Diplomat in flight disturbance released, won't face charges

Diplomat in flight disturbance released, won't face charges

www.cnn.com

The passenger was in a lavatory for a long time and may have been smoking, a U.S. official told CNN. He also may have made an "unfortunate comment" referring to a shoe bomb when questioned on the plane, the official said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It would seem that this whole thing was just a misunderstanding. While smoking on a plane is a big no-no, it's hardly a terrorist attack attempt. Just a jonesing for a smoke. The article didn't say what his "unfortunate comment" was tho. One would think that after smoking in an airplane bathroom and being questioned about it by the flight crew he would just apologize and take his seat instead of making some comment that could be taken the wrong way. Opinions??

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by Wondering302


It would seem that this whole thing was just a misunderstanding. While smoking on a plane is a big no-no, it's hardly a terrorist attack attempt. Just a jonesing for a smoke. The article didn't say what his "unfortunate comment" was tho. One would think that after smoking in an airplane bathroom and being questioned about it by the flight crew he would just apologize and take his seat instead of making some comment that could be taken the wrong way. Opinions??

Yes...diplomatic immunity requires re-examination. Maybe you can't bust his arse, but you can sure as heck trot it off on the next plane and revoke his welcome. But that requires cojones.

reply to post by Wondering302


Oh noes! Smoking in a bathroom!

Thanks for the recycling of cancerous air in the airplane, what a considerate guy.

I am pretty surprised that he was able to sneak smokes and a lighter/matches aboard too.

So is the Body scanner's really help? Apparently, not.

I can see it now, mandatory rectum search, bendover.

S&F

reply to post by Quickfix

As someone who (pre-9/11) sneaked a smoke in an airplane bathroom once (try flying coast to coast without one if you're hooked) I sympathize with the guy's jonesing.

What isn't really acceptable, though, is his "joking" comment. I'm sure it didn't help him that he looked like the stereotype of a "Middle Eastern" man either.

At the very least, it was a very ill-timed comment.

reply to post by Quickfix


They confiscate your lighter, but let you have matches. That's how......

They also do not take your cigarettes.

[edit on 8-4-2010 by DaMod]

reply to post by DaMod


Ah, I tried cigarettes a couple times, didn't like them.

I smoke Medical for my back pain, due to a curved spine, vertebrae poping in and out of place, and extreme sports accidents x.x (its a face).

I know people can have their needs, but people should really relax on cigarettes.

I can't wait till a false flag attack happens and matches and a cigarette pack is used.

It's bound to happen.

I don't fly anymore since the Scanner's, Maybe the radiation will effect my "productivity"? if you get my meaning

I sympathize for all you smokers out there, I know how you feel.

[edit on 8-4-2010 by Quickfix]

reply to post by Sestias


Racial profiling, I love it, maybe just cause i'm white

Sorry if that was racist, but whites have it the easiest.

Yeah the bomb comment could of been left out, but maybe he felt offended by being, profiled.

It really does make you wonder how he was able to get matches on the plane, maybe being a "diplomat" gives you certain rights the rest of us do not have??

Being a smoker who has been on very long flights (US to Europe) I understand the guys frustration, but I always managed to control my urge to smoke on airplanes and so do others smokers who fly. IMO it was rude and inconsiderate to the other passengers more than anything else. When he was caught he should have just quietly taken his seat instead of making some stupid comment. He's learned his lesson....I hope

reply to post by Quickfix


I wasn't on the plane so I'm not sure but I believe the only reason he was..um, profiled is because he was spending a long time in the restroom and I'm sure the flight crew could smell the smoke.

reply to post by Wondering302


I just mean in general, not just on the plane.

Racial profiling is just all to common nowadays.

Yeah you can smell smokers, very easy to tell

Originally posted by Wondering302
reply to post by Quickfix

 

I wasn't on the plane so I'm not sure but I believe the only reason he was..um, profiled is because he was spending a long time in the restroom and I'm sure the flight crew could smell the smoke.

Not to mention the smoke detectors in the restroom, and the extreme hazard that fire on an airplane can cause, and the fact that smoking has been banned on planes long enough that any old lingering smell or memory of the smell is wiped out, so the attendants would have noticed it almost immediately. Plus, if he used a match, they have a very distinctive smell, and that smell resembles gunpowder, so that surely would have raised a red flag!

If this were a gentle 70 year old white grandmother, they would still have noticed the smoke, and when they questioned her, and she said she was trying to light her shoe bomb, they would have immediately landed and arrested her!

Skin color and Nationality had nothing to do with this incident, other than allowing him to get away unscathed, where the gentle old grandmother would have to spend her life savings defending herself in court!

Profiling my arse!

Guess who he was going to visit??? This is odd, but he was on his way to visit a convicted Al Queda terrorist Ali Al-Marri who was arrested after 9/11, and is being held in Colorado.

Here is a snippet from the AP article...

"A Qatari diplomat was on his way to an official visit with an imprisoned al-Qaida sleeper agent when he touched off a bomb scare by slipping into an airline bathroom for a smoke, officials said Thursday as the diplomat prepared to leave the U.S.

The diplomat, Mohammed Al-Madadi, was going to pay a consular visit to the prisoner, said Alison Bradley, a public relations executive hired to speak for the Qatari Embassy, and a State Department official.

The prisoner, Ali Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, is serving eight years after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to support terrorism. Al-Marri was arrested after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, accused of being a sleeper agent researching poisonous gasses and plotting a cyberattack."