-types, ACLU,PETA, Kerry voters.)

[Imaverygooddriver]

And let`s not forget...

On this day.......

Feb 26 1993

A bomb explodes on level B2 of the World Trade Center, creating a five story crater and leaving six dead and over 1,042 injured.

[stopem]

That quotation, that list and those images need to be posted on every thread about Islam with the same fevour that pictures must be posted on every column by Ann Coulter.

Agreed, and the threads on allowing illegals to enter. The argument is that these(evil) came in legally. With false documents?

When is "to late" going to mean "to late"?

[JarheadFromFlorida]

We are more concerned about offending these bastards that we are about killing them.

[lentulusgracchus]

Why is this country breeding so many cowards?

Ask Bernie Goetz. They made a project out of him.