In mid-September 2006, a moderately amusing slapfight broke out among Brendan Nyhan, then writing for The American Prospect, and various contributors to top-shelf lefty blog Eschaton. To most rubberneckers, it looked like a case of one academic/moderate type accusing an activist/progressive type of going overboard in criticizing President Bush, and it was just rorschachy enough to leave alone. But the basis for the disagreement was another story. As I wrote at the time:
I’m distracted from whatever I was going to say about it because… the incident giving rise to the debate — the alleged suicide of a ticket agent who had checked in Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari on the way to crash Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center — appears to be an urban legend, hoax or mistake.
I looked hard. I scoured the Nexis database. I studied the 9/11 Commission Report. Whatever is the Google equivalent of an oceanic trench, I dove into it. But I found no independent verification of the unsubstantiated story of an American Airlines agent supposedly so filled with grief and misplaced guilt that she took her own life. Yes, I did find the incident mentioned in a couple news and magazine stories, but they all shared the same source: US Airways employee Michael Tuohey, who had kickstarted this horrific buzz by telling the tale on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Even after I collected my findings and hit “Publish,” I had intended to follow the story. As a reader correctly noted in a comment on that post, “absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence.” But a bit of resistance from American and a lot of work-related obligations conspired (as it were) to keep me from getting to the bottom of it.
And then, just this afternoon, the following e-mail dropped into my inbox (emphasis added):
William, I stumbled on to your blog today as I was doing an Internet rumor search. You’ll easily guess what rumor I was tracking down. ABC’s Nightline called today asking about a rumor that an American Airlines agent in Boston had checked in Mohamed Atta and then killed herself later out of guilt. I couldn’t remember the name of the US Airways agent who had fabricated the rumor and that is how I came upon your blog – through the omniscient Google, of course. Because of privacy policies, I can’t give you a ton of information. However, I can tell you that the American Airlines agent who checked in Mohamed Atta is alive. I realize this is coming to you several months after your blog string, but you’ve now got this for closure. Best regards, Tim Wagner Spokesman American Airlines
Being the natural skeptic, I checked the headers on the e-mail address, and found no evidence of spoofing — indeed it came from aa.com. I then consulted the same Oracle at Mountain View, which returned no shortage of confirmation that Tim Wagner is in fact a spokesman for American Airlines.
Throughout the afternoon I’ve traded a handful of e-mail messages with Wagner, getting permission to post this and pressing for any more available details. Unfortunately, there isn’t much more to add. Despite his first writing that Tuohey “fabricated the rumor” as mentioned above, he doesn’t know what Tuohey’s motivations were for telling this story about Atta’s alleged suicidal ticket agent. One would have to ask Tuohey. And while I had never heard of Tim Wagner until today, I find him credible on the main point of fact. He would know that.
So, I still don’t know whether to properly categorize this as “urban legend, hoax or mistake,” but now I do know it is one of the above.
You have to admit, though, calling somebody a “wanker” really is an argument-ender.
Who is this Tuohey character, then? Is he an American Airlines employee?
U.S. Airways employee — for one reason why his word isn’t worth a lot on this subject. Another is that he admitted in at least one interview that he was told this by an unnamed co-worker — his proof is only hearsay.
And little as I like to impute bad faith to people, it’s worth noting that he gave interviews to the press for a couple years — just Google him — and yet he only started teling this story in the second half of 2005.
Untless the woman is publicly identified there may always be some uncertainty, but with AA now on the record, I believe the burden of proof has shifted.
“Being the natural skeptic, I checked the headers on the e-mail address, and found no evidence of spoofing — indeed it came from aa.com.”
You can’t tell by the header if it’s authentic or not. The only way is to reply to the email and ask for a confirmation (make sure the reply-to address is aa.com). If you get one, you know that it is authentic.
That isn’t the only myth about 9/11. Ever heard the one about the “nineteen hijackers with boxcutters” who were able to make the most expensive Air Force in the world utterly useless, make three skyscrapers “collapse” at freefall rate as if they were falling through air instead of the rest of the skyscraper just like in controlled demolitions, and make the Cheney regime make itself look very guilty with its stonewalling, obstructing and starving of funds of the 9/11 whitewash commission? Ever wonder how “nineteen hijackers” did all that? Short answer: they didn’t.