Forum: Off-topic

An al Qaeda bomber stashing explosives in his underwear cakewalked onto a US-bound airliner after averting scans on two continents -- but the federal Homeland Security chief incredibly claimed yesterday that "everything happened that should have."

So the system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days....Now once this incident occurred, everything went according to clockwork. Not only sharing throughout the air industry, but also sharing with state and local law enforcement, products were going out on Christmas Day, they went out yesterday, and also to the industry to make sure that the traveling public remains safe.

"Which is a lot like bragging about how well Trojans work after your girlfriend is pregnant."

Why is it our own GI's returning from IRAQ have been questioned/detained for having 'trace explosives or gunpowder' on them when passing through airports; (Even though they have DoD ID cards, Official Orders that can be verified and travel in groups?)

New York (CNN) -- A man was questioned by the FBI after he was discovered to have taken a "pyrotechnic device" onto an airline flight from Baltimore, Maryland, to New York City, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told CNN Monday.

Man Flew Into NYC With Explosive Device
(NY POST) - Federal authorities questioned a Florida man after he left an explosive device resembling a firecracker on a US Airways flight from Baltimore to New York City’s LaGuardia Airport Sunday night.

The 4-inch-long, three-quarter-inch-wide explosive was found wedged between two seats. Authorities collared Thomas Ouelette, 67, of Bonita Springs, Fla., before he boarded his connecting Delta flight to Fort Myers, Fla.

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. - A Bonita Springs man is back in southwest Florida after being questioned by the FBI as to why he brought an explosive device on board a plane.

Federal agents say 67-year-old Thomas Ouellette left what is described as a firecracker like device beside his assigned seat on a connecting flight into Laguardia airport.

WINK news talked to Ouellette on the phone. He said the firecracker had been in his bag for years but he forgot about it. Ouellette said it fell out when the flight attendant handed him his bag.

Authorities say Ouellette was on US airways subsidiary Piedmont Airlines flight 4126 that landed around 730pm Sunday. The flight originated in Baltimore.

Cleaning crews found the device and contacted Port Authority who then contacted the FBI. Agents tracked Ouelette down and took him into custody.

Ouellette says the firework had been in his bag for at least five years and he had forgotten all about it. He believes it must have slipped out when a flight attendant handed him his suitcase.

Ouellette says he unknowingly brought the firecracker with him aboard more than a dozen flights and it has flown around the world with him. Nobody has ever stopped him for the firework.

Ouelette already had two outstanding warrants in Florida for "unlawful flight."

Ouelette was quoted as telling officials that he was unaware that bringing a firecracker on board was illegal

On Nov. 11, a Somali man in his late 30s walked into Mogadishu International Airport with an explosive device remarkably similar to the one that failed to detonate on Detroit-bound Northwest flight 253 on Christmas Day, authorities said.

It too had powdered chemicals, liquids and a syringe -- just like the one Abdulmutallab, 23, allegedly carried in his underwear and tried to detonate.

The Somali suspect, Abdi Hassan Abdi, was arrested at the airport and remains in custody. The final destination of the Daallo Airlines flight he tried to board was Dubai.

(CNN) -- A man tried to board a commercial airliner in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last month with chemicals that authorities believe could have been used as an explosive device, an African Union official said Wednesday.

The suspect, Abdi Hassan Abdi, tried to board a Daallo Airlines flight with a plastic bag containing 600 grams of ammonium nitrate and half a liter of concentrated sulfuric acid in a plastic bottle, according to Wafula Waminyinyi, the deputy special representative for the African Union Mission for Somalia.