I also have to agree that I can not understand how people including american airlines can defend this. First he has his SS badge and Id.(undisputed) He would have been flying on an original ticket booked under government rate even if the new ticket from the reschedule did not specifically carry that info. He had been passed by security to get to the plane originally. He actually had filled out the forms to fly armed, thereby telling everyone that he was armed.(undisputed even if the pilot wants to say something was filled out wrong.)

As to the story that the phones could be routed. Only an idiot could believe that. If the police actually questioned the ID they would call their dispatcher to have them connected, or the AA CSR could pick up phone, dial O and ask either for a secret service number or white house info and then ask to be connected. There is a duty station manned 24 hours a day at either location.

As to whether he should fly armed. Since he was reporting to duty he is going to keep his firearm with him at all times. If he checks it there is a chance that the bag would not be there when he got there. Especially since now he is not even going to be on the flight he was originally booked on. If you were responsible for your sidearm and the penalties for losing it would you want to trust checking it. I would also wonder if current policy for most federal LEO's is to carry on airlines for added security.(remember Leon wanting Delta on flights)

There is a new book out by a former member of the FBI HRT team. He has a story about how part of the team flew to Italy to a competition. On the way back they board there flight after being passed by Italian police through security with MP5's, grenades and other equipment. They did not realize that they had to connect through Zurich. They had not made any prior notification and at first were unsure what to do when they saw that they had to go back through a security checkpoint. None of them spoke german. Long story short they ended up getting lots of looks by the swiss police and then after some joking around were taken to their flight having met some new friends. He sad from that point on they never flew commercial to training. The point being that they could not trust and I would not want baggage handlers to have had access to fully automatic weapons. The right choice is for them to have that as carry on.

The last point. Frangible ammo is actually illegal for military use. Dumdum ammo is considered the same as gas. Now police can use this ammo but can also be subject to lawsuits as it is designed to increase lethality as much as stop bullets from passing through building etc.



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Robert