Two men taken off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam United Airlines flight in the Netherlands have been charged by Dutch police with "preparation of a terrorist attack," U.S. law enforcement officials tell ABC News.U.S. officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were termed "mock bombs" in their luggage.
"This was almost certainly a dry run, a test," said one senior law enforcement official.A spokesman for the Dutch public prosecutor, Ernst Koelman, confirmed the two men were arrested this morning and said "the investigation is ongoing." He said the arrests were made "at the request of American authorities."
The two were allowed to board the flight at O'Hare airport last night despite security concerns surrounding one of them, the officials said.
The men were identified as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, of Detroit, MI, and Hezem al Murisi, the officials said. A neighbor of al Soofi told ABC News he is from Yemen.
Airport security screeners in Birmingham, Alabama first stopped al Soofi and referred him to additional screening because of what officials said was his "bulky clothing."
In addition, officials said, al Soofi was found to be carrying $7,000 in cash and a check of his luggage found a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, three cell phones taped together, several watches taped together, a box cutter and three large knives.
Officials said there was no indication of explosives and he and his luggage were cleared for the flight from Birmingham to Chicago O'Hare.
Once in Chicago, officials say they learned al Soofi checked his luggage on a flight to Washington's Dulles airport for connections on flights to Dubai and then Yemen, even though he did not board the flight himself.
Full story here.
Dulles? I wonder if there is any connection between this story and the next one:
Nine Passengers Removed from United Flight After Comment Made
Nine passengers boarding a United Airlines flight at Washington's Dulles International Airport were removed after a passenger made a comment to a flight attendant. What exactly the person said is unclear, but it was considered enough of a "threat" to prompt the pilot to make a decision to boot that person and eight accompanying passengers off the Tampa-bound flight, AOL Travel News has learned.
United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy says she can confirm only that the passengers were removed from the flight after the comment, talked with United representatives at Dulles and were re-booked on another flight. She would not disclose the nature of the comment.
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority says Dulles airport police officers were called to the gate area, but the passengers were already off the plane when they arrived and they were not involved in the interviews. No one was detained.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was asked to check the passenger names against its "no fly" list, but otherwise was not involved in the incident.
"We are aware of the situation," a TSA spokesman says.
Other passengers continued on to Tampa as scheduled.
9 comments:
Muslims are planning to sabotage the London rail network during the 2012 Olympics: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/151458/2012-Olympics-attack-fear/
This is yet another example of subversion, sedition and sabotage by the enemy within: http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/01/muslim-subversion-sedition-and-social.html
Given that the "victimization" campaign by Muslims has been kicked into high gear, what is likely to be the result of a major terrorist attack at this time?
$7000 IS SUSPECIOUS..??
and a Muslim shows up with $4,700,000 for the Victory Mosque, who was a waiter 5 years ago and no one finds that suspecious..??
Good point, BR.
A waiter 5 years ago? Not according to SoHo Properties web archive:
2006 website page identifies Soho Properties Executive Team:
“Sharif El-Gamal, Chairman and CEO, founded Soho Properties in 2003 to focus on commercial real estate capital markets, and tail leasing. Sharif is known for negotiating aggressively, fairly and intelligently. Under Sharif’s leadership, Soho Properties was ranked in the top 25 New York City investment sales brokerage firms for 2005.
Sharif began his real estate career in 2000 and has originated for acquisition or disposition virtually every real estate asset type, including loft buildings, development sites, and retail properties of all shapes and sizes. He has been involved in a number of multimillion dollar transactions for clients including Angelo, Gordon & Co. Centaur Properties, Centurion Properties, DCD Capital, The Sapir Organization, and Vornado Realty Trust among many others.
Sharif supports a variety of local and national philanthropic organizations. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York.
BTW:
In July 2009, the real estate company and developer Soho Properties, led by Sharif El-Gamal purchased the Burlington building
“, initially planning to build a condominium complex at the site.”
and
The deception was not a simple offer/purchase:
“El-Gamal didn’t spring this on the neighborhood. He says it took eight years to negotiate the purchase. “
–so how many palms were greased in this eight year period?
P.S. The Burlington Building was sold under false pretenses - as a proposed condominum complex - after 8 years of negotiations - settling at below market value price . ..then Developers of Park51/Cordoba Form Nonprofit from condominium non-prophet to non-profit?
comment posted at linked article:
". . .8.30.2010 @ 9:34PM by Chris
I was on this flight .. it got pretty dramatic on the plane as passengers were getting scared .. security came on board and removed 9 guys, and demanded that they take their bags .. then they asked all the passengers to check and make sure their bag was still in the overhead, and that they did not take anything that was not theirs and leave what they brought .. then the pilot made a very nervous announcement, prompting about half the passengers to leave the plane .. people were getting up demanding to get off, and a flight attendant said she understood why people were nervous .. it was a nice feeling to finally land in Tampa without exploding in the air ..."
"8.30.2010 @ 9:49PM by Chris
They never told us what was said, but like I mentioned, security escorted 9 guys off the plane, all middle eastern looking, and none of them argued. You could kind of see this happening if you were sitting on the plane."
Wow.
Thanks for posting that here.
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