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| Paleo's vacation takes a detour in Tampa |
| 2007-03-03 |
| Maybe it was his desire to stand and stretch in the airplane. Maybe it was the gruesome images of torture he watched on his laptop that caught attention. Something about Iyad Abuhajjaj's behavior on a Southwest Airlines flight from Phoenix to Tampa on Wednesday afternoon concerned airline officials enough to call police. Police have not accused Abuhajjaj, 36, of any wrongdoing on the plane, but a search of his name revealed an Okaloosa County warrant for his arrest. On Thursday, the Palestinian health care worker and actor who lives in California was held without bail in the Hillsborough County jail. Deputies say Abuhajjaj met a Florida woman online in 2002, threatened her and used her AOL account without permission. In a jail interview, he told a reporter he suspected he was singled out on the plane because of his thick accent, dark hair and olive skin. "I felt like it was because of my ethnic background," he said. "The accent, that's probably it. It could be my look, my accent, I can't say for sure." Or maybe it could be: He said he needed a break from his job with a mental health organization. In the plane, he flipped open his laptop to watch scenes from a movie he's filming with Stanford University students. Called The Strange Case of Salman abd al Haqq, the film deals with the arrest and interrogation of terrorism suspects. Abuhajjaj plays an Egyptian secret service officer, said Jeff Orolowski, the film's co-director and a Stanford senior. Some scenes show violent and bloody torture of prisoners, Orolowski said. Characters speak in English and Arabic. Abuhajjaj wondered if passengers or crew members saw the footage. "Maybe somebody saw the scenes and thought it was real," he said. Then, he got up to use the restroom and started to stretch. A flight attendant asked him to sit down, while another passenger continued to stand up, he said. Frustrated, Abuhajjaj asked the flight attendants for names of their supervisors. When he got off the plane, he was detained by airport police, who questioned him. A police report says only that he was "a suspicious person," and that "Southwest personnel advised that the passenger's behavior changed during the flight." When a computer search showed the warrant, Abuhajjaj was taken to jail on charges stemming from accusations made against him in 2002 by a woman in Fort Walton Beach. Kimberly M. Mathis, a 29-year-old teacher at Rocky Bayou Christian School, accused him of threatening to kill her and misusing her family's Internet account. Mathis could not be reached for comment, but her father, Ron Mathis, said he distrusted Abuhajjaj because he is a Palestinian. "I won't go into the arena of judging anybody, but he himself I took as a threat to my daughter, my family and any American, living, breathing person," Mathis said. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #6 I know what I'd like to give them. |
| Posted by: mac 2007-03-03 17:12 |
| #5 from Sea's link "Bessiso said U.S. media only gives America “half the news,” and makes Americans “comfortable” with Israeli policy, despite its tendency to “take much and give less.” Yeah, cause everybody knows that Pallies have given more in the peace process than the Israelis have. Like, they've given...hey wait...what HAVE the Pallies given? Oh yeah, martyrs. But that's really "Indian giving", isn't it, cause they take back in heaven what they've given on earth. Plus they're really taking more than giving when they are suicide martyrs, cause so often they take away the lives of many other of God's creations in their martyrdom operations. So what is it they've given again? |
| Posted by: Jules 2007-03-03 08:38 |
| #4 from Emily's link: Translator Abuhajjaj said that many times he was forced to dress like a woman to get through checkpoints to attend school. so he's another cross-dressing Paleo. Do we need him here? Dress him up in something slinky and Israeli-blue by Armani and send him back. Interesting to hear the status of his visa with this criminal complaint against him.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-03-03 08:30 |
| #3 Welcome Abu to Disney's Detainees of the Caribbean. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-03-03 06:52 |
| #2 Ron Mathis, said he distrusted Abuhajjaj because he is a Palestinian. "I won't go into the arena of judging anybody, but he himself I took as a threat to my daughter, my family and any American, living, breathing person," Mathis said. You know this guy gromgoru? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-03-03 04:41 |
| #1 Iyad Abuhajjaj. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-03-03 01:09 |