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2007-11-02 Home Front: WoT

2 men arrested with knives at Atlanta airport

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Posted by Fred 2007-11-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top
File under: Global Jihad

#1 Federal authorities did not press charges

Find and fire the person who decided NOT to press charges.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-11-02 00:27|| 2007-11-02 00:27|| Front Page Top

#2 agreed #1, also how is it decided so quickly to have terrorism ruled out.
If folks don't even get their hands slapped they will make more attempts to sneak stuff through.

Posted by Jan 2007-11-02 00:43|| 2007-11-02 00:43|| Front Page Top

#3 Upon searching Patels bag three more times, they found razor blades

Certainly a TSA confidence building eh?

Posted by Besoeker 2007-11-02 00:55|| 2007-11-02 00:55|| Front Page Top

#4 Upon searching Patels bag three more times, they found razor blades

Certainly a TSA confidence builder eh?

(Mr/Ms Mod, delete 3 please, apologies on the grammar)

Posted by Besoeker 2007-11-02 00:58|| 2007-11-02 00:58|| Front Page Top

#5 Find and fire the person who decided NOT to press charges.

End of story, RJ.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-11-02 01:40|| 2007-11-02 01:40|| Front Page Top

#6 Local news here in Atlanta mentioned the razor blades (concealed) and the "martial-arts" style knife, stating it was HUGE (sounded more like a mini-sword). BUT, they also mentioned that they found a box-cutter (sound familiar?), and also mentioned OTHER knives hidden in aluminum foil (to throw off the metal detectors). I'm not familiar with Indian-born terrorists, but given the war-zone between India and Pakistan (Kashmir), it's possible they're starting stuff here.

Posted by BA 2007-11-02 10:09|| 2007-11-02 10:09|| Front Page Top

#7 Patel is not a Muslim name. But that does not mean A)the men aren't converts, or B)that those are their real names. The thought occurs to me that Pakistan has a false passport industry. Nor does the article snippet say where the gentlemen are from, originally -- only their current itinerary.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-11-02 11:34|| 2007-11-02 11:34|| Front Page Top

#8 From the Atlanta Journal Constitution...

It was, depending on your interpretation, a serious breach of security at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport - or much ado about very little.

Yeah, knives amnd razor blades on a plane? Since when has that led to any trouble?

Two men, both Indian nationals, now face state weapons charges after one was stopped at a security screening point with a folding knife and steak knives in his carry-on luggage. His traveling companion was pulled from a flight and found with a razor blade in his possession.

Federal officials questioned the two and found no connection to any terrorist activity and no criminal intent for their Oct. 25 Atlanta-to-New York flight. No federal charges were filed, and the men could be kicked out of the country before they are prosecuted by the state.

Nah, nuthin to see here. Enjoy your trip, boys...

"We did not get any indication they had planned any overt act on the plane," said FBI spokesman Steve Emmett. "We are deferring to local charges."

Federal officials say they have no idea why Chhaganbhai Patel, 60, or Shakarabhai Patel, 64, had knives and razor blades. Chhaganbhai Patel has been charged with a misdemeanor for carrying a concealed weapon and Shakarabhai Patel has been charged with a felony in connection with having prohibited items on or around an aircraft.

Nope. It's a mystery. Guess we'll never know...

The men were booked on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to JFK in New York and then a connecting flight to Mumbai, India.

Transportation Security Administration officers discovered a double-bladed folding knife, 20 steak knives wrapped in foil and several old-fashioned razor blades in their original wrappers concealed in the battery compartment of a toy car when Chhaganbhai Patel passed through a security screening gate. TSA officers immediately interviewed him and discovered his traveling companion already had been through the security area and boarded the plane.

Officers took Shakarabhai Patel off the plane, which was still parked at the gate, and searched his baggage, said Lt. Jim Carlino, the evening airport watch commander for the Atlanta Police Department.

"He got on the plane with one of those razor blades," Carlino said. "It was in one of the bags."

Carlino said Shakarabhai Patel also carried $5,000 in cash.

The 4 p.m. flight was delayed about five hours after the incident because passengers were removed from the plane and rescreened "out of an abundance of caution," said Atlanta-based TSA spokesman Jon Allen.

Allen said the incident shows the security screening process works, even though one man made it aboard his flight with a razor blade.

"We're always looking to raise the bar on security," Allen said. "We have not made any changes as a direct result of this, but we are continuing to review this incident."

The two men, meanwhile, were placed in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thursday because their visas had expired.

ICE special agent Ken Smith said ICE will coordinate with local prosecutors and police investigators to determine the men's fate. One option, he said, is simply to deport them without pursuing the charges any further.

Posted by tu3031 2007-11-02 11:35|| 2007-11-02 11:35|| Front Page Top

#9 Thanks, tu3031. So the gentlemen have been arrested and charged for being in the country with expired visas and having prohibited items at the airport. They've disappeared into the Homeland Security maw, and officialdom has decided not to tell us what they have or will have learnt about them and their connections in Mumbai/Bombay. I think it's about this point that Fred would write (highlighted in a block of post-it note yellow)

"More giggle juice, Shakarabhai?"
"Yesh, pleash, Mishter Inveshtogiter shir!"

Posted by trailing wife 2007-11-02 11:49|| 2007-11-02 11:49|| Front Page Top

#10 They sure try to hush these things up, don't they? The Goose Creek deal, Ft. Dix and how many other little low level whackos trying to make a big bang. It's a wonder since 9/11 none of them has gotten through because they sure keep trying.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2007-11-02 12:18|| 2007-11-02 12:18|| Front Page Top

#11 A. If they were planning on nastiness on the plane, why would they have 5000 in cash on them? The 72 virgins do it for free, right?

B. Sounds more like, if they were planning festivities, it was back in India. OTOH who would smuggle armed terrs FROM the US to South Asia? South Asia kinda has comparative advantage on boomers, no? White converts headed for training would be something else, but wouldnt be traveling armed.

More likely stories - these guys are smuggling cash, as part of a money laundering scheme, whether connected to terrorism, to drugs, or to something more pederstrian, and wanted weapons cause, well, they were carrying a lot of cash.

Or else they were just stupid.

Meanwhile they are held on state charges, while the Feds can do a little more checking, without revealing their hand.

Posted by Liberalhawk 2007-11-02 12:32|| 2007-11-02 12:32|| Front Page Top

#12 Hanging them at the entrance to the airport, coating their bodies with plastic and irradiating them to kill all bacteria, and not removing them would do a lot more to stop terrorism than TSA ever could. If you're going to send a message, don't make it a timid note written in crayon, but something loud enough to be heard, regardless of how much background noise there is.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2007-11-02 12:52|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2007-11-02 12:52|| Front Page Top

#13 Perhaps the 20 steak knives were to be distributed to others during the New York Layover. they would probably have been allowed to deplane while there and since most airports have securoty at the head of a particular corridor, there would have been nothing stopping a lot of 'festivities' from occurring. and 5 K divided by 20 = only $250, that would be amlost enough for a quick drink ( non alcoholic of course) before the final act.
there is a lot more here than meets the eye.

Posted by USN,Ret. 2007-11-02 13:51|| 2007-11-02 13:51|| Front Page Top

#14 Who was going to meet them in New
York???

FBI, spit

Posted by Icerigger">Icerigger 2007-11-02 14:43|| 2007-11-02 14:43|| Front Page Top

#15 If they were planning on nastiness on the plane, why would they have 5000 in cash on them?

While the 9-11 atrocity set a new precedent, nowhere is it stated that these maggots could not have performed a standard old fashioned hijacking and used the passengers as bargaining chips for the release of Gitmo detainees or other even more valuable prisoners like Sheik Abul Rahman, Zacarias Moussaoui and so forth.

They'd better be squeezing this pair of zits till the blood starts running.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-11-02 16:27|| 2007-11-02 16:27|| Front Page Top

#16 #15.

Mebbe. Though that hasnt been AQ's MO since 2001, either, assuming these guys are AQ. I also think two guys with knives, even with 20 knives, are gonna have one helluva time managing a hostage situation. But then maybe they were gonna meet colleagues in NY. Still, arranging the rendez vous and weapons distribution is pretty chancy. And we STILL dont know the names are faked. Im also not sure that having a 64 YO along is a good idea.

So while I couldnt say its IMPOSSIBLE for it to be terrorism, I think its more likely it was something else, either something innocent, or something guilty but different from political-religious terrorism.

But I do hope they are thoroughly interrogated.

Posted by Liberalhawk 2007-11-02 16:40|| 2007-11-02 16:40|| Front Page Top

#17 Patel is a Punjab name, generally indicating a Sikh. However, some Muslims have that name, and Punjabis are the oppressor majority in the terror entity of Pakistan.

Posted by McZoid 2007-11-02 18:29|| 2007-11-02 18:29|| Front Page Top

23:57 Redneck Jim
23:50 JosephMendiola
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23:42 Redneck Jim
23:34 JosephMendiola
23:25 Zenster
23:22 JosephMendiola
23:22 twobyfour
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23:19 Abdominal Snowman
23:18 JosephMendiola
23:14 Rambler
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22:57 Redneck Jim