"there was no threat"

What could happen from a man who did not appear to be a threat.


http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-03-06T233505Z_01_N06439574_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-LOSANGELES.xml&src=rss&rpc=22


Wired Iraqi man triggers scare at L.A. airport


Tue Mar 6, 2007 6:35pm ET


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An Iraqi national wearing wires and concealing a magnet inside his rectum triggered a security scare at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday but officials said he posed no apparent threat.

The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Fadhel al-Maliki, 35, set off an alarm during passenger screening at the airport early on Tuesday morning.

A police bomb squad was called to examine what was deemed a suspicious item found during a body cavity search of the man. Local media reports said a magnet was found in his rectum.

"He was secreting these items in a body cavity and that was a great concern because there were also some electric wires associated with that body cavity," Larry Fetters, security director for the Transportation Security Administration at the airport, told reporters.

Maliki, 35, who lives in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was preparing to board a US Airways flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia.

The flight left without Maliki but with his luggage aboard. It made an unscheduled landing in Las Vegas, where the plane was thoroughly searched but nothing was found, officials said.

Passengers were not evacuated and no flights were disrupted by the incident at Terminal One at Los Angeles airport.

"There never was a threat," Fetter said.

He said police and the FBI were called in from "an abundance of caution" because Maliki was "so bizarre in his behavior."

Maliki, who had a U.S. green card, was being questioned by immigration officials about his immigration status.


© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved


Let me get this stright, a 30 something, Middle Eastern man attempts to board a plane with electric wires attached to a magnetic device of some sort, secreted "where the sun don't shine", is acting "so bizarre in his behavior" that the F.B.I. is called, but, according to the director of Transportation Security Administration at the LA airport "There never was a threat." ???
Well, that is certainly a relief to know. Evidently this must happen all the time. Note that the plane took off on time, with the luggage of the man who "was no threat " onboard. Note also that the plane made an unscheduled stop in Las Vegas to be searched because of these actions by a man "who was no threat".

I wonder how many, if any, of the passengers on that flight were aware that the luggage of the man detained was still onboard their plane, and had they known this, how many would've stayed on that plane?

Furthermore, I wonder if the family of the security director had been scheduled to be on board that flight, would he have sent them off on that flight, because of course we know the man "was no threat"?

Stupid is as stupid does,but if we can't even acknowledge that this was some level of threat, then things are much worse than I'd thought. : (