Uh, Richard Reid didn’t go on a Air France flight to Boston. He took an American Airlines flight to Miami. It was diverted to Boston for an emergency landing.
Also, the author of this article should be ashamed of themselves. Such blatant hypocrisy is absolutely unacceptable in the media. You say how you think the people that ran away are cowards and should be put it jail, WHILE YOU SAY THAT YOU WOULD DO THE SAME. How dare you criticize these people when you are no better.
Also, you note how its acceptable for you to run, since you are a female. That is a blatantly sexist remark. To say that men are simply objects to do all of your dirty work is disgusting. The only reason people are reading your site is because this article is so blatantly foolish.

shadowguitar on August 3, 2008 at 6:29 pm

It would’ve made a GREAT YouTube

EminemsRevenge on August 3, 2008 at 10:02 pm

Debbie, Thank you for honoring the life of Tim McLean. I felt very sorry that his life was tragically and horrifically ended by this brutal murder. I read the accounts of the incident and was truly sickened. Mr. McLean’s friends described McLean as “A Very Happy and Loving person” As a Mom I think it is such a Tragic Heartbreak to lose a young, happy, and loving Soul and Son this way. We Are Not Free! We Are Not Brave! We, in North America, are a Nation of Gawkers…

Roads Skolar on August 4, 2008 at 7:33 am

Debbie,
Having lived over 60 years in the United States now, I see the world digressing, where barbarians are among us again. Thanks to the Muslims for reintroducing the world to beheadings. I’m licensed to carry a handgun and eventually, if this violence doesn’t stop, we’ll have to go back to wild west days where we just shoot to kill.

c crow on August 4, 2008 at 8:43 am

Bottom line: this did not have to happen.
http://freemendo.typepad.com/undaunted/2008/08/exact-change-pl.html

undaunted on August 4, 2008 at 10:38 am

After the Va Tech murders we learned that all of the young strong males jumped from the windows in one classroom while the elderly Holocaust survivor held the door and gave his life to save them. I kept saying to my children, where were the men? I ask that question again, Where were the men? Are they all in the military? I remember Shugar and Gordon who gave their lives in Somalia, not knowing if there was anyone alive to save, then there was the the first Navy Seal to die in Iraq ,he threw himself on a grenade to save the men beside him. This isn’t about Canadians or Americans, the US has more than enough wimps and cry babies, just listening to the far left is proof of that. When did cowardice become the hallmark of contemporary manhood?

grammasusan on August 4, 2008 at 2:23 pm

I agree, grammasusan. And VA Tech didn’t have to happen either.
http://freemendo.typepad.com/undaunted/2007/08/give-me-back-my.html

undaunted on August 4, 2008 at 2:49 pm

I am outraged at the comments on here from you dumb *ssed Americans. If this incident would have taken place in America, there would be a totally different spin on it. For you pple to say that you Yankee doodles would have acted any different it a load of crap. For the poster who said the passengers should have beat the killer with a tire iron, where did you get the tire iron from? Do you carry one when traveling on the bus? It’s really easy for everyone out there to say what they would have done or what the passengers should have done when they weren’t actually there. Who knows how we would actually act is such a situation and it disgusts me for you to say that we Canadians are pussies. Just because you’re all a bunch of freaks who think you’re big and strong by carrying a gun, yet you guys are dumber than sticks. I bet you didn’t even know we supply you greedy pigs with over 70% of the oil you use? If you were awaken from sleep to find someone hacking apart someone else on the bus, I doubt any of you would think about anything other than running for your life. You shouldn’t be so critical because this could easily have happened in the good ol USA. And you’d all be running scared too. How many times have we seen someone on the street being assaulted and you Yankees keep walking by, turning a blind eye? Did you stop to help? I doubt it. America is famous for this. I rencently saw on American tv a man get hit by a car, no one called 911, no one went into the street to help, cars just drove around. Even the mayor of the town was outraged. So how hypocritical of you to say you’d have tried to stop this horrific attack if the majority of you pple don’t even stop it on the street.
Your lame comments only solidify the fact that you Americans are nothing but a bunch of self-centered, ignorant, hypocrits.

CanadianTraderGirl on August 4, 2008 at 3:21 pm

Hey CanadianTraderGirl:
Your un-called for rage just proves what I’ve witnessed in countless other Canadians: your childish jealousy of Americans. You guys have an inferiority complex about us and you pretty much have for the past few decades. From whining about how we supposedly look down on you to going to foreign countries with your maple leaf on your back packs (Which always amuses me because most foreigners don’t even know what the hell that maple leaf means. But they DO know the ol’ Stars and Stripes, though) you show how childish you are and how inferior your feel. Dudes, if you want to be great like America then get up and DO SOMETHING to show your greatness and stop complaining about Americans (who are clearly the cool kids in class). I mean, it’s been like, 100 years since you gave us Superman. You can’t coast on that forever. I have nothing against Canadians, and I think you’re good neighbors, but you guys have got to stop whining and do something creative and inventive already.

Madame Vengier on August 4, 2008 at 4:27 pm

P.S.
You guys also SERIOUSLY need a new government. What a mess! And ya’ll complain about our government. Canada is about *this* far from being a Communist state, but the Muslims might get you first.

Madame Vengier on August 4, 2008 at 4:31 pm

CanadianTraderGirl; it is possible to know what you’re going to do in a situation like this. People all over the world train for it every day.
I think Canada is full of fine people, no more or less courageous than any of us down here. And, yes, we can be very arrogant.
If the attack had occurred on a bus in the USA, who’s to say Yankees on that bus wouldn’t have acted the same way? There are more than enough examples of cowardly Americans who have acted just as the Canucks on that bus did. So we are faced with the reality of the Can-Am pussy, in all his or her glory.
Speaking for myself, I believe the lack of action had nothing to do with anyone being Canadian or not being American. What came to pass did so because of fear, which knows neither nationality nor gender.
The people on the bus were not prepared and so fear ruled, it seems. But America is bigger than Canada so it’s just logic, a simple statistical probability, that there are more people in America who would have done nothing than there are Canadians who did nothing.
Best wishes to you.

undaunted on August 4, 2008 at 4:46 pm

I think this particular crime could not have been prevented.
The attacker might have chosen his victim to be someone he could “handle”, I think. The victim was smaller and weaker than he was. He probably sized up his victim during the cigarette break. Sitting on the outer seat, he could easily corner his victim, suppose he tried to escape. But there was no chance to do that. All the seats around them blocked both the view and again the escape route for the victim had he the chance or the capacity to move. The attacker, it seems, stroke him fatally right away on the right spot – on the neck. Again, giving him practically no chance to survive.
Self preservation is the first reaction of anybody capable of carrying it out. The victim had no chance to do that. However, by fleeing, all the other passengers did just that. They can’t be blamed for it. If someone were to interfere, it should had to be a person capable of both self-preservation and combative action at the same time right away – without notice. Unfortunatelly, given the circumstances, there was no such a person among those random passengers present on that particular bus at the given time.

msn on August 4, 2008 at 4:48 pm

My deepest sympathy to Tim McLean’s family and friends. This animal will burn in hell some day. Sooner the better. This animal targetted him.
Defense against a knife is extremely dangerous. Going unarmed against a knife-wielding animal means you are guaranteed to get cut. The only thing you can do is to try and minimize it. A belt or bag strap are good to wrap the arm or trap the knife if you have the room, but very tough in a confined space like this.
Personally, I have trained in wrestling, jujitsu, kenpo karate, and currently mixed martial arts for a total of 15 years. I have done knife drills with rubber knives and magic markers to simulate where you would have been cut. I am not sure that I would have been able to fight my way out of poor Tim’s predicament. Especially, giving up a few free stabs.

Ironwolf32 on August 4, 2008 at 10:23 pm

Iron Wolf is correct. I’ve trained for 7 yrs in jujitsu and would be very reluctant to take on a maniac wielding a “rambo knife”. Had one of the passengers tried they would most likely been killed or injured. Even a trained individual would need a weapon against a knife such as a club, chair, or other striking object. Had one been available I’d like to think I would have tried but certainly not bare hands against a knife.
In this case at least the passengers held the door closed to prevent his escape. That’s pretty much all you can expect out of untrained individuals.
Remember, in 1982 or so Islamic terrorists detained 4 navy SEALS and killed one of them. The bad guys had guns. The SEALS, despite their world class training could not take down the bad guys nor did they try.
Why didn’t the hundreds of students at VA tech jump the shooter while he was reloading? They were scare shitless civilians and simply ran for their lives.
On 9/11 an Iraeli security officer or former soldier was killed by the hijackers on one of the planes. He was not able to defend himself either.
These examples make the thing that the passengers did on the aborted flight all the more remarkable.

Samoyed on August 5, 2008 at 12:27 am

“If I were in that situation, I’d probably run, too. But that’s because I’m a woman, and I’m tiny. …. perhaps I’d try to kick him in the cojones to temporarily neutralize him. I don’t know. ”
Well, if you don’t know how you’d act in that siutation, as nobody probably would know until it happened, you have no right to judge. It’s the height of hypocrisy, condemning people for not behaving as you think they should but giving yourself an exemption.
Oh, and please don’t use the whole ‘tiny, female’ thing as an excuse. I’m a tiny female also and I’d prefer to say that I ran because I was shit scared, rather than imply I’d be taking him down if I was a bit, well, bigger, and uh, male…but you know, otherwise, I’d so be there.

kr on August 5, 2008 at 3:07 am

I guess for the most part all you people are just real life heros here on the internet, with your guns, and tough attitude, its too bad there was no high speed internet or fiber optics on that bus you could have helped. Say, with that war going on overseas, are your guns and tough attitudes working out there? Oh and there was some innocent children killed when a plane flew into a home yesterday, why couldnt you save them? Neighbours must have been wussies too for not diverting that plane away.
Point here is, religion, race, and views aside, it was a horrific act, perhaps some may have taken steps to assist in the disabling of the suspect in question, and some didnt, when we approach fear, some may think of their family, children, parents, and some think of the innocent person(s) being victimized, in this case the 3 men in question retracted when fear approached, not lessening their “manlyness” or determination, instead of rude remarks, why dont we think of this:
If they didnt hold that door shut, how many passengers, including the children would have been harmed or killed.
In another view, Tim perhaps deserves prase, the prase that he was unfortunetly, and tragically murdered and then retranted upon, yet by keeping that suspects mind off the people who escaped, he in himself became a hero of sort, much like the 3 men including bus driver.
There is alot of views to this, yet if anyone of you people we’re a suspect in any given case, the appreciation for law, and conduct would be in your favor. We often forget if someone is breaking in our homes who we turn to, when a car goes off the road, who we turn to, and when our loved ones are harmed, or disappear, who we turn to. Prase a police officier, praise the soles of the people who witnessed these tragic incidents, together as one they need to move forward and not one of you are helping in that with these remarks.
My heart goes out to the family of Mr. Mclean, nothing means more to me then my family, to the witnesses I wish them the best of success in recovery, and to the suspect, I can only say you committed a horrible act, and personally though my views and bias to following the law, you should be hell for what you did, and I can only wish that you are haunted each and every day of your life for what you did, g-d forgave our sins, but him as my witness I know you shall never ever receive forgiveness from anyone, you truly are the devil.

canadian1 on August 5, 2008 at 7:53 am

The simple truth is that knife attacks are defensible without years of training in any martial art.
There is a group of expert instructors who train cops in various “extra” disciplines that police academies won’t teach. Among these experts at “Street Survival” are martial arts experts, self-defense instructors for some major US police departments. Years back, these experts tried all the many ways to defend against a knife attack unarmed and found the way I’ve described at my blog to be the best inasmuch as it was the simple to learn and remember and so very effective.
You can’t go to their seminars or buy their books unless you’re a cop so there’s no reason anyone who’s not a cop would know this.
Of course, one who tries any defense against a knife attack will probably be nicked or cut. But it doesn’t take a hero to engage in battle with bad-guys. It takes someone who wants to go home to his or her family and friends.

undaunted on August 5, 2008 at 10:07 am

An awful lot of bravado on here, much of it of the “me an my gun would take that guy out” sort. Works great in movies. But in real life, many of us don’t carry guns and don’t want to, which means in a situation like the bus massacre, you’re talking about hand-to-hand combat. And unless you’re some outdoorsy type, you probably won’t have a survival knife handy, either. So, unarmed against a screaming, bloody, knife-wielding maniac in the confined space of a bus with panicking passengers all around. … I think that bus driver did the right thing in getting everyone off and locking the doors. That was his duty, and he did it. As for charging Freddy Krueger … speaking as someone who actually has charged into situations like that, the above factors would give me pause. At the end of the day, if I didn’t have any family members with me to worry about protecting, I’d probably be dumb enough to do it. But note I said “dumb,” and I’m 6’8″ and could probably kick the butts of most of the people spouting off here. I don’t blame the passengers. The cops, however, had no excuse for standing around.

mechmorph on August 5, 2008 at 1:18 pm

Yea; nothin’ but empty bravado here, from waaaay too many movies.

undaunted on August 5, 2008 at 1:53 pm

I felt compelled to sign up soley to respond to this because it’s such a idiotic thing to say. I’m sure if you were on that bus you would have tried and tackle him? No, you would have expected the biggest men on the bus to try and take away the 8 inch knife he was flailing. This post was in poor taste and you should feel like an idiot

youranidiot on August 11, 2008 at 12:14 pm

Who should feel like an idiot?

undaunted on August 11, 2008 at 4:08 pm

I’m going to guess you’re talking to me.
I’ve written what you read here and at my blog exactly because, though I was not there, I have been trained in what to do in situations like that. Moreover, I have been in situations like that. So, I do know precisely what I would have done and I described it very clearly in my blog.
I would not have tried to tackle him. I would not have expected the big guys to handle the attacker because big means nothing.
Training and will to win means everything.
If you’re calling me an idiot because in your opinion your training counterfeits mine, then list your training and experience here and prove me wrong on a tactic-by-tactic basis, not by throwing ad hominem around.

undaunted on August 11, 2008 at 4:29 pm

“conterfeits” how about “contradicts”

vinylgirl on August 13, 2008 at 12:28 pm

Contradicts is probably a better word in that sentence.

undaunted on August 13, 2008 at 2:59 pm

Ok, I just signed up to makea post here…
The only place I come close to agreeing with you is why didn’t the police react faster…
Ok now speaking of courage, you have a lot of courage to just POST THIS, since you must be such a hero, and have been in this situation many times, join the army? Welcome to life here.
Ok so, we have a man on a bus getting stabbed (after about the first 10 stabs, he has a .05% chance of living), then we have another 70 people on the bus, who don’t even realize what’s going on, so what your trying to say is, if everyone was running off this bus, you wouldnt run too? You have NO clue what has just happened… if there running adrenaline says “run”.
Ok now, you get off the bus, and you find out whats going on. So about 10 minutes ago, this man started getting stabbed, I don’t think he is alive any more (God bless his soul). But ok, now think about this in these people’s shoes, you have 3 guys with weapons, and a dead man on the bus, and a psychopath on the bus. Your in shock, and you watch this guy with a large knife and scissors holding this guys head… OK LETS GO ON THE BUS AND GET THIS GUY… DUH, are you stupid? why on earth would you consider that… for all you know, this guy has a handgun and is looking for more… what logic is in “being a hero” in that situation… honestly think about what you just posted in this article… Pfft heros this heros that… This is not a movie, this actually happened, I don’t see you walking down the streets with a crow bar and beating up gang’s and stopping traffiking. This guy needs to be locking in a rubber cell (so he can’t kill himself) with some good old fashion torture on the hour. I’m not a hero, and taunting that guy would mean your the next target, you think he cares if he dies, nope, so why give him a chance to kill more? He said it himself “kill me”. Speak for yourself these people did the right move

ThinkAboutIT on October 12, 2008 at 4:16 am