Posted on 02/21/2008 5:29:03 AM PST by MindBender26
TAMPA - A 21-year-old Clearwater man , Benjamin Barnes, Jr, was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said.
If convicted, Baines faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine for a federal charge of attempting to board an airplane with a concealed dangerous weapon. He is currently serving a 30 day sentence after pleading guilty Monday to a state misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon.
About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, airport security ran Benjamin Baines Jr.'s backpack through an X-ray machine and saw the image of a box cutter, according to a report from the Transportation Security Administration.
When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled "Fear Itself." The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside.
After Baines was read his rights, he said his cousin had cut away the pages to make the hollow section in the book. Later, reports state, he said he had hollowed it out himself to hide money and marijuana from his roommates.
Baines told officers he was moving to Las Vegas and forgot the cutter was in the book. Officers found books in the backpack titled "Muhammad in the Bible," "The Prophet's Prayer" and "The Noble Qur'an." He also had a copy of the Quran and the Bible.
Several sheets of paper in the backpack included rap lyrics that referred to police, narcotics, weapons and killing. Baines told officers he is a rapper who writes his own lyrics and that rap music writers need to "play the part," the report states.
Officers performed a background check and found no record of crimes or active warrants. He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and booked into Orient Road Jail. At his first appearance in court Monday, Baines pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, according to an employee with the Hillsborough County clerk of court. He remained in Orient Road Jail today.
The U.S. Attorney's Office also filed a federal charge of attempting to board an aircraft with a concealed dangerous weapon. The federal charge against Baines was filed Sunday but was not announced until today, said Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa.
Cole said Baines will be arrested by U.S. marshals upon his release from jail on the state charge.
Specifically, it’s centered on the Computer Engineering department. The same building I went into and out of for five years getting my engineering degree. Freaking scary.
saw-it-off-and-cut-it-away.
Over coffee, my older brother would say (way back then), after reading the paper: "these radical muslims...they're going to be big trouble."
If you do the math you can gather that he was definitely a voice in the wilderness.
Benjamin Baines Jr is the name he was born with.
I would bet that his friends have called him a different name for years, probably one with “Muhammad” or “Islam” in it.
Boxcutter in Hollowed-Out Book at TIAML/NJ
He answered, “No, the Sovs are rational people.”
He dropped his hand to the ME and said “I worry about the ones who go to bed at night listening to Allah.”
I am just curious what other situation (besides hijacking a plane) would someone carry a box cutter in a hollowed out book?
Reposted, as few outside Tampa Bay area know what TIA is. It’s local lingo. Even airport code is not TIA but TPA.
Hmmmm....funny how this story wasn't out there til James Lilleks mentioned it on Hugh Hewitt yesterday!! I see NO info on Benjamin Baines Jr!!
A man ahead of his times.
“Tampa is hotbed of radical Islam in Florida. It’s centered on the USF campus.”
Right..Also in some of the higher professions.
Anyway, a 10-15 year stretch in a Feedral Prnitentiary should enhance this fellow’s rap career..Kinda make it more realistic..Wonder how the inmates will like Rap in Farsi ?
Hooray to the TSA employee watching the machine! America’s finest.
Hey, you never know when you'll be called on to do some last-minute drywall! :0)
yes; and even more so, it's a hotbed for weirdos.
(1) "Fear Itself" is probably the Walter Mosley novel - a "pro-black" mystery featuring the Shaftesque protagonist Fearless Jones.
(2) "Muhammad In The Bible" is probably the book written by Abdul-Ahmad Dawud, an apostate Iranian Catholic convert to radical Islam who falsely claims to have been a bishop.
(3) "The Noble Qu'ran" is probably the Saudi edition of the Koran for English-speakers.
These books suggest that Mr. Barnes was raised Christian, acquired racial "consciousness" and became radicalized, and was targeted by radical Muslim missionaries using Dawud's book as a tool.
My guess is he would not have carved out the interior of a novel revered by black Americans as a book featuring a "strong, conscious black man" like Fearless Jones unless he was a devout Muslim who had come to believe that the book - with its sex scenes and Fearless Jones' alcohol consumption - was immoral and worthless and that its half-Jewish author was suspect.
(5) It is considered embarrassing in hiphop circles to write out your lyrics and memorize them from paper.
"(4) My guess . . . "
Funny that the article doesn’t mention a description or ethnicity of this person.
I’m guessing he probably could pass for Leif Erickson - how about you?
“Tampax Box Cutter Hidden In Book”
1. My dyslexia must be severe today?
2. I’m not getting enough sleep?
3. Working to hard?
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