"I thought y'all were trained in this stuff!" Keystone Kops Alert: "HPD, airport security at odds over incident: Man allowed to board aircraft appeared to have bomb components," from the Houston Chronicle, with thanks to Cindy:
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.Although the FBI eventually cleared the man of wrongdoing, police officials have transferred the officer involved and are investigating the incident while insisting that the TSA, not police, has the authority to keep a suspicious person from boarding a flight.
"Our job is not to be the gatekeepers," police Capt. Dwayne Ready said. "That burden falls squarely on the airline and TSA to make that final decision.
"We are looking at our role in the situation to make sure our policies were adhered to," he said. "During follow-up, we are finding that there simply was not a material threat."
TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said screeners have the authority to stop people from going beyond the checkpoint to the boarding areas, but they rely heavily on local police.
"It's just agencies talking with each other," Ready said, downplaying the disagreement.
Details of the dispute
McCauley and Ready would not comment about the June 26 incident, but a confidential TSA report obtained by the Houston Chronicle details a dispute between screeners and a police officer on duty at the airport.
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."
No explosive material was detected, the report states. A police officer was summoned and questioned the man, examined his identification, shoes and the clock, then cleared him for travel, according to the report.
A TSA screener disagreed with the officer, saying "the shoes had been tampered with and there were all the components of (a bomb) except the explosive itself," the report says.
The officer retorted, "I thought y'all were trained in this stuff," TSA officials reported.
The report says the TSA screener notified Delta Airlines and talked again with the officer, who said he had been unable to check the passenger's criminal background because of computer problems.
FBI involvement
The incident gained enough attention at higher levels of the TSA that the FBI was asked to investigate. The TSA issued a statement saying its screeners "acted in accordance with their training and protocols."
FBI Special Agent Stephen Emmett in Atlanta said agents there investigated the passenger.
"It was looked at and deemed a non-event," Emmett said, declining to give further details.
Meanwhile the officer involved in the dispute, J.O. Reece, has been transferred to a desk job, "the same place they send officers who are relieved of duty," said Chad Hoffman, attorney for the Houston Police Officers Union.
Please forgive the OT, but I wanted you all to see this:
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Minnesota Somalis offer advice to new ruling group
Members of the Islamic group now in control sought answers from Somali leaders living in the Twin Cities, some of whom may return to help shape the country's future.
Sharon Schmickle, Star Tribune
Last update: July 07, 2006 – 10:09 PM
A market in Somalia this week.
On June 10, influential Somalis in Minneapolis gathered in an office on Nicollet Avenue for a phone call that would connect them with a tense drama unfolding a world away.
Shaykh Sharif Ahmed was on the other end of the call to brief the Minnesotans on the takeover a week earlier of Mogadishu by a group known then as the Union of Islamic Courts.
"He asked for our support and our advice," said Ali Khalif Galaydh, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and a former prime minister of Somalia.
Galaydh said the Minnesotans advised the new ruling group to convince the outside world it is not a radical organization connected to terrorists and to work with the United Nations-backed transitional government operating from the city of Baidoa.
It was expected that the Islamic Courts would seek help from Minnesota, home to a large concentration of Somalis, Galaydh said. Two former prime ministers and several former cabinet members live in the Twin Cities, Galaydh said, as do many prominent doctors, lawyers and religious leaders.
"This metro area is very much on the political map of Somalia," Galaydh said.
Some Minnesota Somalis expect to go home within the next few weeks, he said, seeking to help shape the shaky order that is emerging from the Islamic group's takeover.
The Islamic group has solidified and expanded its authority since June 4, when the chaotic rule of U.S.-backed warlords collapsed in Mogadishu. At the time, the relatively moderate Sharif was the group's presumed leader. Since then, another leader has stepped forth -- Shaykh Hassen Dahir Aweys -- who is on the U.S. terrorist watch list as a suspected collaborator with Al-Qaida. Last week, President Bush said he is monitoring events with the primary concern "that Somalia does not turn into a safe haven for Al-Qaida or a place where terrorists meet to plot and conspire."
Somalis in Minnesota reflect a range of opinions, but many downplay fears that a radical, Taliban-like rule has taken hold. In Mogadishu on Thursday, the Islamic group arrested two of its own militiamen for killing a teenage girl and a businessman who were watching a World Cup soccer match, the Associated Press reported. Aweys said the group has not banned television or movies.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Somalis say that both Aweys and Sharif are leaders in a loose coalition that has yet to fully define its ideology. Last week, Sharif served as the Islamic group's chairman in meetings with the Arab League, the African Union and the European Union.
Hassan Mohamud, a Minneapolis lawyer and an imam at an Islamic center, also participated in the phone call with Sharif. Mohamud said, "We asked him many questions to clarify who they are." Knowing that Minnesota Somalis yearn for law and order at home, Sharif pledged, "This is the beginning of what you are looking for."
While Somalis in Minnesota do not speak with one voice, most are grateful for the relative peace in Mogadishu, Galaydh said. A next step to watch will be whether the Islamic group can deliver on promises to reopen Mogadishu's international airport.
"If they do that, it will be a major, major coup for them," he said.
Mohamud said a member of the transitional government's parliament is in Minnesota this week to discuss options for building political bridges in Somalia.
One potentially explosive concern, Galaydh said, is Ethiopia. The BBC reported last week that Ethiopia is amassing troops along its border with Somalia and has crossed the border in some places.
Minnesota also is home to thousands of recent immigrants from Ethiopia. Leaders in the St. Paul office of Ethiopians in Minnesota Inc. declined to be interviewed by the Star Tribune last week, saying any comment could damage sensitive relations with local Somalis. Even within Ethiopian groups, there are competing passions. Ethnic Oromos, for example, oppose the ruling Ethiopian regime and any moves it might make on Somalia, where thousands of Oromos have taken refuge.
"If Ethiopian troops come to Somalia, this will inflame the whole situation, not just in Somalia but in the region," Galaydh said.
Sharon Schmickle • 612-673-4432
Dry run.
He should have been pulled off the aircraft, arrested, and if a non-citizen, deported.
Keystone cops. Lets a muslim through who is obviously a terrorist. Just because there were no explosives with the battery and the hallowed-out shoes, doesn't mean he is not a bad guy. What if he had a gun, but no bullets? Idiots.
What happened to the traveller? Name taken? Thoroughly investigated? Arrested? Deported? What?
Well, we wouldn't want to do any "racial profiling" would we?
Just because a guy is Arab-looking and has an Arab sounding name is no cause for alarm.
They'll pull out the blond Europeans and make sure that they have no bomb materials in their shoes or in their hollowed out bibles.
As to the Somali article above.
Giving asylum to Somali muslims was the biggest farce ever! They don't assimilate and they are still radical muslims!
We don't want them and we don't need them!
They should ALL go back to Somali and stay put! It would take a great deal of strain off our social welfare systems in the U.S. and Europe!
Hugh asks: "What happened to the traveller? Name taken? Thoroughly investigated? Arrested? Deported? What?"
The strange combination of hollowed-out shoes (like Richard Reid); the undeclared laptop (like Pan Am Flight 803); the clock (like a time bomb); the Quran; and the response ("I thought you were trained in this stuff"), sounds very much to me like this was a Government undercover agent testing the security procedures with well-known terrorist ploys. And the security guards flunked the test. Badly. They apparently failed to notice even one of these dead giveaways.
Why hollow out a shoe when you have ample space between your ears?
The net result of our airline security system is that if we ever again had a 'Let 'er roll!' situation - no one would have so much a a nail file to fight the terrorists with.
Maybe that guy was on his way to get started on his US Ministry of Higher Education-approved scholarship for aviation classes in the USA. For terrorists, it's the only way to fly! I'll bet there's even an airport 'Executive Hijackers' Lounge' he was trying to find!
Dry run.
Just because the poor fellow had a bad case of shoe-eroding athlete's foot, a defective clock, the "Holy" [see: Condoleeza Rice] Koran, a foreign-sounding name, and an undeclared laptop only means that he needs government assistance.
I suggest a gratis refresher course in the tropical resort in Cuba to reboot his understanding of the proper procedures for flying after 9/11.
Since he already has a Koran, he'll fit right in.
Courtesy of Air Gitmo- "Coffee, tea or TNT?"
Steven L, it was the airport security that caught him. The cop that came to investigate, let him go. According to the story, the cop got transferred out of that job. Although I do agree, it sounds like a security test.
On the TSA website:
http://www.tsa.gov/assets/doc/Permitted_Prohibited_Facts.doc
Realistic Replicas of Explosives is on the list of prohibited items as are replicas of firearms. The TSA has not recognized the fact that a person can also be a replica of an explosive. EL AL still sets the standard for security and doesn't trust the TSA to hold the same standards. This would never have passed with EL AL but then again, it wouldn’t have been attempted either.
-XRDC