Posted on 02/12/2003 7:16:29 PM PST by TLBSHOW
Mideast men with 'razors' yanked off American jet
9/11-like scare rattles crew on flight bound for Los Angeles from Dulles
WASHINGTON – In a Sept. 11 flashback, two Middle Eastern men were removed from an American Airlines flight here to Los Angeles after "razors" and thousands of dollars in cash were found in one of their carry-on bags, the airline confirmed today.
The incident occurred Saturday at Washington Dulles International Airport, from where Middle Eastern men with box cutters in 2001 hijacked an American flight to Los Angeles, took control of the plane and slammed it into the Pentagon.
The bag containing what one source claims were "straight razors" and also a "utility knife" got past the Transportation Security Administration's checkpoint at Dulles. Straight razors and sharp-bladed knives of any length are banned items.
But later at the gate, one of the men was pulled from the line in a random security check. A search of his bag turned up the razors and nearly $10,000 in cash.
TSA confiscated the razors, which American Airlines says were permitted safety razors, but let both men board Flight 144 to Los Angeles International Airport.
However, the flight crew, including the pilots, refused to take off until the men were removed. The flight was delayed about an hour before security officers came on board and escorted the men off the plane.
"A flight attendant aboard the flight raised questions about the two men aboard the flight who had passed two TSA screenings," said John Hotard, an American spokesman in Dallas. "They were asked to deplane, which they did, rescreened and placed aboard another flight to LAX."
TSA spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan said the agency had no immediate comment.
The two passengers had Virginia IDs, but were not U.S. citizens. A source familiar with the incident told WorldNetDaily that the men claimed to be Iranian nationals, but were not carrying passports.
The source also said both men were searched at the gate, the other at the insistence of the airline, and "10 straight razors," as well as a "utility knife or box cutter," were found along with the wad of cash in one of their bags.
"They said they were hair dressers and the items were used in their work," he said.
"Why didn't the X-ray devices detect those items before the men got to the boarding area?" he asked. "Why did it take more than an hour for the airport to respond to the flight crew's request to deplane the two?"
Hotard insisted no straight razors or utility knives were found in the searches at the gate.
"There was a package of razor blade cartridges," he told WorldNetDaily.
TSA allows passengers to take razor cartridges in carry-on bags.
Agreed. But now the airline will be the target of a lawsuit.
When you stop getting your haircuts at a barber college, you'll know!
I'll second that. This is absolutely crazy!
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........lots o' people around here have a strong distaste for logical thinking of any kind.
You're not doing too well yourself there -- they could have been making a "test run", like the ones that actor James Woods believes he saw a few weeks before 9/11, and taking either "expense money" with them, or funds for another cell at their destionation point.
Now your turn -- what logical reason would "Iranian hairdressers" have for carrying $10,000 in cash?
Anybody see anything wrong with THIS picture??
A US citizen trying to travel in __________ [fill in country of your choice] without a passport is going to have some serious problems.... yet these "gentlemen" are allowed to reboard another flight??
How did they get the cash? By a hawala transaction using intermediaries to make the origins of the money virtually untracebale? That is how terrorists have been financed by their Iraqi/Iranian/Saudi sponsors.
Exactly. This is unbelievable. We never learn
Let me get this straight:
We have two foreign nationals, possibly hostile
with IDs that say they are citizens of Virginia but
they are not US citizens.
(How can a person be a citizen of Virginia but not of the US?)
Next, they claim they are Iranians (definitely a hostile
nation) and they have NO passports to show who they are or when
they entered the country, how long they have been here, no explaination
of why they are here and they are traveling around with ten grand in cash
and the "authorities" let them go! If Americans get "caught" hauling around
ten thousand dollars in cash the automatic assumption is "Drug Dealer" and
their money may be confiscated. But apparently the government doesn't mind
"Iranians" doing this. Isn't America a great country.
It really cares about other country's citizens.
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