Angry Seatmate

ABC News ^ | 1/4/2 | ABCNews.com

[Trust but Verify]

What proof do we have the man was confrontational or belligerent? Have you ever dealt with airline employees?

[FR_addict]

I notice that the article doesn't give any more information about Mark Pueschel. I wonder if this guy would withstand some further scrutiny. In other words, does Mr. Pueschel have an axe to grind? If not, and he's telling the truth, then good for him for coming forward. But I can't believe that no-one did some backround on him.

Was the seatmate a friend of the agent?

[ImphClinton]

You are right. You can't get through.

You are wrong I have called there several times and never had to wait more than three rings. Of course you can't talk to the President. I was able to talk to the Secret Service once however to report a death threat I read right here on Free Republic. I take the life of the President seriously and would not even have wanted some one to shoot Clinton.

[mewzilla]

May I ask a stupid question? Why in bloody blue blazes doesn't the USSS have a protocol in place for airlines to use when checking the backrounds of USSS agents. After 9-11, I would think that a no-brainer. Or are the airlines just supposed to take the agents' words and spiffy-looking IDs for it. Sheesh...

[mewzilla]

Who knows? Maybe Mr. Pueschel is telling the truth. But without knowing more about Pueschel, why should we take his word for anything, and that's what ABC expected us to do apparently when they trotted the guy out.

[Nitro]

To lighten things up, there is a 202 # for The White House, I used it once. There was a guy at work who never answered his beeper, so I beeped him and put in the WH #. His disregard made the joke even better, because his wife woke him in the middle of the night and he called, The White House!!

The next day I was a god, actually most couldn't beleive I used the #, but I did!

Anyway, if the agent had a WH #, he would have been so gone!

The Plane Captain was just plain right!!

[cricket]

"There is another thread that says the pilot actually asked a total of five men to exit the plane for further security checks. All of them appeared to be arab."

. . .if one appears to be a problem with bad paperwork et al AND is carrying a gun. . .would it not make sense to 'check' others at this point? The 'MO' is that they do not do these missions alone. . .

Too bad for them that this agent raised the 'issue' to begin with; obviously if 'ethnicity' were the only motivation, these 'others' would have had a problem before they even sat down. The reality is, this is understandable and again, just using some commonsense judgement.

Context, context, context. . .all part of a sorry picture we have to live with given the times. . .

[ImphClinton]

Mark is one of the best attornys for minorities in the Washington DC area. He also represents the 10 black SS Agents suing for racial discrimination. This man got the best lawyer he could find to try to save his job. This pilot is obviously out to destroy this agent.

[Physicist]

Why in bloody blue blazes doesn't the USSS have a protocol in place for airlines to use when checking the backrounds of USSS agents.

Of course there's a protocol in place. Apparently the pilot didn't want to call the USSS.

[Nitro]

If he were white, you'd never have batted an eyelash at it.

Exactly, white guys haven't been blowing up Aircraft, Arabs have!!

If you heard a "rabid dog" was on the loose, would you look for cats?

[ImphClinton]

You still don't get it. What if the SS Agent had really been a terroist? Did the pilot do the right thing then? Would you have wanted to be nearby this terroist with a real automatic weapon upset and irate and determinet to attack a plane.

The Pilot claims he thought he was a terroist. This scares me more. He lets an armed terroist free???

[mewzilla]

So no-one called or even tried to call the USSS? If that's the case, then that is a problem.

[Brad C.]

No, you did not say that anything about denying that right, and I hope I did not imply that. I just posed a question. Given that the pilot of the plane announces that there is an armed passenger on board, and that the pilot is leaving the plane because he is uncomfortable with that fact, would you stay on the plane? Would you like your spouse to stay on board? Do you think the crew would stay?

Yet another step, on another thread it is being reported that the pilot actually asked 5 men to step off the plane for further checks. All appearing to be middle eastern. Would you still stay if the pilot left?

[Trust but Verify]

Do we know the whole story? No. We have news reports. Yet, we are taking sides! It is just beautiful to me how people are coming to the defense of an industry who has taken the abuse of its customers to an art form.

[Physicist]

That is the agent's claim. In the end there's no point in speculating about that, since it will be a verifiable matter of record either way.

[Physicist]

Exactly, white guys haven't been blowing up Aircraft, Arabs have!!

OK, so if the issue is the color of the guy's skin, why bother wringing your hands over his supposed belligerence, or his hiring of a lawyer, or his paperwork? Why don't you just say what you mean: "Sand <n-word>'s shouldn't be allowed to fly"?

[mewzilla]

Well, it sounds to me like the agent might be speculating. How does he know whether or not anyone tried to call? No offense to the agent, but I'll take the word of the telephone records which would show a call placed if someone says they made a call.

[mewzilla]

I hardly think that that was what Nitro was suggesting. Something more along the lines of "Trust, but verify", I should think. And the pilot was quite right to check the credentials of anyone carrying a gun aboard his plane. Frankly, I think that probably had more to do with it than race. How many people of Arab or Arab-American descent are flying everyday? It's got to be hundereds at least. I don't recall hearing that they are all getting tossed off planes.

[2sheep]

>>>Pueschel contacted the Council of Arab-American Relations after seeing a press release on the incident.

"...They are sometimes publicly explicit about this goal. The Muslim, a British-based Islamic fundamentalist publication, appeals to Muslims, "let us not hesitate in preparing for Jihad against the unbeliever--to subjugate the world to Islam."9  Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (or CAIR) openly declares that he would  like to see the U.S. become a Muslim country.10  Abdulrahman Alamoudi, head of the American Muslim Council, stated at the Islamic Association for Palestine conference in December 1996 that the United States will become a Muslim country, even if it takes a hundred years.  ..."  Source

[ImphClinton]

American Airlines says they didn't call. At least not until the next day.