Posted on 08/18/2006 6:49:08 AM PDT by PajamaTruthMafia
Described as a “crazy lady” by her own attorney, a Vermont peace activist whose bizarre behavior forced the dramatic landing of a trans-Atlantic plane in Boston Wednesday has serious mental problems and had been vacationing in Pakistan since March.
Wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt, baggy pants and white socks, a long-haired Catherine C. Mayo, 59, appeared in federal court yesterday on a charge of interfering with a flight crew on United 932 as it flew from London’s Heathrow Airport to Washington, D.C.
If convicted, Mayo faces up to 20 years behind bars.
Her lawyer, Page Kelley, said Mayo has a long history of mental illness. “She has a very serious mental illness. This case is not about terrorism,” Kelley said after court. “As you can see, she’s very agitated.”
Kelley described the plane incident as a “crazy lady with really bad timing.”
A judge ordered Mayo held until a court hearing next Thursday. During that time, she’ll undergo a psychological evaluation.
During the terrifying flight, Mayo made veiled references to al-Qaeda, Pakistan, homemade bombs and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She was cuffed after urinating on the floor, according to an FBI affidavit released yesterday.
Mayo had arrived Aug. 15 in the United Kingdom from Pakistan, where she’d been since March, her son, Josh, 31, told The Associated Press. Mayo traveled there often since finding a pen pal there before Sept. 11, 2001, the son said. The pen pal hasn’t been allowed to visit the United States, he added.
“I guess she just had a bit of a bad time on the plane, and everybody’s a little paranoid,” he said. Josh Mayo also told WHDH-TV that his mother is a “great mom” and “very supportive.”
“She might have had a stressful time in Pakistan, just getting out of Pakistan combined with a long flight,” he said.
During the flight, the crew enlisted the help of two passengers - a U.S. air marshal and a correction officer - and one of them “had become concerned that she might be acting as a diversion for a possible terrorist action,” the affidavit states. Officials said Mayo has no connection to terrorism.
Mayo told the crew she had been in Pakistan illegally and had “awful” photos “related to the people that she had been with in the mountains of Pakistan.”
In a March 18, 2003, editorial for the Pakistan Daily Times, Mayo wrote that “the folksongs of the 1960s will never be written again because of President George Bush. He has hampered the liberties of my country in the name of September 11. Songs now can only talk of patriotism they cannot mention peace.”
I didn't realize we had Bush to thank for that.
That's what I meant. We don't know what she was going to do so we can't just pat her on the back and say she was just having a bad day and is harmless..
Leni
If he had just said "Crazy Moonbat"... he would have been right on target.
I guess someone forgot to tell her to stay away from the blue acid.
He may have been with her. That bothers me because, would they have known that she had one and the name of her "boyfiend" before releasing the rest of the passengers?
That's a new tidbit of info (who the "passengers" were who tackled her). And the fact that the Air Marshal was concerned about the "diversion" aspect, as have been many FReepers. Can't wait to see the "awful" pics she has - I think she was at the AQ hideouts with her confirmed muslim Pakistani fiance.
"WHEN DEAN SUPPORTERS ATTACK!"
She had come into Heathrow from Pakistan via Dubai - the place she cleared security was apparently Pakistan, and after that she was in the system.
Yeah, wonder if her fiance "Junaid" was on board? He could be at large in the U.S. right now, for all we know.
I read that she spent time in the mountains of Pakistan. If that's the case her comment about being part of the group with two names would make sense.
Just a WAG on my par, maybe I'm way off on this one... all you have to do is look at Cindi "George Bush Killed My Son" Sheehan and the Code Pinkos to see similar signs of group insanity, and the conventional wisdom is that they're nuts.
But I still wonder if they did a drug test. And I hope they come down on her pretty hard. And if she's really that whacky, I hope the put her away someplace where she can get the help she so badly needs, or at least some deprogramming to help with her leftwing dementia.
"Give me Hamm on five, hold the Mayo."
But right now you have to undergo another search before you get on the next leg of your flight. I just went through it.
Mayo wrote that "the folksongs of the 1960s will never be written again because of President George Bush.”
I remember a psychologist positing we all are pretty much nostalgic about our late teens and early twenties as that was when we felt most alive and sexy. Aging and unrepentant hippies are walking case studies for this theory.
Also, “She has a very serious mental illness. This case is not about terrorism.”
I beg to differ. It’s a requirement of terrorism.
How very progressive of her!
She sounds like she's about ready...
...for a move to Ithaca.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.