Dietl tells imam “the facts of life”: “If you're on a plane with me ... you'll be looked at a little ... more carefully than me”

Written by Matthew Biedlingmaier

Published


On the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto featured private investigator Richard “Bo” Dietl, a former detective with the New York City Police Department, and Imam Sayed Hassan al-Qazwini, leader of the Islamic Center of America, to discuss a recent case in which a group of 40 American Muslims, including al-Qazwini, were barred from boarding a Michigan-bound plane in Frankfurt, Germany. Al-Qazwini said that the incident was “a matter of discrimination,” to which Dietl replied, “The fact of the matter is -- I mean, you don't watch 24 on Fox TV? [The terrorists are] out there. They're out there." Dietl then told al-Qazwini: "[I]f you're on a plane with me ... and you're sitting next to me, you'll be looked at a little ... more carefully than me. That's the facts of life. That's what we're living with today. I'm sorry to say, 9-11 changed our whole life."

From the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World With Neil Cavuto:

CAVUTO: But Hassan, your issue on this particular day was that the airline targeted your group, and I think Bo raised a point that others are raising in this country that, fairly or not, Muslim-looking men are going to be targeted. You don't like that.

HASSAN: Well, I don't see what does this have to do with Osama bin Laden? We came --

DIETL: Well --

CAVUTO: Wait. Let him answer. Go ahead.

HASSAN: -- we had enough time -- we had enough time to depart and we arrived at least an hour and 30 minutes before the departure; as a matter of fact, this is not a matter of racial profiling, this is a matter of discrimination. There was no other --

CAVUTO: All right, so you say -- you feel you were discriminated against; Northwest apologized. Bo, you have a problem with Northwest apologizing. Why?

DIETL: No, I have a problem because things have changed, Hassan. We have to -- lookit: a bunch of Irish guys are not going to get on a plane now and blow themselves up or put themselves into buildings.

The fact of the matter is -- I mean, you don't watch 24 on Fox TV? They're out there. They're out there. There are cells out there. We have to protect ourselves against it, as Americans, and you know something, if you're on a plane with me, Hassan, and you're sitting next to me, you'll be looked at a little careful -- more carefully than me. That's the facts of life. That's what we're living with today. I'm sorry to say, 9-11 changed our whole life.