Tuesday, September 12, 2006

I Don't Know What To Say About This



First, Atrios posted this letter from American Airlines:

FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Airlines today issued the following statement regarding the ABC-TV program The Path to 9/11:

"The Disney/ABC television program, The Path to 9/11, which began airing last night, is inaccurate and irresponsible in its portrayal of the airport check-in events that occurred on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

"A factual description of those events can be found in the official government edition of the 9/11 Commission Report and supporting documents.

"This misrepresentation of facts dishonors the memory of innocent American Airlines employees and all those who lost their lives as a result of the tragic events of 9/11."

In short, the docudrama took events that happened in Portland, Maine, with a different airline, and applied them to the American Airlines and Boston, Massachusetts.

Does this matter? We'll see whether it matters legally. But surely it is ethically despicable, given this interview with Mike Touhey who checked Atta in at the Portland airport:

Plagued by sleepless nights and visions of Atta, Tuohey felt another layer of guilt when he learned the ticket agent in Boston who checked in Atta and Alomari for the last leg of their flight committed suicide.

Tuohey: I'm saying, my God, if I had just done the job the way I was supposed to she never would have seen these people.

Oprah: But this is the thing … If you're going to beat yourself up and be guilty about it and say, "What I could have done," what could you have done?

Tuohey: Basically nothing.

Oprah: Well then…

Tuohey: Yeah, I know. I know that. … But try to convince your mind.

My question is: Is the woman portrayed in the docudrama as having just waved Atta on the same one who killed herself in reality? And had her memory smeared posthumously?
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The Oprah link via this Kos diary.