Mr. Porter:
I found your above titled article from the Orlando Sentinel to be rather stupid. You slam Eunice Stone for jumping to conclusions because you claim she only got snatches of the conversation between the three young Arab men at the Georgia Shoney's Restaurant. How do you know this to be the case? Were you there sitting next to her? Or are you psychic?
I guess her statements citing full and complete sentences uttered by these individuals, become only snatches of gossip in your biased eyes. Why is it that each time these so-called men retold their story, they felt compelled to add to it? For example, when they were first interviewed by the media that Friday after being released, they claimed that they had been talking about their new semester at school. Then, when they gave their press conference that Sunday, they stated they had been talking about a car. And when they appeared on Fox News, Donahue, Larry King, and MSNBC last week, they reported that their conversation dealt with even more topics: meeting new friends at school, new experiences out of classroom, hospital, etc. Yet through all this, Mrs. Stone's statements have remained the same. I might add, that on Fox News and Donahue, Mrs. Stone said she was willing to take a Polygraph. Yet when the three Arab men were asked the same question, their lawyer jumped in, would not let them speak, and would not accept the invitation. I guess they were holding out until they could pick their only Polygraph Operator, as Gary Condit did.
Did it ever enter your mind that perhaps these men did in fact make the comments attributed to them by Mrs. Stone? It's obvious that when they walked into the Shoney's Restaurant they felt singled out. I say this because this concern was the emphasis of all of their appearances on TV. In fact, one of the men named Kambiz stated that they had "drawn the whole restaurant's attention" when they walked in. I'm sure this didn't set very well with them, and the bigoted comments about the South that they made to the press right after being released, made it all too obvious as to what their feelings were when they walked into that place. It's my belief that they probably noticed the looks and atmosphere in the place, quite possibly even noticed Mrs. Stone listening in on their conversation. And what went through their mind was this: If we're going to be looked at as if we're terrorists, why not play along. It's highly possible and more than probable that that is exaactly what happened. Even Mrs. Stone's son thought they had been joking and told her so. Mrs. Stone even questioned the validity of the conversation, and wondered if the men had indeed been joking with her. She admits to this freely. If she was lying or even trying to make more out of what these men had said, would she have even brought this possibility up?
I think you need to go back and check through all the facts of the case. It appears that you have been just as guilty of distorting what transpired at that Shoney's Restaurant as you claim Mrs. Stone is.
Sorry I was quoting old Dave Letterman shows again.
Seriously though, good letter.