Posted on 08/24/2006 12:12:03 PM PDT by Quilla
HAARLEM, Netherlands — Prosecutors said Thursday they found no evidence of a terrorist threat aboard a Northwest Airlines flight to India that returned to Amsterdam, and they are releasing all 12 passengers arrested after the emergency landing.
The men, all Indian nationals, had aroused suspicions on Flight NW0042 to Bombay because they had a large number of cell phones, lap tops and hard drives, and refused to follow the crew's instructions, prosecutors said.
Because of those actions by the passengers, the pilot of the DC-10 radioed for help shortly after takeoff Wednesday and the plane was escorted back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport by two Dutch fighter jets. The 12 were arrested after the plane landed.
U.S. air marshals on the flight also were suspicious of the men, U.S. officials and passengers said.
"A thorough investigation of the cell phones in the plane found that the phones were not manipulated and no explosives were found on board the plane," said a statement from the prosecutor's office in Haarlem, which has jurisdiction over the airport.
"From the statements of the suspects and the witnesses, no evidence could be brought forward that these men were about to commit an act of violence," the statement said.
The men were to be released later Thursday from a dention center at the airport and free to leave the Netherlands, prosecution spokesman Ed Hartjes said.
The incident reflected the jitters that persist in the airline industry in the two weeks since British police revealed an alleged plot to blow up several U.S.-bound airliners simultaneously using bombs crafted from ordinary consumer goods.
Hartjes said the electronic equipment the suspects possessed could have been enough to trigger an explosion, and he defended the flight crew's response. "This was a correct reaction under the circumstances," he said.
In New Delhi, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said he had no comment.
Hartjes said 11 of the men had been traveling together, catching a connecting flight in Amsterdam from a South American country that he refused to identify. The 12th aroused suspicion for other unspecified reasons, he said. He refused to give personal details about any of them.
Passengers described the men as between 25 and 35 years old and speaking Urdu, the language commonly spoken in Pakistan and by many of India's Muslims. Some had beards, and some wore a shalwar kameez, a long shirt and baggy pants commonly worn by South Asian Muslims.
The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper quoted an unidentified 31-year-old Dutch businessman as saying the suspects were walking up and down the isle after takeoff.
"I saw the air marshals walking, and then you know something's wrong," it quoted him as saying.
Nitin Patel of Boston, who sat behind the men, told the paper: "I don't know how close we were, but my gut tells me these people wanted to hijack the airplane."
The mass-circulation De Telegraaf reported that passenger Sarat Menon quoted the men as saying they were returning from a vacation in Tobago.
"It wasn't immediately clear what was going on. There was no panic. A flight attendant told us to remain seated and to follow the air marshals' orders," Menon said.
The Northwest captain radioed Amsterdam seeking permission to return with a military escort, and jet fighters were scrambled from a northern military air field.
The national anti-terrorism office said it saw no reason to raise the country's threat level.
In a recording of air control communications, the pilot declined an offer to put fire engines on standby for the unscheduled landing at Schiphol.
The security alert was the latest of several incidents reported since the alleged terrorism plot was revealed in London. On Friday, a British plane made an emergency landing in southern Italy after a bomb scare, and the U.S. Air Force scrambled jets to escort a United Airlines flight from London to Washington as it was diverted to Boston.
On Tuesday, a flight to New York from Atlanta was diverted to Charlotte, N.C., after a flight attendant found a bottle of water and then smelled something suspicious on the plane. Officials found nothing hazardous.
Exactly!!!
It's a federal crime to refuse to follow the flight crew's instruction (at least in the U.S.)!
So are we serious about that or just playing? There seems to be no dispute that these 12 willfully and openly disobeyed the crew's instructions on that aircraft!
What the heck kind of a circus are we running? Just let them go? Because they are Muslims? Are Muslims now presumed to be above the law?
I read yesterday a new suggestion for preventing Airline terrorism: Travellers have to undergo a security screening that takes between 3-5 days and only pork products will be served for meals.
OTOH I wouldn't trust my laptop and cell phone to still be in my checked baggage when I arrived in India, either.
Merely a techniqality.
Now this is rich! (sarc) Next time we hear about these jerks they'll have murdered a lot of innocent people.
Not in the US...my hubby and son flew to Canada last week, returning today...they were allowed to carry on laptops, cell phones, ipods, earphones, etc.
Thank you.
These men were "arrested" for some violation. Although short on experience, I just can't see how one talks their way out once the arrest is made.
List of Detainees:
(1) Mohammad Iqbal Batliwala
(2) Noor Mohammad Habeeb Batliwala
(3) Yusru Haji Gaffar Memon
(4) Yousuf Mohammad Salman Mohammad
(5) Imran Mohammad Yousuf
(6) Shakeel Osman Chhotani
(7) Sohail Abdul Aziz Nizami
(8) Ayub Abdul Qadir
(9) Sajid Abdul Qadir
(10) Ghulam Mustafa
(11) Mohammad Ayub Khan
(12) Mohammad Farooq Hasham
A typical outing of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick.
IT training in Scarborough, Tobago? Really?
lol lol lol
From http://www.hiptravelguide.com/amsterdam
"The narrow alleyways that reflect the inviting red glow of the large picture windows where an endless stream of horny men oogle nearly naked female flesh is of course the main attraction. The women behind the windows run the gamut from young and beautiful to grandmotherly and almost revolting. There's enough diversity here including Asian, Black, Latin and of course European women to satisfy any fantasy."
I'd guess they were just comparing notes, so as to speak, and got caught at it.
Or they could have been plotting to kill everyone on board, hard to say these days.
Rat, I have yet to disagree with your views on any variety of topics. More people should think as we do. Simple solutions get the job done, and prevent further complications.
You can't yell "I've got a bomb" on a plane or in an airport because it is a criminal act.
These dry-runner al-qaeda types can get away with all the actions of constructing a bomb or carrying out a terrorist attack and they just walk away.
This needs to be a crime as well, so we can lock up these innocent dry-run al-qaeda types before they practise so much that al-qaeda has a fool-proof plan that kills thousands again.
Write your congressman because we need a new law against this yesterday.
No wonder I couldn't get through to Dell tech support for the last few days!
There's a variety of reasons they do this, and now they're probably laughing their islamic a$$es off.
The first goal is to test the system. A dry run, as everyone has pointed out.
The second goal is to use our ideals of personal liberty and political correctness against us. They're simply gaming us, trying to get us alarmed, knowing that the behavior in and of itself is not technically illegal, and now we're forced to let them go. They'll use this to ridicule people, saying they're prejudiced against poor, innocent islamics, and maybe even attempt to bring suit against the airline. The overall goal of this is to cause people to keep quiet when the alarms start ringing. That behavior modification will be very useful when the actual suicide bombers decide to conduct their mission.
The third goal is to see just how much they can get the infidels riled up. A fun game, to them. In other words, they're punking.
In the US, refusing to follow flight crew instructions is a Federal Offense. I think it has a year of jail time plus bug fines.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.