Suicide of Boston AA employee who checked in Atta?

[Ferry Fey]

A thread in Daily Kos on Monday discussed Michael Tuohey. the US Airways employee who checked in Atta in Portland, and is now wracked with guilt. It links to an Oprah interview with him in September 2005, and a Yankee magazine interview that seems to be current.

The Yankee magazine interview states that:

Oprah Winfrey, with Tuohey as her studio guest, told 20 million viewers that a woman who'd worked at American Airlines in Boston had later killed herself. Earlier, Oprah's producer had told Tuohey she had a message from the woman's husband: "It's not your fault."

It was not a 9/11 theme show. The episode, "I was the one" (aired September 12, 2005), describes the guests as being "the airline worker who checked in the 9/11 terrorists and the French doctor who was first on the scene as Princess Diana lay dying. Plus, see who saved a literary sensation from the trash bin, and learn about a 68-year-old secret only four people know!"

In between the comments on obese cats and those taking this at face value in this 200+ reply DKos thread, several posters asked questions about this un-named employee who checked Atta in at Boston. They said they haven't heard of this and can't find any corroboration. No name is given for the woman, or any source for the news of her death. I don't remember hearing anything about this myself, nor have I found anything so far on the net.

Can anyone substantiate this alleged suicide?

DKOS thread:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/11/193549/448

Yankee magazine
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/thisissue/features/fiveyears911.php

[JackRiddler]

1. Tuohey is the one who checked in Atta...

Though this woman may have been at the gate.

[Ferry Fey]

2. Tuohey says he only gave Atta & Al Omari a boarding pass for Portland

Tuohey says he only gave Atta and Al Omari a boarding pass for the Portland to Boston segment, even though he should have given them one that would get them right on the next flight too. His gut feeling was screaming at him that there was a problem with these two guys, and he was hoping that there would be some reason that having them go through another layer of interaction with airline employees might give sufficient reason to have them stopped. But he was also a conscientious employee, who knew the downside to being wrong about his hunch.

"This is the most painful thing. I've always trusted my instincts. Always. But you have to know what it was like then. If you respond and are wrong, you get screwed." He lays out a different scenario for his visitor. A what-if. This time he trusts his gut. He calls security. The men miss their flight. "Suppose they had been just businessmen. They don't get to L.A. Maybe lose out on a multimillion-dollar business deal. They sue our airline for millions. We also get fined $1.5 million for racial profiling. I'd have put the whole company in jeopardy." -- from the Yankee interview.

[Ferry Fey]

3. Oprah link

Here's the Oprah link. I'm emailing them to ask for verification.

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200509/20050912/slide_20050912_101.jhtml

[JackRiddler]

6. You may be right but I thought...

He was the man in Boston.

THey had to check in twice because they were on separate airlines?

[Andre II]

7. Tuohey

was the check-in agent in Portland.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050308004944/http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/050306terror.shtml

[John Q. Citizen]

4. I just read Welcome to Terrorland yesterday. It's an investigation into

the 2 flight schools in Venice Beach, Florida where three of the suspected hijack pilots trained.

There is a lot of reason to believe these schools (and our government) were complicate in knowingly allowing terrorists access into the country. I find it heartbreaking that ordinary people doing their jobs are wracked with guilt because they just happened to be working at the wrong place at the wrong time.

WELCOME TO TERRORLAND -- MOHAMED ATTA & THE 9-11 COVER-UP IN FLORIDA by Daniel Hopsicker is a good read and very informative. True investigative journalism. Anyone interested can read it for free at the online library found here:

http://www.american-buddha.com/911.welcometoterrorlandhopsicker.htm

Free Registration required.

"One of the most disturbing moments of our time in South West Florida came when we sat down with two local law enforcement officials who could be considered fairly typical Southern Sheriffs, both of whom ventured the opinion that -- based on what they had witnessed of a 40-year long history of CIA-connected covert operations in their area -- they believed that the CIA was somehow involved in, if not responsible for, the World Trade Center attacks." -- Daniel Hopsicker

***

"Frankly, we can't differentiate between terrorism and organized crime and drug dealing." -- Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff to a Senate Banking Committee hearing about the terrorists' money trail.

[Andre II]

5. It should be this woman I guess

“The suspected ringleader of last week's terrorist assault came close to missing his American Airlines flight out of Boston and showed up at the gate perspiring, says an American Airlines employee at Logan International Airport.
The gate agent who checked in Mohamed Atta and gave him his boarding pass told the FBI that she remembers him showing up for Flight 11 late, his face covered with sweat, the source says.
‘The girl that checked Atta said he was sweating bullets, that he was running late," the employee said. "His forehead was drenched.’ ”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24596