Source: The Los Angeles Times
On January 4, 2002, The Los Angeles Times reported "Airline Defends Banning Bush Guard From Flight." The article noted that the events of the American Airlines Flight 363 are now "the focus of a Secret Service investigation and a threatened lawsuit--a tangle of events that offers a glimpse into the psychology of both sides of the debate over using ethnic or racial profiling in the post-Sept. 11 world. At issue is the discretion of pilots to keep passengers they deem a security risk off their planes, even if the person has cleared security checkpoints. The agent charges that he was singled out solely because he is Arab American. The airline says its pilot did what was necessary to protect his passengers from an armed individual who became verbally abusive during questioning."