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TSA check misses empty AK-47 clips in Yemeni man’s luggage

May 28, 2014 9:42 am By Robert Spencer

AK-47_magazineAlso, “the Transportation Security Administration screeners then found that the two men were carrying above the $10,000 maximum in US currency. Alkhanshli had $12,000 and Ali had $14,000, sources said.” They were “able to explain why they had the money,” but did anyone ponder what a couple of Yemeni nationals with large sums of cash and an empty AK-47 magazine might be up to? Anyway, the TSA is not only incompetent. It is also always playing catch-up, always prohibiting the last thing jihadis used to try to blow up an airplane (which is why you still have to take off your shoes in the security line) while the jihadis have moved on to something else that the TSA cannot guess. And because of PC sensibilities, they devote just as much time to searching wheelchair-bound septuagenarian Iowa grandmothers as they do members of the demographic groups that actually engage in terror activity. The whole enterprise should be radically recast or shut down altogether. More TSA follies here and here and here. Close down the TSA!

“TSA check misses empty AK-47 clips in Yemeni man’s luggage,” by Philip Messing and Christina Carrega-Woodby, New York Post, May 27, 2014:

The TSA failed to spot two AK-47 assault-rifle magazines stowed in the luggage of a suspicious Yemeni national who was preparing to fly back to his homeland from JFK Airport on a one-way ticket, sources said.

Bassam Alkhanshli, 32, was busted as he and a traveling companion, Methaq Mohammed Ali, 28, were set to board Emirates Flight 202 to Yemen at 11 p.m. Sunday, the sources said.

Alkhanshli and his pal were stopped by the TSA because they had purchased one-way tickets to Yemen — long considered a red flag by counterterrorism officials.

The Transportation Security Administration screeners then found that the two men were carrying above the $10,000 maximum in US currency. Alkhanshli had $12,000 and Ali had $14,000, sources said.

Both were then questioned by US Customs and Border Protection personnel, causing them to miss their flight, sources said.

The men were able to explain why they had the money, and the feds then cleared them to catch another flight, sources said.

But before they took off, Customs officials re-examined 10 pieces of their luggage, which had already been screened and cleared by the TSA.

This time, Customs Officer Richard Sanicola found “two 30-round AK-47 magazine clips” in one of Alkhanshli’s bags.

“I did not know I was not supposed to have this,” Alkhanshli told officials, according to sources.

Sanicola described the clips as “high-capacity ammunition-feeding devices,” according to a criminal complaint.

A TSA spokeswoman said, “The TSA does not require ammunition and/or empty magazine clips to be declared to the airline, and the TSA is not actively searching for [them] in checked luggage.”

They added: “TSA’s screening procedures, which are governed by federal law, are focused on security and are designed to detect potential threats to aviation and passengers.”

Alkhanshli was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon. Assistant DA Robin Kwalbrun asked for $50,000 bail.

But Alkhanshli’s Legal Aid attorney, Tasha Lloyd, noted that another person had been released on his own recognizance on an airport weapons offense over the weekend.

She added that her client — a Tennessee resident who has a pistol permit there — has been a naturalized US citizen since 2009. She also noted that the clips contained no bullets.

“These were empty clips, your honor,” Lloyd replied.

Judge Donna Golia set bail at $5,000 bond or $2,500 cash.

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Filed Under: air security Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    May 28, 2014 at 9:53 am

    BUNGLERS! How many more ‘Tsarnaev brothers’ are there hiding in the Muslim population.

    Get Robert Spencer to train the law enforcement to LOCATE AND SPOT JIHADISTS. Arrest them before they cause harm and then REMOVE their residency or passports. Kick ’em all out.

  2. St. Michael Defend Us says

    May 28, 2014 at 10:05 am

    So? Confiscate the cash and SEND THEM TO YEMEN and NEVER LET THEM COME BACK to the USA. Especially since they already purchased their OWN one-way tickets!

  3. rev g says

    May 28, 2014 at 10:05 am

    That’s a magazine. The only clip my AK has is the one that the holds tension on the fire control pivot pins.

    • rev g says

      May 28, 2014 at 10:08 am

      Standard capacity too, not “high capacity”.

    • BSN ABO says

      May 29, 2014 at 2:54 pm

      It’s commonly called a “clip”

  4. Paleologos says

    May 28, 2014 at 10:06 am

    When you have a muslim turd president …

    http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r317/pikedagger1868/Obama.jpg

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCAffMSWSzY

    … and a bunch of brainless islamocrats in his administration that lack the mental skills to dial back to 911, or don’t care …

    http://barenakedislam.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/sept_11_attack_4.jpg

    This will be the kind of security “we the American people” will receive.

    I often contemplate going back to work for the U.S. Navy in my chosen career of U.S. Government Contract Negotiator … BUT NOT while we still have barry hussein, muslim turd in chief.

    R/

    Paleologos

  5. mariam rove says

    May 28, 2014 at 10:22 am

    what a joke. Meanwhile when I was passing through the Xray machine, it went off because I was wearing my son’s dog tag which they asked me to take off which refused. Meanwhile a whole Ak47 Mag. is getting by and the guy said I don’t know what to do with it and hes off of the hook. M

  6. Descendantofacrusader says

    May 28, 2014 at 10:55 am

    Moron goons! They’d let these Muslim Yehmini jihadists through and yet these same TSA dimwits and job rejects would frisk 70 year old Catholic nuns as potential ‘terrorist’ threats: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cjd/1418632004/

  7. RonaldB says

    May 28, 2014 at 11:17 am

    I honestly don’t see how they can be charged with the possession of a weapon when they simply were shipping empty magazines in their luggage. The federal regulations themselves don’t specify empty magazines as weapons, so it’s hard to see where the crime is committed.

    Also, there is a big difference between carry-on and checked baggage. The standards for items in checked baggage are far more lax: for example, you can have large containers of liquids in your checked luggage, whereas you can’t have even a shaving creme can in your check-in bag.

    If the man had a suitable explanation for the cash, and wasn’t violating any laws, then they should simply let him go. There is no information indicating that he had any criminal intent.

    The red flag, of a Yemini national buying a one-way ticket back to his homeland, is curious. If I were in Yemen, or any Muslim country for that matter, and got a ticket to the US, it would undoubtedly be one-way unless I had completely lost my mind.

    This type of case seems completely different from that, say, of the “flying imams”. The “flying imams” were, in all likelihood, consciously attempting to push the boundaries of overt jihadist actions that could be displayed on a plane without triggering a reaction from security. I doubt if they were connected to an organized plot to hijack an airline, because any publicity would be a negative factor for them. It was more equivalent to when CAIR attempts to quash a police surveillance of mosques or even intelligence gathering on Muslims by clipping newspapers. CAIR stays away from active involvement in jihad (for the most part), but lays the groundwork by widening gaps in security defenses.

    • Know Thy Enemy says

      May 28, 2014 at 2:24 pm

      Totally agree with your comment! It is embarrassing to watch our authorities (paid for by our taxes) play such circus only so they do not have to correctly identify the enemy.

    • richardl says

      May 29, 2014 at 2:24 am

      the law is very clear on both aspects: it is up to the airline to allow checked items to contain ammunition and gun parts/guns. They do not have to be declared. I checked a few days ago coming back from the US and having shopped at Bass.

      If you have currency over 10,000USD and do not declare it, it can be confiscated.

      These two Yemenis have probably worked in the US, done a little shopping, and have returned for good to their country.

      Their currency infraction should get them a life-long travel ban to the States. I hope.

  8. Undaunted says

    May 28, 2014 at 5:51 pm

    TSA; the Pros from Dover…

    http://freemendo.typepad.com/undaunted/2013/11/securitas-et-al.html

    (Picture all the way at the bottom of the link.)

  9. Elise says

    May 28, 2014 at 7:05 pm

    In some places in the US, having an empty magazine will get you arrested and cops will raid your home. Read all about Mark Witaschek and his arrest. However, if Mark had been Muslim, they would have considered him off limits.

  10. bill says

    May 29, 2014 at 10:09 am

    In a PC obsessed society they have to search wheelcahir bound pensioners in order to not be accused of racial profiling. The USA invented PC by the way and exported it around the world, now it has come back to bite you.

  11. Mirren10 says

    May 29, 2014 at 10:28 am

    On a recent holiday to Spain, my husband and I took a packed lunch to eat on the plane.

    Our cartons of tiramisu were confiscated, but my husband’s fishing tackle box, which contained lead weights, and steel hooks, was allowed through. These, of course, could have been deployed as weapons, had we been so inclined.

    As you Americans would say, go figure.

  12. jeff szabo says

    May 30, 2014 at 10:38 am

    Those are magazines, NOT CLIPS. Clips are totally different. Wikipedia has a wonderful description of both. No assault rifle takes a clip!

  13. Matt says

    Jun 1, 2014 at 2:20 am

    MAGAZINES, ROBERT, MAGAZINES! Drop and give us 20!

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