Wired Iraqi man triggers scare at L.A. airport Tue Mar 6, 2007 6:36 PM ET LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - 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. "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. 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. Passengers were not evacuated and no flights were disrupted by the incident at Terminal One at Los Angeles airport. "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. >From Reuters News Service: http://tinyurl.com/yowh77 Iraqi national questioned over suspicious object at LAX Updated, 4 p.m.: A man with a half-inch magnet coiled in wire hidden inside his body draws a bomb-squad response and a terrorism investigation. By Doug Irving Staff writer An Iraqi national with a half-inch magnet coiled in wire hidden inside his body drew a bomb-squad response and a terrorism investigation Tuesday when he tried to pass through security at Los Angeles International Airport. Federal investigators later said the man, identified as 35-year-old Fadhel al-Maliki of New Jersey, appeared to pose no threat. He was being held and questioned by immigration officials because his green card may have expired. A mental evaluation was planned. But airport security agents initially considered the odd assortment of objects in al-Maliki's rectum alarming enough to order an extra search of the flight he was scheduled to take. The plane had already taken off by then, but diverted and landed in Las Vegas; agents pulled off two bags checked by al-Maliki but found nothing suspicious in them. Al-Maliki told investigators the objects have therapeutic properties, and that he had forgotten to remove them before reaching the security checkpoint. They were described as a magnet wrapped with a piece of gum in a napkin and then coiled with wire; and some kind of round, polished stone. "I believe we're about as confused as you until we finish the investigation," said Ethel McGuire, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office. http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/6342662.html
