Eyewitness: "I Never Heard the Word 'Bomb'"

TIME.com ^ | Dec. 8, 2005 | Siobhan Morrissey

[jess35]

One hallmark of a conservative's perspective is a heightened skepticism of governmental justifications for killing an unarmed man.

Another hallmark of conservatism is the concept of "actions have consequences". We've ALL known for over 30 years that it's a bad idea to claim you have a bomb while on an airplane. We've known for the last 4 years that's it's REALLY stupid to run down the length of the airplane towards the cockpit waving your arms.

Imagine the "wait and see" standard being used on future hijackings. Well, I know he has a knife...but is he really going to use it?

[brytlea]

LOL

[Crawdad]

Missing his meds once shouldn't have bothered him. This guy stopped taking them days ago.

[Howlin]

OMG, he really has convinced himself he's a player!

[UB355]

Bogus if indeed his wife was attempting to explain his behavior was due to no meds.

[Bear_Slayer]

She was running behind him saying, 'He's sick. He's sick. He's ill

May be he was running to get a balm out of his luggage.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

This is a cover story to deflect the discussion from actual terrorism to LE misdemeanor.

HS has done a yoeman's job of protecting American skies from real threats. They just don't want us to examine those threats too closely.

[R_Kangel]

The actual words that he was yelling was actually:

"I HAVE A BONG."

I can see how it could be confused with "I Have a Bomb."

[Cobra64]

I smell a Cindy Sheehan-type story brewing. Undoubtedly, Greta Von Cistern will be all over this for months.

[TomGuy]

He does sort of resemble Arnold Broussard.

Maybe he'll get a crying gig on Meet The Press this Sunday.

[Let's Roll]

It doesn't matter if she was saying he's sick, he's sick etc.

Like a pair of real terrorists couldn't run the same scenario? And if the libs succeed in trashing the FAMs over this, you can bet that terrorists WILL use that scenario or something similar.

We all need to speak up on this right now.

[KC_Conspirator]

I don't know if she said bipolar disorder [as one witness has alleged].

But he knows that this guy definately did not say he had a bomb? This guy's testimony reeks.

[Crawdad]

"I'm going to see Rahm!" (Emmanuel)

[Alberta's Child]

I'm guessing most lawyers are going to steer clear of this one. I can't imagine it's going to be very easy to get a jury to decide that the air marshals were out of line, considering the extraordinary circumstances.

[Palladin]

Sure sign of a liar when they start adding more and more details.

[Great Caesars Ghost]

They didn' never have to killed him, they could have shoot to wound.

/s

[Theresawithanh]

I had read that a passenger sitting nearer to the couple had heard the wife trying to calm him down, saying things like "calm down", "help me out" and "we just have to get through customs".

Like you, I doubt that Tom, sitting so far away, heard anything.

[piasa]

He's apparently going to be the replacement for the retiring Mr. Greg Packer, All Around All Purpose Media Man-On-The-Street

[Sthitch]

He learned that from the democrats. Don't you know you are not supposed to remember what they said before, only what they said last?

[billbears]

And his choice of donating to a specific political party influences his testimony how again? I know this is going to come as a shock to the more ardent statists here (I wouldn't use the word conservative) but there is a possibility the agents of the state are wrong in this instance. I also realize this would seriously affect the world view of some of the more gung-ho Republicans amongst us but it is very possible