Dutch release 2 men arrested on flight from Chicago

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

WASHINGTON -- The two Yemeni men arrested after flying from O'Hare International Airport to Amsterdam were released from custody in the Netherlands today after an investigation showed no evidence of a crime, a Dutch official said.

The two initially had been suspected of preparing for a terror attack.

Floris van Hovell, an official with the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, said the men were released at approximately 11 a.m. Chicago time.

Van Hovell said Dutch authorities took the case very seriously because U.S. officials had told them that a preliminary test on luggage belonging to one of the men showed traces of explosives after both already had left aboard a United flight from Chicago to Amsterdam.


Read more: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/09/dutch-release-2-men-arrested-on-flight-from-chicago.html

[indepat]

1. Just curious: how does one get traces of an explosive on one's luggage and is there not traces of

illegal drugs on a goodly portion of U.S. currency? :)

[1monster]

6. Nitrates. Fertilizers which are used at airports all over the US. Had an

acquaintance go through HELL at LAX because she was wearing an orthopaedic boot made of neoprene when she left the walkway to sit on a bench in the middle of a patch of grass. The grass had recently been fertilized and the nitrates stayed on her boot, but not on her regular shoe.

She was detained for more than an hour, forced to sit on a hard chair with her arms and legs stretched straight out (despite having serious soft tissue damage in her neck and shoulders and problems with her ankle). During that hour, she was harassed and harangued by TSA officers who believed that she involved in some plot to bomb something or other.

She was in such pain from the physical stress of the position they made her sit that she had tears rolling down her face. One of the lower level TSA agents had some compassion for her and helped her by holding her legs up for her.

She demanded to see a superior TSA agent. They brought her a TSA officer who claimed to be an expert in nitrates.

When my acquaintance asked the TSA nitrate "expert" if the grass around the walkway had been recently fertilized, the "expert" asked what the heck did fertilization have to do with nitrates? :eyes:

In the end, they decided that she was no threat and let her go to catch her flight. As she left, she was so angry that, from several yards down the walkway, she shouted, "I hope some (very politically incorrect term deleted) terrorist blows this place off the Earth!" One TSA agent started after her, while another held the TSA agent back and let her go.

However, don't feel too badly for her. The lesson was lost as she decided that it was worth the hassle and the pain to make sure we are safe. She was a friend for nearly thirteen years despite her narrow minded Republican views which have degenerated in to ardent Tea Baggist views in the past year or so. She chose to call me pitiful and end the friendship when I told her (again and after we decided years ago not to ever discuss politics) when I refused to debate with her on the subject of Fred Thompson and Rachel Maddow. I chose not to mend the rift because, after years of ignoring insults and other short comings on her part, I could not keep my self respect if I allowed her to call me "pitiful" for not sharing her views and not (very) mildly calling her on it. (Quote from me: "I don't want to argue politics with you which is why I never send you political stuff and very rarely answer the political stuff you send me. You anwer is part of the reason.") And she wrote back that she no longer wanted to deal with that kind of negativity and she would delete any further e-mails from me.

I didn't send any further e-mails for her to delete.

[jberryhill]

20. Because the test is not for "explosive", but for nitrogen compounds common to other things /nt

[gratuitous]

2. Whaddya mean "no evidence of a crime"?

They're not lily white! That's all the evidence required in the U.S. anymore. You Dutch clearly hate our troops and want the terrorists to win.

[The Stranger]

3. You can thank Nazi bigots like Glen Beck and Michael "Savage" for hate like this.

These idiots had cell phones taped to shampoo bottles, and it was somehow construed to be a bomb. Then, when they realized it REALLY WAS just a bottle of shampoo, and it REALLY WAS just a cell phone, they decided to make it a "dry run" terrorist act.

What a witch hunt.

[24601]

4. Yes, we all know Beck pulls Obama's strings. For all his faults,

look again who controls the FBI, CIA, et al.

[greiner3]

5. You forgot your sarcasm icon again.

[awoke_in_2003]

7. why do you tape a watch to a bottle...

of pepto bismol and a cell phone to a bottle of shampoo? Watches and cell phones have been used as timers and detonators on liquid explosive containers before. It was either a dry run to see if the xray people were paying attention, or they were fucking with security. Either one is kinda stupid.

[customerserviceguy]

8. I'm going with the 'dry run' theory

At least the next bombers know that it's possible to get caught.

[jberryhill]

14. Try this experiment

Pretend you are a thief in the luggage area of an airport.

Now,pack a bag and put a cell phone in the bag.

Close the bag.

Now, open the bag a little bit, slip in your hand, and see if you can find the cell phone by feel and slip it out and into your pocket while, say, looking around the room nonchalantly.

Okay, now, try it again, but this time, duct tape the phone to a large pink bottle.

Duh

[Lightning Count]

9. What if I need to call my shampoo? nt

[The abyss]

12. Assuming of course that we have been told the truth about what the TSA observed.

[jberryhill]

13. You're going to have to come to grips with the fact...

...that not everybody thinks the same way.  

Perhaps asking them why they packed that way would be a good start, and I'll bet the investigators were smart enough to happen upon that clever strategy for determining why this guy packed his stuff the way he did.  

I'll tell you my theory though. I do a lot of international travel, and have been through airports in Morocco, Egypt, Brazil, Kenya, Thailand and other places where the security and baggage handlers tend to be somewhat acquisitive, and your TSA approved luggage lock will be cut.   I also travel with a fair amount of electronic gear.  The first rule is that anything in your checked luggage of value is subject to theft, and you have to accept that.  But even squirrely places have surveillance, so it is advantageous to attach small items to larger items to deter pilferage.  I put things inside of unrelated things, wind my spare network cable around stuff, and duct tape together things like spare batteries, chargers etc.  

A luggage handler or security checker can easily slip a cell phone into his pocket.  A bottle of Pepto, not so much. 

But you have a limited imagination and therefore know everything.

[Cal Carpenter]

16. Apparently they were gifts for people back home

and they taped certain things together that were for particular people, and this is quite typical to do. I read that in some article over the last couple days.

Furthermore, I find it funny that people think they would do a 'dry run' - why would someone take the chance of getting caught like that if their plan was to do it for real some day? Why attract such attention, get one's name on a list, as a 'dry run'? That would be ridiculous.

Anyway, you make good points, and I hope some of these suspicious people listen to what you say. People do things in different ways for reasons which may not be obvious.

[jberryhill]

17. Good point

In any event, my observation was directed to the self appointed arbiters of "unusual behavior" when we are talking about over one million air passengers from all over the world every day.

And, as a travel tip, if there is anything small in your luggage you value, taping it to a larger object is a generally good idea to deter pilferage. I do it, and had not really considered that I was conducting "dry runs" for terrorism.

The folks I really can't figure out are the passengers who shrink wrap their luggage in plastic film. Some foreign airports have kiosks where you can do that. If I was working security, I'd cut those open in a heartbeat since it looks like they are trying to deter inspection.

[Lightning Count]

18. Very odd.

So little Sami gets the cell phone and the head and shoulders and Neda gets the Pepto and the watch. They'll be ecstatic. :)

[jberryhill]

19. Lol...

That's why I think there is a "whisper down the lane" effect going on with the alleged explanation.

Attaching small valuables to larger objects in luggage is something I do to deter casual pilferage, so it doesn't seem odd to me.

What happens in the US with missing items is that the baggage handlers blame the TSA, and the TSA blames the baggage handlers, so you'll never get a clear resolution on missing luggage items.

So, I think the gift thing makes sense, but "Happy birthday, here's a cell phone and Pepto" does come across as odd. But that is probably just garbling of what the investigators found out, down the chain of communication.

[The Stranger]

21. People pack all kinds of crazy ways. How the fuck should I know?

Apparently, those who have actual knowledge of how timers and detonators are used found that it wasn't a fucking timer or detonator, and not intended to look like one.

[superconnected]

10. In America they'd be put in Guantanamo for suspicion, for hte next decade.

[Moosepoop]

11. The weird items were first found by TSA screeners in Birmingham, Alabama

They deemed them to be "no threat" and let the men onto their flight.

[Nihil]

15. Oh! Shiny! Pretty things!

Look over there!

Terrorists!

Foreign people!

Wikileaks!

Celebrities!

Pull the wool over the eyes of the ignorant morons with short attention spans!