Slovaks Place Plastic Explosives on Flight to Ireland

(AP)

Slovak officials on Wednesday blamed "a silly and unprofessional mistake" for a failed airport security test that led to a man unwittingly carrying hidden explosives in his bag aboard a flight to Dublin.

Dublin security chiefs said it was foolish for the Slovaks to hide bomb parts in the luggage of innocent passengers under any circumstances.

Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak expressed "profound regret" to the Irish government for the oversight and the three-day delay in alerting Irish authorities about the Saturday incident.

The explosives never posed a danger to the flight, the interior ministry said Wednesday, even as it ordered an immediate halt to such tests and took steps to prevent a repeat of failed security test.

Tibor Mako, the head of Slovakia's border and foreign police whose people carried out the exercise, offered his resignation Wednesday. There was no immediate word on whether it would be accepted.

Security experts said the episode illustrated the inadequacy of security screening of checked-in luggage - the very point the Slovak authorities had sought to test when they placed real bomb components in nine passengers' bags Saturday.

"The aim of the training was to keep sniffer dogs in shape and on alert in a real environment," the ministry said.

Eight items were detected. But one bag had two bomb components in it. The sniffer dog found one but the police officer in charge failed to remove the second, which was not detected by the dog, because he was busy, the ministry said.

That allowed 90 grams (3 ounces) of RDX plastic explosive to travel undetected through security at Poprad-Tatry Airport in central Slovakia onto a Danube Wings aircraft. The Slovak carrier launched services to Dublin last month.

"The police officer made a silly and unprofessional mistake, which turned the good purpose of protecting people into a problem," the statement said.

Slovak authorities realized their error and told the pilot of the Danube Wings flight, who then decided to still take off with the sample on board, the ministry statement said.

"No one was in danger, because the substance without any other components (needed to bring it to a detonation) and under the conditions it was stored, is not dangerous," the ministry said.

Slovak border police subsequently traced the man and told him where the explosive was planted so that he was able to find it Monday evening, said the ministry. Kalinak, the interior minister, called him to apologize.

The man was not identified. Slovak media said he is a 49-year-old electrician who works and lives in Ireland.

The ministry said it contacted Irish authorities and explained the situation on Tuesday, prompting Irish police to raid the man's Dublin apartment. A major north Dublin intersection was shut down Tuesday and neighboring apartment buildings were evacuated as a precaution while Irish Army experts inspected the explosive.

The man was detained for several hours then released without charge.

Irish police said they initially were led to believe the man might be a terrorist until the Slovaks explained the situation further.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said Dublin police eventually confirmed that the explosive "was concealed without his knowledge or consent ... as part of an airport security exercise."

The Slovak statement criticized the Irish police action.

"For an incomprehensible reason for us, they took the person into custody and undertook further security measures," it said.

Authorities in Slovakia were considering "new forms of sniffer dog training" to avoid a repeat of the scare, the ministry said.

Underwear Bomber boarded plane without passport

False Flag CIA Operation is the precursor to full body scans at all US airports.

Taylor lawyer suspects a cover-up

By NAOMI R. PATTON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A Taylor lawyer says he thinks authorities are seeking to discredit his account that an older, well-dressed Indian man helped terror defendant Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab board Flight 253 from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit without a passport.

Kurt Haskell said Thursday that two FBI investigators who questioned him Tuesday morning asked the same basic questions they asked passengers just after the flight ended. He said he suspects sloppy security has led to a cover-up.


Sandra Berchtold, an FBI spokeswoman in Detroit, and a Department of Justice representative in Washington, D.C., both declined to comment.


Haskell is the only known passenger to provide an account of Abdulmutallab being helped by a second man. Haskell's wife, Lori Haskell, said she was distracted by the couple's card game.

Exclusive Audio: Was Bomber Ushered on to Flight 253 Without Papers?

by Larry O'Connor

Earlier today, while guest hosting on The Dennis Miller Show, Andrew Breitbart interviewed Kurt Haskell from Taylor, Michigan. Mr. Haskell was a passenger on the now infamous Flight 253 on Christmas day from Amsterdam to Detroit. We all know now how this flight ended (with the Flying Dutchman careening across multiple seats to stop a would-be-suicide bomber from exploding the plane and hundreds of innocent lives). But, Mr. Haskell shared his story of what he witnessed before anyone even boarded the plane.
While waiting in the holding area in the Amsterdam airport, in a room designated for only the passengers of Flight 253, Mr. Haskell saw a well-dressed man of apparent Indian descent accompany a young, poorly attired man of African descent to the boarding gate. What Mr. Haskell saw and heard next is of seemingly great significance:

“I could clearly hear the conversation… the Indian man said: ‘This man needs to board the plane, he doesn’t have a passport….’ The ticket agent responded, ‘you’ll need to see my manager…’. That was the last time I saw the Indian man and it was the last time I saw the black man until later in the day when he tried to blow up our plane.”

Ron Paul goes mainstream, Ben Bernanke goes berserk!

This may be the greatest show on earth: Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R) is picking up major bipartisan support for his proposal to audit the Federal Reserve Board, and as this happens, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke is showing signs of near-panic at the prospect of being audited.

As liberal Democrats increasingly join with conservative Republicans in Paul's move to audit the Fed, Bernanke has been churning out speeches, op-eds and interviews warning of Armageddon if this occurs.

It is interesting how the Federal Reserve Board, long the champion of fiscal and monetary prudence when others spend money, has declared war on the idea that anyone should account for how the Fed spends money.

Think about it: In the largest bailout in history, neither the public nor members of Congress can even make an intelligent estimate of how much money the Fed has actually spent, or exactly how it is being spent, or exactly who are the major beneficiaries of much of the spending. We know taxpayers, consumers and jobless workers are not the beneficiaries, but we don’t even remotely know the full story of exactly which institutions benefit from exactly which programs.

The stakes are very high, and as this battle unfolds it will continue to be the greatest show on earth, and one of the most important.

TSA Changes procedure after Ron Paul Incident

WASHINGTON — Transportation Security Administration screeners at Lambert-St.
Louis International Airport probably wish that the fellow they chose to grill
last March about a box of cash wasn't a Ron Paul devotee who runs a committee
devoted to individual rights and constitutional government.

But grill Steven Bierfeldt they did, and eight months later the incident has
yielded revised rules requiring TSA agents to stick to matters related to
flight security rather than policing airports for other crimes.

Bierfeldt and the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented him in a
lawsuit, announced in a news release this week that the TSA had changed its
rules in response to the litigation.

"It's a huge victory for civil liberties that TSA agents no longer have free
rein to conduct sweeping, baseless searches and detain passengers who don't
pose a threat to flight safety," Bierfeldt said in a statement.

The TSA was closed Wednesday for Veterans Day, and the agency did not
immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

A TSA spokeswoman, Lauren Gaches, acknowledged to the Washington Times on
Tuesday that the policy with regard to cash had changed but declined to release
copies of directives. The newspaper quoted her as saying that the TSA
"routinely assesses its policies and screening procedures to ensure the highest
levels of security nationwide."

Last spring, a TSA blog post defended the questioning but concluded that
"language used by the TSA employee was inappropriate."

A later blog post referring to "the St. Louis incident" says that "the tone and
language used by the TSA employee was inappropriate, and proper disciplinary
action was taken."

Bierfeldt said he was ushered to a small room and questioned after passing a
metal box containing $4,700 through a Lambert screening checkpoint. He said the
cash related to his job as director of development for the Campaign for
Liberty, a lobbying group that sprouted from the presidential campaign last
year of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican from Texas.

Bierfeldt said he was interrogated for a half-hour in an increasingly
threatening manner and told he was being placed under arrest. He recorded audio
of the episode on his iPhone.

Bierfeldt's suit contended that the TSA's pre-flight screening should be aimed
at keeping weapons and explosives off airplanes.

Before it was due to be heard in September, the ACLU said the TSA issued a
policy directive stating that "screening may not be conducted to detect
evidence of crimes unrelated to transportation security."

The government agency responded in October with a second directive pointing out
that transporting large amounts of cash is not illegal, the release said. The
ACLU added that it is taking steps to drop the suit on Bierfeldt's behalf.