If Homeland security is working then why did they think he had a bomb?

I'm talking about the poor dude that got capped by the air marshal. He went through the lines like we all do, went through the metal detector, passed by dogs....Shouldnt that there tell the air marshal that this guy DIDNT have a bomb? If the system is working like they tell us it is?
This is bothering me. Plus hearing reports from passengers that claimed that they never heard the word "bomb" during the whole incident.

Passed through screening (metal detector/X-Ray/bomb dogs/physical check)
Freaked out while his wife was screaming that he's sick and not on his meds.
No other passengers or crew heard the "bomb" exchange.

Sounds funny to me.

so he lost it

what a bunch of crap this whole story is....... :cry:

We are ALL at risk for being shot for NO DAMN good reason. These Homeland Security turkeys have created this environment of fear and use it as an excuse to overreact to ANY situation.

Not that he had a bomb and he was fleeing the plane for his life not threatening anyone...

I somehow think that from the volume of speculation alone someone who knew nothing at all about it would be able to derive that not everything was on the up and up.

We'll have to wait and see - I would hope that IF it turns out that "bomb" wasn't mentioned or was heard wrong, like, "my meds are in the bott'm of my bag" "I have them, they'reinthebott'm of my bag"

Sounds a lot like I have a bomb in my bag.

,. . . if it turns out to be that I think it's just barely understandable. I don't think anyone wants to kill an innocent passenger, regardless, but it's not what you do that matters as much as how accountable you are for what you do that matters.

If the air marshalls have killed more U.S. passengers than terrorists since 9-11, there's a potential problem.

They took my fingernail clippers away when I flew in October but they couldn't find a fucking bomb??

Sorry, I ain't buying it.

He was **ON** the airplane; didn't their Inspectors inspect his stuff? why did they think it SO likely that he had something dangerous that he should be Shot to Death?

Fucking Pathetic!

This is Homeland Security?

starting to sound like he's the only one who thought there was a bomb involved....

"Recent tests of airport security to determine whether screeners would discover concealed guns, knives, and simulated bombs had failure rates comparable to tests done in the 1980s and 1990s, says Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who was briefed in April on the classified results. The earlier tests showed that screeners missed roughly 20 percent of the prohibited items at checkpoints and that screeners using X-ray machines to examine luggage missed 2 of every 3 bags carrying simulated explosives."

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2004/07/06_400 ...

while they were down in SA their room was rob, and maybe his meds were taken...

Which is a very frightening fact!

This is why there's a call for different machines that would detect the presence of different chemicals instead of just what shows up in a picture on a machine.

The reality is that TSA cannot stop weapons and planes from getting on board.

TSA is there to make us feel safer, thats all they can really do, is make us FEEL safer.

They must not have too much confidence in their screening process. Add this incident to the plane that was forced to land because someone found a note that read "Taliban on board." WTF! Landing a plane because of an anonymous note!?

The marshals must not be satisfied with current security measures, they are spooked.

an overheard conversation between me and a colleague was ASSUMED to be about drugs. We were discussing a batch of cane and how all the reeds we made from it had an edgy sound. Batch, cane, and edge were heard. The keywords: REEDS and SOUND were not.

Our security was similarly perfect before 9-11 or at least that was societies general impression. The war in Iraq was an equally great success as was the response to Katrina.

Columbia, right? There was never any occasion that they would have gone through an American Airport security checkpoint.

Overseas. Orlando was the final destination but the flight did not originate in Miami. There would have been no need for those people to go through MIA Security.

the very least.

Alpizar had taken an American Airlines flight from Quito, Ecuador, to Miami, arriving yesterday morning.

After clearing customs, he boarded American Flight 924, a Boeing 757 scheduled to depart from Gate D-42 at 2:18 p.m. for Orlando International Airport, near his home.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.shots08dec08,1,7462177.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

I heard a National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson on the radio today note that the investigation into the Southwest Airlines accident would take about a year. Seems to me this could be done faster, but, okay, it takes a year to interview all concerned, evaluate the black box, etc., before they attribute the accident to mechanical failure, human error, or just one of those bizarre things that happen now and then. Tragic situation, but very deliberate process of investigation.

On the other hand. . . we have an air marshall with anywhere from 4-8 weeks -- that's what I heard the other day, a whole 4-8 weeks -- of training shoot and kill someone they believed to be a threat. Could have happened just the way they said, and they might very well have acted properly. Tragic, but there you have it, shit happens. Or there might be another story. Who the hells knows. The questions raised here are valid - how could there be a bomb if TSA had been doing its job? This passenger had, according to reports, already come to the marshalls' attention during flight. Whey hadn't they acted then to subdue him? You get the idea. Lots of questions, lots of witnesses, security procedures to evaluate all along the way. Does a TSA spokesman get up there and say it will take some time to investigate? Not a chance. Within minutes, everyone in this administration was reporting that the system worked, the air marshalls had done well, a threat was eliminated. Excuse me? No investigation? No interviews with witnesses? No examination of alternative solutions that might have been more appropriate? Hey, as I said, what happened may have been proper, but don't you think someone should at least pay lip service to investigating this incident?

:-(

I eep for my country...