Yesterday, the 24 news channels were all aflutter with the killing of a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 924.
All the headlines reported as fact that the man yelled "I have a bomb" and reached into his backpack before he was shot.
News cameras showed the man's luggage being blown up on the tarmac, as dozens of heavily armed agents milled around the plane.
CNN posts a Quick poll in which close to 75% of the respondents said having armed air marshals on planes makes them feel safer.
Welcome to America, post 9/11 hysteria style.
Now that the furor has died down some and other witnesses are being interviewed, a distinctly different picture is developing of what actually happened.
John McAlhany, a 44 yr old construction worker who was on the plane, says he never heard the word bomb
http://www.time.com/...
"I never heard the word bomb until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb. That is ridiculous." Even the authorities didn't come out and say bomb, McAlhany says. "They asked, 'Did you hear anything about the b-word?'" he says. "That's what they called it."
He also relates how agents treated the rest of the passengers aboard the plane shortly after the shooting..
"I was on the phone with my brother. Somebody came down the aisle and put a shotgun to the back of my head and said put your hands on the seat in front of you. I got my cell phone karate chopped out of my hand. Then I realized it was an official."
In the ensuing events, many of the passengers began crying in fear, he recalls. "They were pointing the guns directly at us instead of pointing them to the ground," he says "One little girl was crying. There was a lady crying all the way to the hotel."
I hope that someday we will learn to treat the initial reporting of these kinds of incidents with the skepticism it deserves. During the days following the infamous London shooting, many of the same patterns occurred, and many posters here yesterday vehemently dismissed those who had concerns that the "official" story may not be the true story.
Where did the information that he claimed to have a bomb come from? Did any of the "journalists" covering the story bother to ask? All the news stories yesterday and most of them today are still reporting as fact that he yelled that he had a bomb.
There are now further reports that much of the "yelling" by him and his wife may have been in Spanish, and not understood by the marshals that did the shooting.
Now the agent in charge, James E Bauer, is quoted as saying
Before he ran off the plane he "uttered threatening words that included a sentence to the effect that he had a bomb," said James E. Bauer, agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshal Service field office in Miami.
http://www.officer.com/...
So now "I have a bomb" has become "threatening words that included a sentence to the effect that he had a bomb".
More likely, it seems to me, we have a man with a history of mental illness without medication, who had a panic attack. Was it wise for his wife to talk him into getting on the plane? Probably not. Was it necessary to kill him once he had already gotten off the plane? It doesn't seem likely.
This is the kind of situation that will only happen again in the hyperactively terrorized environment we have allowed our government to create.
All I can say is, if you are prone to panic attacks, or have fear of flying, you better bring the duct tape to tape your mouth shut and the rope to tie you to the seat. And god help you if you don't speak English.