It's good that the LATimes article tried to establish a timeline for what happened.

It looks like the pilot was determined to find fault with the agent. It probably surprised him that Pres. Bush actually has an Arab American agent.

I also don't think the FA should have rifled through the agent's belongings when he was away. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to do it without my permission unless it's at an official security checkpoint. And then this particular FA made the mistake of thinking the book is Arabic and probably alarmed the pilot by telling him the mistaken information.

It appears to me that AA needs an official policy on who can arbitrage between their own security procedure vs. the pilot when they are at odds over security clearance. Let's face it, the pilot is trained to fly and he feels an enormous burden given the responsiblity of the plane; yet he is not trained to distiniguish security-cleared Arab Americans from Arab terrorists. And if he has any personal racial bias or stereotypes at all, it doesn't help him do his job (and that's why he's not in customer service either.)

All in all, this whole thing could have been settled quickly with a quick apology from AA. It seems inevitable now that we will head into an unnecessary lawsuit.