-If there is a future lawsuit, proceeds will go to charity as stated by the agent (kinda hard for the agent to back out of this) so no financial incentives

I disagree. We as paying AA pax will foot the bill, even if AA wins (as it should), as many, many thousands of dollars in legal fees will be churned just to defend a frivilous lawsuit even to the motion to dismiss stage.

What I don't get is why this agent should receive special treatment because: 1) he's a SS agent, and 2) he's an Arab. IF any of US (white, black, asian regular folk) did the same, we would have been refused passage and threatened with arrest. How many tales are on this board alone of a pax coming up against a haughty FA or gate agent or crew and then being "asked" to deplane, whether justified or not, even before 9-11??? However unreasonable the pilot's actions, the standard should be the same: play by the rules and respect their authority, and understand their position, as a significant number of their friends either have died at the hands of terrorism or are now unemployed because of 9-11.

[This message has been edited by se94583 (edited 01-05-2002).]