When I was in my early twenties, I had occasion to meet friends at Stapleton International Airport. Although 9/11 was over 30 years in the future, the airport had just installed metal detectors to screen all people entering, causing a huge logjam, because they had too few units to handle the traffic. After waiting over fifteen minutes, I commented to a friend, “Like I’d really smuggle a gun into an airport!” I have a booming voice that carries, and one to the security people apparently heard the words “gun” and “airport”. The thing I knew I was spread eagled, face down on a conveyer belt with a night stick probing my nether regions and being more groped than a male Congressional page at an RNC meeting.
Since 9/11, the situation has become far worse.
Federal officials were investigating an incident aboard a Washington-to-Denver flight on Wednesday involving a passenger who caused a disturbance.
ABC News reported that the passenger had been identified by the authorities as a diplomat in the Qatar Embassy in Washington.
A federal official said that the man went to the bathroom to smoke a cigarette, and was confronted by air marshals on board the plane. The passenger understood he had diplomatic immunity, and made sarcastic comments that the marshals took as a threat, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The situation here is not like the shoe bomber,” the official said, alluding to the December 2001 incident in which Richard C. Reid, a self-admitted member of Al Qaeda, had attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight.
Several law enforcement officials said late Wednesday that no bomb had been found on Wednesday’s flight. Still, the passenger was being questioned by the F.B.I., as were fellow passengers, and the investigation was continuing, they said.
Two F-16 fighters from Buckley Air Force Base, in Colorado, were scrambled to intercept the plane, the authorities said. They escorted it for the last five minutes of its flight, and it landed safely in Denver.
Aircraft around the United States were alerted about the incident, a federal official said…
Inserted from <NY Times>
Be careful what you say, and whatever you do, don’t light up in the can!
2 Responses to “Don’t Light Up in the Can!”
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There are signs all over the plane saying not to light up in the bathroom – and when he was caught, he said he was trying to set his shoes on fire. I think this diplomatic immunity thing is BS. No one should be exempt from criminal prosecution and I don’t care who you are.
I agree in principle, but I’d hate to see our diplomats subject to Saudi law.