A Detroit Free Press article today relating to yesterday’s security breach at Metro Airport mentioned a very interesting point in it, which is not directly related to the breach.
The article mentioned this information below:
The FBI’s Detroit office refused to discuss the case with the Free Press on Monday, citing its unhappiness over a recent newspaper editorial.
Since the FBI was talking with Detroit Free Press reporters just little over one week ago, it’s safe to assume that the FBI (assuming the local office) is upset at the editorial board raising questions in terms of the homocide of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah.
I wonder if this is the position of the National FBI Director or just the local office.
I wonder if this is the official position of Attorney General Eric Holder, who has jurisdiction over the FBI, that government officials paid with tax payer dollars can blacklist an entire mainstream paper if they express a disagreeing opinion. I mean, we’re not talking about WorldNetDaily or FOX News; this is a liberal, pro-Democrat editorial board!
This is horrible public relations. Alienating the largest paper in Detroit will not stifle them in getting messages across but will also make journalists more suspicious. I just talked with a journalist from a national news network, who laughed and said that this will only make people believe more that they (FBI) are really nervous about this case, which is drawing international intention.
SEE article below:
http://www.freep.com/article/20100209/NEWS05/2090308/1322/Metro-security-breach-leaves-many-on-edge
Metro security breach leaves many on edge
Not clear why man bypassed checkpoint
BY MATT HELMS, ERIC D. LAWRENCE and TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Kaylan Policherla had no ticket or baggage when he walked up to a passenger security gate Monday morning at Detroit Metro Airport — and just kept going.
“He just walked into the airport, past the individual who checks your boarding pass and ID and then walked through the passenger screening checkpoint without stopping,” said airport spokesman Michael Conway.
Policherla, 27, a native of India who became a U.S. citizen in 2005 and lives in Bryan, Ohio, ignored Transportation Security Administration officers at the McNamara Terminal who repeatedly told him to stop, officials said. The breach happened at about 7:45 a.m.
Police were notified and emergency procedures implemented: Security gates closed around the area involved and authorities ordered other passengers there to leave the terminal immediately.
Panicked people fled the terminal.
Police said Policherla was jolted with a Taser and taken into custody. He was charged with entering an airport in violation of security requirements, a one-year misdemeanor.
Authorities evacuated a portion of the McNamara Terminal for nearly an hour, officials said.
The evacuation forced some passengers to be rescreened, officials said, and at least a few missed their flights.
In wake of bomb attempt, another scare
It’s been a bit nerve-racking for passengers flying through Metro Airport since a Nigerian man was accused of attempting to blow up an inbound international flight on Dec. 25.
Why 27-year-old Policherla of Bryan, Ohio, breached the security checkpoint at McNamara Terminal on Monday morning without a boarding pass or luggage wasn’t clear.
He did not respond during FBI questioning and now faces a charge of entering an airport in violation of security requirements, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Alarm triggered
Policherla is in custody and is expected to make a court appearance today.
Airport spokesman Conway said he wasn’t aware of any reason Policherla may have given for going to the airport without a ticket or luggage and ignoring security.
The FBI’s Detroit office refused to discuss the case with the Free Press on Monday, citing its unhappiness over a recent newspaper editorial.
After Policherla made it past metal detectors and refused to stop, Transportation Security Administration officers alerted Metro Airport Police and triggered an alarm that shut security gates and suspended security screening, Conway said.
Policherla made it down escalators beyond the magnetic screening equipment, but was stopped by one of the flexible metal security gates that close access to concourses in emergencies.
Police subdued Policherla in the area between the security checkpoint to the left of the check-in lobby at McNamara and the terminal.
While the specific circumstances of the incident at Metro could be considered unique, security breaches both minor and serious occur at airports around the world every day, said Richard Bloom, director of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
“The vast majority have nothing to do with terrorism,” he said, noting that such security breaches can range from someone walking into an area deemed off limits to someone forgetting they have a loaded weapon in carry-on luggage.
Worldwide breaches
Bloom said not all of those situations can be considered innocent mistakes. Adversaries of the U.S. regularly test and evaluate airport security procedures, he said, either directly by seeing how security personnel react to a given situation or indirectly by gathering reports of security breaches.
He said it’s difficult to determine whether more security breaches are occurring or if closer attention is being paid after a major incident like the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt over metro Detroit.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian national, is accused of trying to set off a bomb on Flight 253 from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit with explosives sewn in his underwear.
Separately, no one was arrested after flight crew reported unruly passengers on a flight Jan. 12 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
A man breached security at the Newark, N.J., airport in January, delaying thousands of people as authorities shut the airport for hours.
Take precautions
Bloom recommends that air travelers take steps to ensure the security process goes smoothly, such as becoming familiar with airport security procedures ahead of time and complying with such requirements once they get to the airport.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Monday’s incident demonstrates why ethnic and religious profiling are poor indicators of potential security problems.
Though some witnesses reported the man involved in the incident was Arabic, Policherla is from India and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2005, according to an article about the naturalization ceremony in the Blade newspaper of Toledo.
Unusual behavior, Walid said, is the best indicator of a security issue.
“He should have complied to the request to show his ID and ticket if he indeed understood English well enough to comprehend,” Walid said of Policherla. “Anyone who is acting suspicious and not complying to an order, whether from India or Sweden, they should be pulled aside and questioned.”
