He could very well be a nut with some goofy thing there for "health" reasons.
from your link:
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.