Pressure cooker bombs were used in the Boston Marathon jihad bombing. “Saudi traveler with pressure cooker arrested at Detroit Metro Airport,” by Tresa Baldas for the Detroit Free Press, May 13 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Federal agents arrested a suspicious traveler with an altered Saudi Arabian passport at Detroit Metro Airport over the weekend after discovering a pressure cooker in his luggage.
According to a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court, the passenger, Hussain Al Khawahir arrived at Detroit Metro on Friday from Saudi Arabia via Amersterdam [sic]. He had a visa and a Saudi Arabian passport, and told officers in the baggage control area that he would be visiting his nephew at the University of Toledo, the complaint said.
In the baggage area, two customs officers interviewed the passenger and noticed a page had been removed form the man’s passport, the complaint said. The man said that he did not know how the page was removed form the passport, and stated that the passport was locked in a box that only he, his wife and three minor children have access to in his home, the complaint said. His hometown was not listed in court documents.
While at the airport, customs and border officials also examined his luggage and found a pressure cooker inside. When questioned about it, the man initially said that he brought the pressure cooker for his nephew because pressure cookers are not sold in Saudi Arabia, the complaint said. The man then changed his story and admitted his nephew had purchased a pressure cooker in America before, but it “was cheap” and broke after the first use.
Then came the Miranda rights.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement officer read the passenger his rights. The man acknowledged that he understood those rights, both verbally and in writing at 4:25 p.m. A minute later, he invoked his right to remain silent, the complaint said.
Kawahir is in federal court in Detroit this afternoon, making his initial appearance on charges that he knowingly used an altered Saudi Arabian passport with missing pages, and made a materially false statement to a CBP officer about his pressure cooker in his possession, all to gain entry into the United States….