Breaking: Iraqi National Detained At LAX Hiding Wires, Magnets, and Something Else... (UPDATE: False alarm? TSA Still Managed To Endanger Lives...)

UPDATE 7 - Pending further developments, it looks like this one is wrapped up. Best quote of the day has to go to Larry Fetters, LAX security directory for TSA: "There never was a threat". No kidding - just ask the passengers and crew who sat above Maliki's luggage after TSA failed to pull it from the plane, who are very lucky that this was a false alarm. No thanks to TSA.

UPDATE 6 - Now this is interesting:

The man was identified as Fadhel Maliki, 35, of Atlantic City, N.J., an Iraqi national who has been in the United States since 1994, according to Ethel McGuire, the FBI assistant special agent assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Maliki was going through preflight screening when he was pulled aside after acting suspicious, officials said. He had been previously flagged based on a travel profile, but officials refused to discuss details.

We've got Iraqi nationals on security watchlists (of some sort or another - obviously not the no-fly list) wandering around airports with wires strapped to their bodies. They're so suspicious that they raise red flags for LAX behavior profilers. And still they're not pulled aside until they're in the middle of what must have been a packed security line. This nation's airports are breathtakingly vulnerable.

Oh, and of course - and still the plane was allowed to take off with his luggage, plus 149 passengers and crew who had been failed by security.

UPDATE 5 - Initial reports when the bomb squad was called in had two men being detailed, not one. Coupled with the confusion that must have led to Maliki's luggage (not) being removed from the plane, one really has to wonder - who the hell is supposed to be in charge up there?

UPDATE 4 - 149 people were aboard the flight that was allowed to leave with Maliki's luggage on board.

UPDATE 3 - Newsweek actually focuses on how the flight he was supposed to be on was diverted because nobody bothered to remove the luggage of the Iraqi national who had been stopped for having magnets and wires hidden in body cavities. Well played TSA, well played.

UPDATE 2 - Why was the plane allowed to leave with al-Maliki's luggage, despite the fact that he had been stopped presumably over an hour before takeoff?

Maliki, 35, who lives in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was preparing to board a US Airways flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. The flight left without Maliki but with his luggage aboard. It made an unscheduled landing in Las Vegas, where the plane was thoroughly searched but nothing was found, officials said.

Because TSA sucks, and TSA in LAX sucks in ways that are often staggering to contemplate.

UPDATE 1 - Reuters says false alarm:

An Iraqi national wearing wires and concealing a magnet inside his rectum triggered a security scare at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday but officials said he posed no apparent threat. The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Fadhel al-Maliki, 35, set off an alarm during passenger screening at the airport early on Tuesday morning. A police bomb squad was called to examine what was deemed a suspicious item found during a body cavity search of the man. Local media reports said a magnet was found in his rectum...

"There never was a threat," Fetter said. He said police and the FBI were called in from "an abundance of caution" because Maliki was "so bizarre in his behavior." Maliki, who had a U.S. green card, was being questioned by immigration officials about his immigration status.

What was the nonthreatening magnet doing up his rectum and why were there nonthreatening wires attached to it? No details on that part. But given that neither local nor national news is breaking in to cover this, it seems like a nonstory.

ORIGINAL - LA outlets posted news about this a couple hours ago, and we just heard it on the radio now. CNN and Fox News don't seem to have it online, and we just turned on their TV channels. Nothing there either. A reader sends in the following, based on a radio report:

An Iraqi national named El-Maliki was detained at LAX with wires, a magnet, and something else they're not saying [hidden] up his rectum. He says it was for therapeutic [reasons]

The LAT story linked above doesn't mention anything about a hidden object, although it does say he was carrying a "suspicious object". Also nothing about magnets. We're not sure if that's an error in the radio report of the LA Times downplaying a potential terror plot, but we're sure fuller details should be forthcoming.

References:
* Iraqi national carrying suspicious object detained at LAX [LAT]

Previously:
* Are These Union Jobs?
* Airport Security in This Country is a Bad Joke
* Public Security In Los Angeles Sucks Disgracefully