If you know a pilot who sympathises with the insurgents in Iraq, and is against the Iraq war - would you worry?
No, I fly with Democrats all the time.
Most would agree that events on and since September 11th 2001 would seem to have put a hole the size of a 767 fueslage in that argument, yet no one in authority seems to have looked back on that accident with the benefit of post 9/11 hindsight and asked the question "Was he got at in some way by somone who convinced him, for whatever reasons, to tke the actions he took that day?"
This question was raised here immediately after 9-11 but the thread was quickly moved then closed, perhaps due to the political sensitivity of the subject:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36001
Some of the early speculation on a terrorist cause of the SU990 crash involved a mysterious unscheduled stop at "Edwards Air Force Base" breathlessly reported first by CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman. It turns out the plane made a fuel stop at EWR, Newark, New Jersey.
There is also the report that a couple of dozen senior military officers were onboard returning from briefings and training in the U.S. This would be nothing unusual for an Allied flag carrier from my experience.
Gamal El-Batouti had been caught more than once exposing himself to girls and women at the layover hotel in Manhattan, one of the incidents is detailed on page five of this FBI report:
http://www.ntsb.gov/events/ea990/docket/Ex_14A_add3.pdf
He was within four months of retiring as an FO and perhaps flying home to a hearing that would cause him to lose his pension. This strikes me as very similar to Auburn Calloway at FedEx, he had a hearing scheduled where he could lose his job for falsifying his employment history.
Of course, at the time, El-Batouti was portrayed as a great family man, e.g.:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...id=chix-sphere
And, we were reminded that Muslims did not commit suicide.