Wednesday, March 07, 2007

No Threat

Interesting piece of news. Reuters reports that: "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. 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. "He was secreting these items in a body cavity and that was a great concern because there were also some electric wires associated with that body cavity," Larry Fetters, security director for the Transportation Security Administration at the airport, told reporters. ... 'There never was a threat,' Fetter said."

Just two posts ago, in "Lifestyle Control", it was noted that mini-grenades can fit in body cavities. Here's the source article describing how a V40 grenade was found in a Central American prisoner's rectum.


Guards at the San Francisco Gotera prison outside the capital San Salvador found the V40 grenade, about the size of a golf ball, lodged up the man's rectum during a security clampdown, a prison spokesman said on Thursday. They also caught another 16 inmates who each swallowed a mobile phone. ... Last year, prison guards found an M67 grenade in the vagina of a female visitor at the overcrowded La Esperanza-Mariona prison on the northern fringes of San Salvador.

Here's an accompanying illustration from Pajamas Media.

16 Comments:

Blogger Alexis said...

This report is ominous. Whether a bomb was found is less important than whether people are being sent to scout our defenses.

3/07/2007 06:14:00 AM  
Blogger Ash said...

ohmigod,

Not only do we have to remove our shoes and throw out any liquid before boarding a plane now we've got to do what!!???

3/07/2007 06:25:00 AM  
Blogger Thomas_Bowdler said...

Recall the two aircraft brought down by Chechen women who are believed to have explosives strapped to their torsos? TSA increased screening of bosoms and the naughty bits area and there was a tremendous outcry forcing some scaling back of the pat down procedures. The limited ability to respond to the threat is a function of what the public will accept, not solely what the government can do.

3/07/2007 07:54:00 AM  
Blogger dmb2459 said...

Why was the plane permitted to take off without his luggage being checked first?

3/07/2007 10:10:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

I hear...a...melody...
Fly Me to the Moon...

3/07/2007 11:59:00 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

"wearing wires and concealing a magnet inside his rectum"

I wonder what his excuse was.

3/07/2007 12:01:00 PM  
Blogger joe buz said...

No Threat, this al-Maliki was just practicing green sex and magnetic therapy. What were the accessible ends of the wires attached to?

3/07/2007 12:11:00 PM  
Blogger legaleagle said...

Well, what the hell is your point? And what does "no threat" refer to? It sure seems as though you're trying to suggest that this story means something, but you don't have the balls to spell it out.

3/07/2007 12:22:00 PM  
Blogger joe buz said...

legal, I will not speak for our benefactor, but my take is that the "no threat" ref. is a quote from the Reuters article, provided here as sarcasm. Most everyone here realizes that this incident most likely represents just one of perhaps several dry runs at our TSA screening procedures. What exactly with balls would you prefer to read here?

3/07/2007 12:43:00 PM  
Blogger allen said...

Speaking of the “meaning” peculiar travel wear:

This outfit will be promptly returned to the seamstress for alterations. (A size 3, indeed!)

Burqa-clad Taliban leader caught as NATO attacks

Secondarily as an afterthought, since Coulter's cavalier use of the "Edwards" word, one cannot be too careful. But, then, I could be wrong. With the streets ankle deep in bloggers’ blood, however, why take unnecessary risk.

3/07/2007 01:09:00 PM  
Blogger NahnCee said...

Well, we always suspicioned the jihadists were nuts, but now there appears to be proof. Following from today's LA Times:

Al-Maliki, a former security guard, told screeners that he knew what had triggered the alarm and proceeded to remove items from his rectum, including a rock, chewing gum and thin wire filament.

Larry Fetters, federal security director at LAX, said at news conference that Transportation Security Administration officers had become alarmed because Al-Maliki was acting strange but initially refused to identify the items he had hidden.

...During questioning, Al-Maliki said the objects in his rectum were used to alleviate stress, federal law enforcement sources said.

The rock, authorities said he told them, was from another planet."

...insert woooo-eeee-oooo music from The Twilight Zone ...

3/07/2007 04:41:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

legaleagle,

"No threat" was how TSA assessed the matter, presumably after determining that the passenger's elevator didn't go to the top floor and the objects in his rectum were inert. However, physically speaking, it should be obvious that technology has made it possible for potentially lethal objects to be concealed in body cavities. I wouldn't even put it past the enemy to put mini-bombs in the body cavity of a child.

That physical possibility will mean that in a certain percentage of cases, body cavities will have to be investigated more thoroughly, whether by imaging or direct examination. But security always comes at a cost, whether in passwords that are difficult to remember or in strict screening procedures. So you can also ask yourself whether this development also poses "no threat" to the accustomed liberties and customs of individuals. In my own view, the correct formulation should have been "no threat this time". Because we don't know anything about the probabilities of the "next time" except that they are no longer zero and maybe we all have to pay the premium in inconvenience to insure against the contingent event.

3/07/2007 05:01:00 PM  
Blogger dmb2459 said...

An update today said he had prior criminal convictions in the AC area and previously served time in prison.

3/07/2007 08:52:00 PM  
Blogger M. Simon said...

I wonder what his excuse was.

Homeopathic hemroid remedy.

3/07/2007 09:04:00 PM  
Blogger M. Simon said...

C4,

You left out secular Christian progressives.

Just to be fair.

3/07/2007 09:18:00 PM  
Blogger j willie said...

Perhaps it was just an "Edwards" with a butt plug...

3/07/2007 11:23:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home


Powered by Blogger