West Coast - if you lok up at the very top of my post, you'll see I was asking for verification of this story - because I couldn't believe it, and I hadn't seen any confirmation of it elsewhere. Many thanks to aviator for posting the story.
Now, anyone who knows anything about the workings of FBI and Treasury Agents (the latter is what the Secret Service agents are) knows that (a) they are required to carry their personal weapons at all times; and (b) are permitted to carry them on board aircraft. If the agent had surrendered his weapon (which ould indeed have been the easiest solution) then not only would he have been in trouble for breaching his own regs; but it would also have been rather hard to explain why he wasn't able to act if there had been another terrorist incident on board that flight.
I have no argument that the captain was right to query the paperwork - especially if there were discrepancies on it, such as a different flight number. However, it would have been very easy for him to establish the reason for that discrepancy - ie that the flight had been cancelled.
However, the moment that he refused to verify the agent's ID with the Operations Office of the USSS then he's going way out on a limb - it then becomes pretty obvious that he doesn't give a damn who this guy is; he's not going on his flight. Remember, they delayed the flight 75 minutes to put the agent through the security hoops - how long would that call have taken?
And that smacks of racism.