Oakland Airport SNAFU provides fodder for RW noise machine

[Cirque du So-What]

Update: Oakland airport officials apologize for Marines incident

By Erik N. Nelson, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/02/2007 06:39:31 PM PDT

Oakland International Airport officials apologized for prohibiting a planeload of U.S. troops, just back from Iraq, from entering the passenger terminal during a layover Thursday, prompting conservative pundits and bloggers to hold up the incident as an example of the "Left Coast" dishonoring soldiers.

<snip>

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, airport officials said they did not realize that the soldiers had been screened during previous stopovers in Kuwait and New York. They also were unaware that some of the troops, reportedly Marines, had meant to see locals during their two-hour layover, said Deborah Ale-Flint, the airport's assistant director of aviation.

Hilltop Aviation, which was contracted to provide ground services for North American Airlines Flight 1777, had said there were weapons aboard the flight, the passengers had not been screened, and did not tell the airport ``that some of the service men and women onboard anticipated meeting family and friends,'' Ale-Flint said.

``If this information had been shared in advance,'' she said, ``there would have been a different outcome.'' As evidence of that, Ale-Flint noted that Hilltop had made such arrangements for an earlier North American flight that same day, and the troops were permitted inside the airport.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_7063381

I searched DU and found no mention of this anywhere, so if I inadvertently overlooked it, I apologize.

I included the airport's and the contractor's explanation for the inconvenience they caused the returning Marines, which *should* be sufficient for reasonable people. Since the RW noise machine picked up the story in an attempt to make political hay, however, we're *not* dealing with reasonable people.

This is reminiscent of the stories that began circulating ca. 1980 about soldiers returning from Vietnam getting spat upon - stories, I might add, that were never corroborated in the media.

[cboy4]

1. Right because only soldiers are inconveniced at the Oakland

Airport these days.

Why it wouldn't surprise me if up until this incident, the Oakland Airport had a complaint-free track record since 9/11.

Because after all, flying is suuuch as piece of cake.

:eyes:

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Looks like PigBoy has gotten into the act

by 'augmenting' this tale with reports of 'spat-upon soldiers,' as documented by Media Matters from OxyRush's 10/1/07 show:

<snip>

I said, "When you get back and walk into most airports in this country, you are going to be given standing ovations and applause." Of course, that -- the story coming out of Oakland -- and it's -- I guess there's some controversy about it, but apparently, some Marines getting home, landing at Oakland, were spit on by people in the Oakland airport. Now, I haven't been able to confirm it, but it's on a couple blogs and apparently there's some witnesses that say that they did see it.

more...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200710020002?f=h_topic

on edit: Glad it was captured before disappearing from Anal Cyst's site.