Posted on 07/10/2006 5:23:41 AM PDT by Blue Turtle
Houston police and the federal Transportation Security Administration disagree over who is responsible for allowing a man with what appeared to be bomb components board an aircraft at Hobby Airport last week.
The report states that a man with a Middle Eastern name and a ticket for a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta shook his head when screeners asked if he had a laptop computer in his baggage, but an X-ray machine operator detected a laptop.
A search of the man's baggage revealed a clock with a 9-volt battery taped to it and a copy of the Quran, the report said. A screener examined the man's shoes and determined that the "entire soles of both shoes were gutted out."
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
What about the passenger? Was he just testing the screening procedures? or what? Sounds like his circumstances were a non-issue while the territorial dispute took the front seat.
test run - no question in my mind...
The officer did the right thing because the guy hadn't broken any laws. What the TSA did afterwards with all it's whining and finger pointing is crazy! I think it would be clear to anyone that the odds were high that this was a dry-run test. The TSA should have quietly called Homeland Security and let them investigate the guy. It might have led to the arrest of a terrorist cell, but after a public whine fest like this, I'm sure that cell has already erased it's tracks and gone back to the drawing board.
Unfriggin' real BUMP! Meanwhile they harass everyone else so that they can say they aren't profiling. Not every Muslim is a terrorist, but every terrorist has been a Muslim. Get a clue TSA!
I'd wonder whether this was a team effort.
One guy boards with hollowed out shoe soles and a battery, while another guy(s) boards with other 'ingredients'. Their intent would be to 'compile' the 'ingredients' into an explosive during the flight.
9/11 they used teams of 4 people.
So a person having some of the materials needed to create destruction isn't comforting or something that should be given a pass.
He was detected, examined, and questioned. Henceforth, he will be marked as a person of concern in the system. He didn't actually break the law. If he was testing the system he found out it works and it doesn't seem any apparent weaknesses showed up.
What more do you want. Why do we insist on creating crisis where the system appeared to work properly? Aren't there enough real problems we should be focusing on?
Test run?
Seems possible that he might have expected to locate explosives already on-board?
I pray that Hobby Airport, TSA, FBI, HPD...etal are currently rerunning checks on the ground crews and anyone with access to the airplane, cargo, tarmac, etc....
You are 100% right. My brain wasn't properly engaged before I started typing.
I still stand by my statement that this shouldn't have been aired in public. It should have been resolved behind closed doors.
What? They let him go? Musta been a democrat.
As long as the TSA strip searched enough grandmothers and confiscated enough personal grooming tools, everyone should still feel safe.
- and/or, a second person could have boarded with the needed explosive, which by itself, could've more easily passed through...or an accomplice air lines, airport employee could've stashed it on board?
About the only thing that will help this from happening in future is the officer being shuffled off to a desk job. Others in his position will take heed and, not to protect us, but their own skin, may not let someone like this through.
I thought it had been agreed that security COULD use profiling in the case of Arab/muzzies since there haven't been too many Norwegian Grannies, for example, terrorizing the general population?
the man's baggage revealed a clock with a 9-volt battery taped to it and a copy of the Quran, the report said. A screener examined the man's shoes and determined that the "entire soles of both shoes were gutted out."
Did I miss something after reading this whole story?
They ended up treating it as a non-event and let him go?
Something is not right here.
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