Posted on 01/05/2002 1:56:21 AM PST by ImphClinton
N E W Y O R K, Jan. 4 — An American Airlines passenger says he believes an Arab-American Secret Service agent who was kicked off a Christmas Day flight was targeted because of his ethnicity.
"I feel he was most likely removed from the plane — obviously I wasn't privy to the paperwork or that he was a Secret Service [agent] or such — but I think he fit a profile," the passenger, Mark Pueschel, said today on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.
Pueschel had been seated next to the agent as the American Airlines flight prepared to take off from Baltimore to Dallas. The agent, who was armed, was on his way to work at President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. He was removed from the flight after the captain questioned the validity of his credentials.
Pueschel contacted the Council of Arab-American Relations after seeing a press release on the incident.
Bush 'Madder Than Heck' If Discrimination Seen
Bush told reporters last week he would be "madder than heck" if a government inquiry into the incident found that one of his Secret Service protectors was the victim of discrimination.
The agent demanded an apology from the airline through his attorneys at a news conference Thursday. The agent, whose identity has not been released, did not attend because he was on a security detail and not available for comment in person, his attorneys said. They read a statement in which he said he did not have a vendetta against American Airlines.
"It has never been my desire to make this incident personal," the statement said. "This case is only about the facts. I love my job, and I want to thank my fellow agents for all their support. God bless America."
American Airlines officials have said the agent was removed at the pilot's request because of "inconsistencies" in the paperwork he filed that is required of all federal agents flying on commercial airlines. Religion and ethnicity, American Airlines said, had nothing to do with his removal.
The pilot also released a statement saying the agent was "confrontational" and "abusive."
Christy Lopez, an attorney for the agent, said the agent was a victim of discrimination: "We believe the captain is using that as an excuse for taking him off the plane, but it is quite clear he took him off the plane for other reasons."
The agent has not ruled out filing a lawsuit against American Airlines, Lopez said. He still seeks an amicable resolution of the incident, but he wants airline officials to review their practices so no one else is victimized, she said.
Airline Calls Accusation 'Frivolous'
In a statement, American Airlines called the agent's claims "frivolous" and supported the pilot's actions, saying they were based on concerns for the security and safety of the passengers and crew.
"American carries out its security obligations according to the guidelines provided by the federal government," the airline's statement said. "Those guidelines are applied equally among all passengers, and the company vigorously resents any suggestion of racial discrimination."
Thanks for your support!!
Here is a tip, always bet against the Jets and you will win 9 times a year!!
Where does the pilot claim he thought he was a terrorist? He may have been suspicious, but that is something entirely different. As I stated in a previous thread you're commiting a logical fallacy.
The name not like the old saying, it's jake!!
I suppose the right thing would be to allow an armed Arab onto a flight? If this guy would have given me phone number and said that it was the White House, I would suspect the same thing that the pilot did. He could have had an accomplice to answer the phone and pretend that it was the White House.
We can't allow political correctness to be more important than preventing another attack on our country.
No, don't look it up, I know you must have it memorized. Didn't you chat with Bill and Hill daily?
He should be fired forthwith.
Right. And who REALLY believes that? BTW Americans spell "wize" with an "S": wiSe.
Good point. I wonder why a suspected terrorist was not turned over to law enforcement?
Why did he ask for Terroist Pictures if he didn't suspect this was a Terroist. If he suspected he was a Terroist why didn't he call the FBI or Airport Security. The last thing you want to do is comfront an armed terroist.
That support was way too premature -- if you haven't noticed, in the wake of 9/11, everything Bush says takes on added importance.
What concerns me more than who's at fault here is the SS Agent first going to CAIR, whose support of terrorist organizations through the years is well-documented, and then his media campaign, via lawyer press-conferences, a sole sympathetic witness on TV, and who knows what else. He definitely seems to have an agenda much the same as the ACLU. Trouble with that agenda is that it could easily lead to compromise of already dismal security, in the name of "discrimination."
I hope the FBI and CIA are carefully checking this agent's contacts, and re-checking his history. It smells.
The SS agent appears to have an attitude problem. Part of this SS agent's job in protecting the president is to profile. It seems the profiler doesn't like being profiled. He's just another sickening cry baby.
The pilot fulfilled his responsiblity in this area when he got LEOs involved.
At the risk of being "flamed"...I agree and wish that the president had waited for all the facts before offering his opinion. All Bush had to say was "we're looking into it". I cringed when I heard him say he'd be "madder than heck".
I wondered then and wonder still: "What was the President thinking?" I still don't understand it.
The President said IFhe was kept off the flight because of his ethnicity ----
From everything I have heard, this SS Agent fit the profile of a suspicious person because of his behaviour. I would expect the pilot to have made the same decisions no matter what genetic background the person acting suspiciously represented. And bottom line - The agent is a trained profiler. He should have been as cool as ice during this snafu of flights and paperwork. He was presenting himself as one whose job is the personal protection of the President!!!
Actually, the last thing you want is to be at 36,000 feet with an armed terrorist. It could very well be the last thing you ever do.
I have been reading the replies on this thread and the ones supporting the SS agent fall into several categories:
The pilot should have done more checking before denying the agent a seat. My response is: the pilot has a job to do, fly the plane safely from point A to point B without falling out of the sky. He is also aware that people (exclusively of Arab descent) have made it their goal in life to crash planes into large buildings. On 9/11 they took over planes with box cutters (totally unexpected). The next time they may do it by impersonating a person entitled to carry a gun aboard an aircraft. The pilot does not have all day to try to figure out who this person is. Any phone number provided by the “SS agent” could be a phony leading to an accomplice. So, in between getting clearance for his flight and doing a pre-take off check, he consults with the airline ops center. Not getting any firm confirmation of the SS agent’s identity, he decides not to roll the dice with his planeload of passengers and asks the agent to deplane. The agent is finally able to get his identity confirmed and catches a later flight.
That could be the end of the story, except we now have a “multicultural’ hypersensitivity where if our feeling get hurt, we sue. Which brings us to the second objection, the kind represented by “Physicist.”
Arabs are being widely discriminated against, and we should be especially sensitive to their feelings. I don’t know, not being an Arab, if they are getting suspicious glances on the street. I do know that President Bush, practically every member of government, and everyone in the media is reassuring the American people that Arabs are really peaceful people who wish us no harm. That OBL and his followers are a tiny, tiny minority and that we should all take an Arab to lunch.
OK, I’ll buy that. But how do we guard against another terror attack by that member of the tiny, tiny minority without recognizing that they are Arab? We are confiscating knitting needles from 85-year-old Caucasian grandmothers and confiscating nail clippers from 75-year-old Caucasian grandfathers. Let’s see, I don’t recall if people like these drove the airplanes into their victims on 9/11. Confiscating knitting needles from grandmothers and nail clippers from grandfathers are the actions of stupid people. Not to be suspicious of young Arabs with guns, knives or box cutters on planes after 9/11 is to be suicidally stupid. That may be OK for people sitting safely behind computer screens at their desks. It is not OK for people who are responsible for getting a planeload of people from point A to point B.
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