I've seen variations on this happen a bunch of times, and while I don't think they should have pulled away all 5 agents, if you look at it from the airline's perspective, it does make sense to try and get as many people on their flights as possible. I've got no problem w/ them pulling people out of line (at check-in or security) if their plane is about to leave. The vast majority of the times this makes my wait longer, as I tend to get to the airport quite early; however, once it saved my butt (pre 911). They are running a business. tls