The Virtual Land of Rhetoric: March 2007

HOSTAGE SAILORS -- BRITAIN'S IMPOTENCE By ARTHUR HERMAN - Opedcolumnists - New York Post Online Edition

Massachusetts Man Dives into Freezing Harbor to Save 5-Year-Old Girl

Massachusetts Man Dives into Freezing Harbor to Save 5-Year-Old Girl

Sunday, March 25, 2007

BARNSTABLE, Mass. — A Yarmouth man leaped into Barnstable Harbor to rescue a 5-year-old girl moments after she lost her balance and fell in, officials said.

Gary Richard was eating lunch with his girlfriend in their car Saturday afternoon near the Ocean Street docks when they saw the girl fall in the water. She had been throwing rocks from a dock into the harbor.

"I dropped my sandwich and ran," the 39-year-old told the Cape Cod Times.

Richard, who moved to Yarmouth from Fall River six months ago, looked down from the edge of the dock and saw the girl in the water about 6 feet below.

"I saw her face and I just jumped," Richard said, describing the water as freezing. "It was so cold, it was painful."

The girl reached for him and Richard grabbed her under one of her arms. Richard held her up as the boyfriend of the girl's mother, who had been working on a boat nearby, took the child into his arms, police said.

Autumn Campinha, 5, of Barnstable appeared to be uninjured but was brought to Cape Cod Hospital as a precaution.

Police said Richard's fast action likely saved the girl because the water was murky and cold.

"I guess I saved somebody's life," he said. "It feels great."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,261063,00.html

Meta-study finds God answers prayers | Science Blog

Malmstrom AFB Missile/UFO Incident, March 1967

Ted Koppel Tells Shocking Truth About Iraq and War on Terror | NewsBusters.org

Extreme Mountain Biking with Hans “No Way” Rey.

http://hansrey.com/

This country has always held a special fascination for Hans. That's why he keeps going back. For his how-to video "Monkey See, Monkey Do", Hans rode his GT mountain bike off a high bridge with a bungy cord, and plunged completely underwater before being ripped back up into the air still attached to his bike. He also rode the edge of treacherous white water rapids and even herded a few sheep. More recently, he did the unthinkable. As a publicity stunt, Hans rode down the vertical face of an Auckland high-rise. Utilizing a specially designed harness and braking system, Hans descended the 13 stories straight down.

Ananova - Vampire hunters drove stake through Milosevic's heart

Fence post removed - WHY?

http://journalism_jobs.tripod.com/a.filo.html

What's also odd here is that the wipe is so old. Why go to the trouble when the technique (in the 70s) was so hard to do?

Web page changes to the NY Daily News - Commentary

The new NYDN site is now as horrible as the NYP site. Congratulations. The last thing everyone needs is bandwidth hogging news sites, especially for mobile users.

However, I do like the new story arrangement on the front page. I was a big fan of the travel section posted on the old front page - hopefully it will be restored.

I'm very web savvy, but "improvements" have driven a wedge between older and younger users. There is no plan for a happy medium. It's sad that the average age in the USA is inching upward, yet people who don't understand flash or how to update their system to the latest free software, are victims.

Perhaps one page dedicated to helping these people would ease some user stress.

That said, I am not looking forward to the death of the dvd either. Improvements have more to do with corporate bottom line than with user experiences.

At some point users will strike back, either by not "believing the hype" or simply ignoring what they don't understand.

Dare to prepare for the inevitable!

Macworld: News: France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

Macworld: News: France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence: "March 06, 2007 11:24 am ET

Macworld
France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday on the night of March 3, 1991. The officers’ acquittal at the end on April 29, 1992 sparked riots in Los Angeles.

If Holliday were to film a similar scene of violence in France today, he could end up in prison as a result of the new law, said Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for French online civil liberties group Odebi. And anyone publishing such images could face up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (US$98,537), potentially a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act.

Senators and members of the National Assembly had asked the council to rule on the constitutionality of si"

Former Iranian Defense Official Talks to Western Intelligence

Former Iranian Defense Official Talks to Western Intelligence

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 8, 2007; A16

A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official.

Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence.

Asgari served in the Iranian government until early 2005 under then-President Mohammad Khatami. Asgari's background suggests that he would have deep knowledge of Iran's national security infrastructure, conventional weapons arsenal and ties to Hezbollah in south Lebanon. Iranian officials said he was not involved in the country's nuclear program, and the senior U.S. official said Asgari is not being questioned about it. Former officers with Israel's Mossad spy agency said yesterday that Asgari had been instrumental in the founding of Hezbollah in the 1980s, around the time of the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.

Iran's official news agency, IRNA, quoted the country's top police chief, Brig. Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam, as saying that Asgari was probably kidnapped by agents working for Western intelligence agencies. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Asgari was in the United States. Another U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that report and suggested that Asgari's disappearance was voluntary and orchestrated by the Israelis. A spokesman for President Bush's National Security Council did not return a call for comment.

The Israeli government denied any connection to Asgari. "To my knowledge, Israel is not involved in any way in this disappearance," said Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry.

An Iranian official, who agreed to discuss Asgari on the condition of anonymity, said that Iranian intelligence is unsure of Asgari's whereabouts but that he may have been offered money, probably by Israel, to leave the country. The Iranian official said Asgari was thought to be in Europe. "He has been out of the loop for four or five years now," the official said.

Israeli and Turkish newspapers reported yesterday that Asgari disappeared in Istanbul shortly after he arrived there on Feb. 7. Iran sent a delegation to Turkey to investigate his disappearance and requested help from Interpol in locating him.

Former Mossad director Danny Yatom, who is now a member of Israel's parliament, said he believes Asgari defected to the West. "He is very high-caliber," Yatom said. "He held a very, very senior position for many long years in Lebanon. He was in effect commander of the Revolutionary Guards" there.

Ram Igra, a former Mossad officer, said Asgari spent much of the 1980s and 1990s overseeing Iran's efforts to support, finance, arm and train Hezbollah. The State Department lists the Shiite Lebanese group as a terrorist organization.

"He lived in Lebanon and, in effect, was the man who built, promoted and founded Hezbollah in those years," Igra told Israeli state radio. "If he has something to give the West, it is in this context of terrorism and Hezbollah's network in Lebanon."

The organization, led by Hasan Nasrallah, is believed to have been behind several attacks against U.S., Jewish and Israeli interests worldwide, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans, and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed more than 80 people.

Israel fought a bloody, month-long war with Hezbollah last summer in south Lebanon after the group seized two Israeli soldiers. The soldiers have not been returned and their fate is unknown. Other Israeli soldiers have vanished in Lebanon during decades of conflict along the countries' shared border, most notably an Israeli airman named Ron Arad. Yatom said it is possible Asgari "knows quite a lot about Ron Arad."

In a January briefing to Congress, then-Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte described Hezbollah as a growing threat to U.S. interests. "As a result of last summer's hostilities, Hezbollah's self-confidence and hostility toward the United States as a supporter of Israel could cause the group to increase its contingency planning against United States interests," Negroponte said.

U.S. intelligence officials said they had no evidence that Hezbollah was actively planning attacks but noted that the organization has the capacity to do so if it feels threatened.

Correspondents Scott Wilson in Jerusalem and Anthony Shadid in Beirut and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

© 2007 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/07/AR2007030702241_pf.html

Iran linked to seizure of F-14s in Chino

Iran linked to seizure of F-14s in Chino
By Maeve Reston and Garrett Therolf
Times Staff Writers

11:30 AM PST, March 7, 2007

The trail that led to the seizure of four Tomcat fighters in San Bernardino County had stops in Bakersfield and Hollywood, but the starting point was Iran, which still uses F-14s in its active fleet.

On Tuesday, federal agents seized the four jets after investigators determined that the craft were not demilitarized and were improperly sold or transferred to private parties, including museums and the producer of the TV show "JAG," authorities said.

When the jets were retired in the mid-1990s at the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu, Navy officials failed to ensure that the aircraft were stripped of military hardware, according to a court affidavit filed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

The affidavit paints a broad picture of the investigation that has at its heart Iran's need for military supplies for its aircraft, a need difficult to fill.

Though the United States and Iran are now cautious foes, sparring over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s was a principal supplier of arms to the Shah of Iran. Among the weapons supplied by the U.S. were F-14 Tomcats as well as missile systems.

"Due to the embargo placed on Iran by the United States after the fall of the shah, a flourishing illegal trade developed to supply the Islamic Republic of Iran with components to maintain these weapons systems," the affidavit, which was filed Friday in Los Angeles, noted.

"This illegal trade resulted in the establishment of numerous front companies in international locations and an increased demand for international arms dealers," it stated.

One such front was a Bakersfield company, whose owner and two principal officers were convicted in June 2001 of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized thousands of aircraft and missile components that were bound for Iran via intermediaries.

Some of the documents found in that case led to a Northern California man. Undercover agents contacted him and negotiated a deal to purchase an F-14 canopy to send to Iran. The man eventually backed out of the deal and contacted the FBI.

He also told the FBI that he had traded an engine lift to an air museum to get the canopy. That set investigators off to track the whereabouts of the craft.

By September 2005, federal investigators were looking for the museums that had received F-14s. They determined that three planes, which had not been properly demilitarized, were procured in April 1999 from the U.S. Naval Air Station in Point Mugu and improperly transferred to California Public Recycling, a scrap dealer in Oxnard.

The fourth craft was found at Southern California Aviation, a business at the Victorville airport. That was the plane that had been improperly released to "JAG," a television series about military lawyers. The plane is owned by an El Mirage aviation company.

On Tuesday, customs agents and DCIS agents seized two of the fighters from the Yanks Air Museum and one from the Planes of Fame air museum, both at the Chino Airport.

"The investigation has not uncovered any evidence that these planes have been plundered for parts by people with nefarious motives," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for ICE, "but the fact that they were not properly demilitarized certainly presents a potential vulnerability."

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, said Tuesday that no one had been charged but that the investigation was continuing. "There are some issues related to statute of limitations and we're examining those issues."

Defense Department officials have determined that the F-14s should have been destroyed by an authorized contractor when they were taken out of military service between 1996 and 1998, according to the affidavit.

Instead, the officer in charge of demilitarizing the planes "improperly and without authority" released three of them to the Oxnard company for disposal as scrap metal, even though the parts that made up the fighter jet were specifically barred from release to scrap metal recycling programs, the federal court document alleged.

Marc Keenberg, a consultant to California Public Recycling, confirmed that the company received several military airplanes at that time but described them as "already in scrap condition."

Keenberg said the recycling company sold the planes to another scrap yard and lost track of them after that.

The producer of "JAG" said his company went through proper military channels when it acquired the retired F-14.

"They didn't sell us one. They gave us one and they removed the engines," said Don Bellisario, whose company now produces the military drama "NCIS."

"The Navy said to us, 'We can give you an old aircraft, but we have to demil [demilitarize] it before we can give it to you.' I just assumed that's what happened."

The Navy also "broke its back," meaning that the F-14's fuselage was sliced in half and then welded back together, Bellisario said. Unable to fly, the jet was used as a prop for shots on the ground and had to be towed around, he said.

That plane in 2005 was sold to the company Aviation Warehouse in El Mirage, which was storing the F-14 at Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville.

Mark Thomson, president of Aviation Warehouse, said the company also bought the other three F-14s for $5,000 apiece from a middleman, who was facilitating the sale for California Public Recycling in Oxnard. They later were sold to the Yanks airplane museum in Chino for $50,000 apiece, Thompson said.

Thomson, 65 of Adelanto, said he was outraged by the seizure of the planes and plans to fight the government's actions.

"When I bought the planes, everything was 100% totally legal and aboveboard," said Thomson, whose company provides props for movie television productions.

During the 17-month investigation, former Navy Chief Warrant Officer Mark Holmes told authorities that his Point Mugu unit — known as VX-9 Detachment — handled the sale of fighter jets. He said one of his superiors instructed him to contact scrap dealers to see if they were interested in "picking up F-14s for scrap," according to the court affidavit.

Holmes said the officer in charge set the price for the aircraft between $2,000 and $4,000. The checks for the planes were placed into a fund identified as the VX-9 Morale Welfare and Recreation fund, the affidavit stated.

There was no documentation of the sales or papers showing that the planes had been demilitarized, federal officials said.

Federal officials are dismantling the planes and will ship them to a military yard in Tucson for storage and "final demilitarization."

maeve.reston@latimes.com
garrett.therolf@latimes.com

Times staff writers Jonathan Abrams, Sara Lin, David Haldane, Michael Muskal and Times researcher John Jackson contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/la-ex-f14-7mar08,0,965051.story?track=mostviewed-sectionfront

Missing words on new $1 coins mystify U.S. Mint

Reuters

Missing words on new $1 coins mystify U.S. Mint
Thu Mar 8, 2007 8:06AM EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In God We Trust. In machines? Not so much.

An unknown number of new U.S. $1 coins bearing the image of George Washington are missing the words "In God We Trust" and other lettering along the edges, the U.S. Mint said on Wednesday.

The Mint released more than 300 million gold-colored, George Washington $1 coins last month, but it recently discovered a problem. The coins, made by the Philadelphia Mint, were supposed to have the inscriptions "In God We Trust," "E Pluribus Unum," the date and the mint mark around the edge.

It is unclear how the mistake occurred or how many of the coins are in circulation, according to the Mint statement. The Mint said it would make necessary technical adjustments in the manufacturing to eliminate the defect.

"The United States Mint understands the importance of the inscriptions 'In God We Trust' and 'E Pluribus Unum' as well as the mint mark and year on U.S. coinage. We take this matter seriously," the statement said.

"We also consider quality control a high priority. We are looking into the matter to determine a possible cause in the manufacturing process."

Robert Hoge, curator of North American coins and currency for the American Numismatic Society, said that collectors find coins with a mistake like this, known as a Mint error, desirable when a relatively small number are in circulation.

"Since it was an accident, there is no count of how many were created. That's always the question with a mint error and it's difficult to tell how many there might be," he said.

On the auction Web site eBay, one of the coins sold for

$405.

One of the most famous Mint errors in the United States occurred in 1922. That year, "through carelessness or overzealousness," Hoge said, a defective die for the obverse, or head, side of the 1-cent piece failed to show the "D" mark indicating it was struck at the Denver Mint. One of those coins in mint condition would fetch upwards of $10,000, Hoge said.
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
Reuters journalists are subject to the Reuters Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

Suspicious Package Found at White House

Suspicious Package Found at White House
Associated Press 03.08.07, 8:47 AM ET

The Secret Service was investigating a suspicious package found on the White House grounds Thursday and part of Pennsylvania Avenue was closed.

The package was found near the Pennsylvania Avenue fence around 7:30 a.m., a Secret Service spokesman said.

Two blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue that are normally open only to pedestrians were closed off with yellow police tape, as was Lafayette Park, and more than a dozen fire and police vehicles were on hand. News camera crews normally stationed on the north side of the White House were moved away while officials investigated whether the package posed any threat.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/08/ap3498382.html

Ex-sailor arrested in conspiracy to kill Americans

Ex-sailor arrested in conspiracy to kill Americans

Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 8, 2007 12:00 AM

A former U.S. sailor from Arizona was arrested Wednesday in Phoenix and accused of taking part in a conspiracy to kill military personnel by supplying terror suspects with information about American ship movements in the Middle East six years ago.

Hassan Abujihaad, 31, is accused of sending e-mails to a terrorist Web site, applauding Osama bin Laden and praising an earlier al-Qaida attack on an American warship in Yemen.

He is charged with supporting terrorism with intent to kill U.S. citizens and transmitting classified information to unauthorized people.
advertisement

Representatives of the FBI and Justice Department said Abujihaad, an Islamic convert formerly known as Paul R. Hall, was arrested at his Phoenix workplace without incident. During an initial appearance in U.S. District Court, he accepted removal to Connecticut.

According to court records, Abujihaad linked up by Internet with British nationals Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan through a London organization known as Azzam Publications. Ahmad, described in an FBI affidavit as "leader of a terrorist support cell," is under federal indictment along with Ahsan.

The government says Azzam Productions and its Web site played an intelligence and fundraising role in terrorism. Scotland Yard agents searched Ahmad's residence in 2003 and discovered classified information about a Navy battle group that was assigned to enforce sanctions against the Taliban.

From 1998 to 2002, Abujihaad served as a signalman second class aboard the destroyer USS Benfold.

In 2001, the FBI affidavit says, Abujihaad sent detailed intelligence from the Benfold to Azzam. The message arrived two months before al-Qaida hijackers struck the World Trade Center.

The affidavit says Abujihaad's messages glorified Islamic jihad and described the October 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole as a "martyrdom operation."

Officials said Abujihaad's messages also disclosed that the battle group would pass through the Strait of Hormuz 19 days later, adding: "They have nothing to stop a small craft with RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) etc. except their Seals' stinger missiles. . . . Please destroy message."

Abujihaad's role was first described in media reports 27 months ago, but no charges were filed then.

He apparently continued working as a Phoenix deliveryman and living in an apartment in north Phoenix.

The affidavit by Agent David Dillon says that an FBI informer in Chicago became acquainted last year with Derreck Shareef, Abujihaad's ex-roommate in Phoenix, and helped set up a sting.

Shareef was arrested in Chicago buying hand grenades, which agents suspected were to be used in a terrorist attack on a shopping mall. Days later, the informer purportedly helped the FBI by negotiating the proposed purchase of two AR-15 rifles by Abujihaad. The call to discuss the purchase was taped.

Thomas Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut, declined to comment on why Abujihaad was not charged in 2004. He would not say whether Abujihaad had been under surveillance for two years in Arizona.

Amid news stories in 2004, Abujihaad turned to the Council on American-Islamic Relations for support. Deedra Abboud, then executive director at the Arizona office, said at the time that Abujihaad admitted sending e-mails critical of U.S. foreign policy to Azzam but denied divulging classified information.

If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

Reach the reporter at dennis.wagner@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8874.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0308terror0308.html

See also:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/07/AR2007030702577_pf.html

Dead Russian reporter investigating arms sales to Iran, Syria

Dead Russian reporter was investigating arms sales to Iran, Syria

Mar 06 3:13 PM US/Eastern

A Russian reporter who died after falling out of a window was investigating sales of weapons by Russia to Syria and Iran, his newspaper Kommersant said Tuesday.

Ivan Safronov had told his newspaper that he had "received information" about the sale of Sukhoi-34 fighter jets to Syria and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran via Belarus.

The business daily said the arms were being sold "via Belarus to avoid the west accusing Russia of arming rogue states". Safronov, a former colonel, specialised in writing about the army and space.

Russian prosecutors on Monday opened an investigation into the "incitement to suicide" of Safronov.

But his newspaper has dismissed claims that he committed suicide, while Russian journalists union the SJR said Tuesday it might conduct its own inquiry.

"From what we know already it is clear it was not suicide," the union's Secretary General Igor Yakovenko told Moscow Echo radio.

"The chances that it was a murder linked to the exercise of his profession are very high," he added.

Kommersant said Safronov had called from a major Middle East arms fair in Abu Dhabi in late February to say that he had "irrefutable confirmation" of the sales.

On his return to Moscow he had spoken to his colleagues of the "signature by Russia and Syria of contracts for the Pantsir CI anti-aircraft system, Mig-29 fighter jets and Iskander tactical missiles," it said.

However, he told his colleagues he could not write the story immediately because he had been warned about the risk of an international scandal and an inquiry by the FSB security service for divulging secrets.

He did not say that this amounted to pressure.

In May 2006 the British defence magazine Jane's had reported a contract had been signed for the sale of S-300 SP missiles from Russia to Belarus, with the aim of selling arms indirectly to Iran.

At the time the Russian defence ministry had said that Belarus would not sell S-300 missiles to Iran.

According to Kommersant, two young students last week heard the noise of a falling body, saw Safronov lying on the snow and called an ambulance, which refused to come as it had "no time to go picking up every drunkard".

The two girls said they heard no sounds of a struggle and saw no-one leaving the apartment house after the fall.

Copyright AFP 2005, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium

Man Detained for Questioning at LAX
US Airways Flight Diverted to Vegas
AP

LOS ANGELES, March 6, 2007 - A US Airways jet bound for Philadelphia was diverted to Las Vegas on Tuesday because a man who was supposed to have boarded at Los Angeles International Airport was detained during security screening but his bag was already on the jet, authorities said.
Related Links

Flight 1422, with 143 passengers and six crew members, landed at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas about 8:30 a.m.

The Airbus A320 was searched in a secure area away from terminals and cleared about noon to continue to Philadelphia, said Chris Jones, an airport spokesman. Passengers were given options to resume their flight aboard the jet, stay in Las Vegas or return to Los Angeles, he said.

The man was stopped at a security screening checkpoint at Terminal One - which houses US Airways, America West and Southwest Airlines - shortly after 5:30 a.m.

He was carrying a "suspicious item" that was seized, said Nico Melendez of the federal Transportation Security Administration.

He did not identify the item, but the police bomb squad was called in as a precaution, officials said.

The terminal remained open and no takeoffs or landings were disrupted, airport officials said.

The man's bag had been security-screened and was on the flight that left Los Angeles about 6:40 a.m., US Airways spokeswoman Liz Landau said.

Standard policy in such situations requires that planes be stopped and searched, she said.

"They are deplaning, and they're going to re-screen all the bags before we get under way again," she said.

No Southwest flights were affected, spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said.

Copyright © 2007 KABC-TV and The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=5096631

Officials Detain Iraqi Man At LAX After Suspicious Item Found

Officials Detain Iraqi Man At LAX After Suspicious Item Found

POSTED: 12:33 pm PST March 6, 2007
UPDATED: 3:48 pm PST March 6, 2007

LOS ANGELES -- Security officers detained an Iraqi national at Los Angeles International Airport early Tuesday after a suspicious item was found on the man during a body cavity search.

But a lead FBI agent said that while the item was still being examined, it posed no apparent threat.

Fadhel al-Maliki, 35, was taken aside for a search after he set off the alarm at a Terminal One passenger screening area at about 5:40 a.m, federal and airport officials said. Al-Maliki, who lives in Atlantic City, N.J., was taking a US Airways flight to Philadelphia.

He remained in custody as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials went over his immigration paper work. Federal officials said the man's green card may have expired.

Ethel McGuire, assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, said this afternoon that al-Maliki had "a magnet, wires and I don't know what the other item was. It's being evaluated as we speak." After al-Maliki was searched, the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad was called to the airport to examine the suspicious item.

The flight took off with al-Maliki's luggage on board. The airplane was ordered to land in Las Vegas, where the passengers got off and the luggage was searched.

Al-Maliki's luggage was "clean," officials said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon at LAX. Larry Fetters, security director for the Transportation Security Administration at the airport, said the strong reaction arose from "an abundance of caution."

He said the reason security officials were so cautious was that al-Maliki was "so bizarre in his behavior."

Authorities currently have no information indicating al-Maliki has ties to any terrorist organizations, FBI official Laura Eimiller said. She said authorities so far haven't ruled out that the device could have been medical in nature.

Fetters did not elaborate.

No other flights at LAX were impacted by the investigation.

Copyright 2007 by NBC4.tv. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/11185089/detail.html

Suspicious Item Detected In Man's Butt At LAX

March 6, 2007 11:33 am US/Pacific

Suspicious Item Detected In Man's Butt At LAX

(CBS) LOS ANGELES digg itAn Iraqi national was detained and questioned at a passenger-screening area at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday morning after a suspicious item was found in the man's rectum during a body cavity search.

The item, which is still being examined, poses no apparent threat, an FBI official said.

Fadhel al-Maliki, 35, was selected for a more thorough check by screeners in Terminal One of the airport at about 5:40 a.m. Al-Maliki, who lives in Atlantic City, was taking a US Airways flight to Philadelphia.

Al-Maliki remains in custody as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials go over his immigration paperwork. Federal officials say his green card may have expired.

Ethel McGuire, assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, said this afternoon that al-Maliki had "a magnet, wires and I don't know what the other item was. It's being evaluated as we speak." After al-Maliki was searched, the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad was called to the airport to examine the suspicious item.

The flight took off with al-Maliki's luggage on board. The airplane was ordered to land in Las Vegas, where the passengers got off and the luggage was searched.

Al-Maliki's luggage was "clean," officials said at a news conference this afternoon at LAX.

Larry Fetters, security director for the Transportation Security Administration at the airport, said the strong reaction arose from "an abundance of caution."

He said the reason security officials were so cautious was that al-Maliki was "so bizarre in his behavior."

Fetters did not elaborate.

Authorities currently have no information indicating al-Maliki has ties to any terrorist organizations, FBI official Laura Eimiller said. She said authorities so far haven't ruled out that the device could have been medical in nature.

No other flights at LAX were affected by the investigation.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. )

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_065133237.html

The Virtual Land of Rhetoric

About Me

Friday, March 30, 2007

First Temple wall found in City of David | Jerusalem Post

Thursday, March 29, 2007

How to Win and lose in Iraq by Arthur Herman