Trouble
Breaking news - H/T Crosspatch. Explosive substance found in woman's water bottle at West Virginia airport.
Tri-State Airport in Wayne County has been evacuated. A perimeter has been set up, and evacuees are being asked to stand back 350 feet from the airport.
The Transportation Security Administration reports that a passenger's water bottle screened positive for an explosive material around 9:15 this morning. A second test was confirmed at 11:25. TSA is waiting for further testing to determine the exact substance.
NBC News reports that federal screeners found four containers of liquids inside a woman's carry-on bag during the screening process this morning. Larry Salyers, Tri-State Airport Director, tells WSAZ the woman is of Pakistani origin, lived in Jackson, Michigan and most recently lived in the Huntington area. She is being detained for questioning.
The flight in which the woman was going to board was on its way to Charlotte, North Carolina with a final destination of Detroit, Michigan.
FBI officials are on scene.
So much for all the people trying to pooh-pooh the London plot.
UPDATE: AP story here. Two positive tests and a hit from a bomb-sniffing dog.
UPDATE: Local Newspaper coverage from the Huntington Herald Dispatch.
UPDATE: Several television outlets are now reporting that this may have been makeup containers. But some sort of residue was present, it is unknown what the substance was or if there is some sort of false positive. Seems a bit odd that both a chemical test and a dog detected explosive, doesn't it?
UPDATE: Now the AP is reporting they found the woman's mother who had this to say:
The woman's mother told the Associated Press that her daughter, who is four months pregnant and lives in Barboursville, W.Va., was targeted because of her nationality and Islamic headcover.
"It was not only a false alarm, it was racial discrimination because there was nothing," Mian Qayyum said, refusing to name her daughter.
"She just had water to drink because she is pregnant and she had a face wash that had a drop of bleach on it," Qayyum said from her home in Jackson.
Bleach would not hit a positive on a check for nitrate nor get a dog interested.
Other Links to this Post
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Blue Star Chronicles — Thursday, 17 August , 2006 @ 10:22 pm
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Polimom Says » Time for some internment camps (a modest proposal) — Friday, 18 August , 2006 @ 9:10 am
By Roland Hesz, Friday, 18 August , 2006 @ 1:25 am
“So much for all the people trying to pooh-pooh the London plot.”
Umm.. If we find intelligent life on Venus, does it mean that the theory of intelligent life on the Mars, which we pooh-pooh, suddenly becomes valid?
Now, I don’t try to pooh-pooh the London plot, that probably was a real plot, but this incident has nothing to prove or disprove the validity of the London plot.
It only shows that liquid explosives are still around, and in use, as they were for the last 30 or so years.
Note that “supposed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt” applies here too, like in Hadita or any other case.
So far, she has not been proven guilty.
Just remember the innocent tourist executed in Thailand for smuggling cocaine - which, as later turned out was not the case, he was innocent and duped by someone, who planted the cocaine in his luggage without him knowing of it.
I would stict to the law and the constitution - innocent until proven guilty.
By Roland Hesz, Friday, 18 August , 2006 @ 3:05 am
Article
“The US experienced its second terror alert in two days yesterday when 100 passengers were evacuated from an airport in West Virginia after explosive residue was found on two bottles in a passenger’s hand baggage.”
Note the “residues” and the “on”.
She did not carry bottles filled with liquid explosive.
She carried bottles that had residues of substances that can be explosive.
I bet, if you check, you can find at least on bottle like that in my garage.
Did anyone notice that they don’t say the liquid in the bottle was explosive. Only some residue on the bottle - on the outside of the bottle.
Still, it is good press.
By Roland Hesz, Friday, 18 August , 2006 @ 6:43 am
“Ceredo, West Virginia - A Pakistani woman whose daughter’s carry-on luggage caused an airport to shut down for nine-and-a-half hours says it was her ethnic background, not a few bottles of suspicious liquids, that set off security officials.
Initial laboratory testing by the FBI turned up no evidence of explosive materials in the bottles carried at Tri-State Airport in West Virginia by Rima Qayyum, a 28-year-old Pakistani woman dressed in the traditional Islamic headcover.
No charges were filed against the woman, who was never detained and was cooperative when interviewed by the FBI.
…
Chemical tests of the bottles’ contents later turned up no explosives, said Captain Jack Chambers, head of the State Police Special Operations unit.”
I do wonder if all the bloggers who cried terrorist, will apologize or something like that.
By Roland Hesz, Friday, 18 August , 2006 @ 6:52 am
Oops, sorry, the link.
Woman claims Pakistani descent caused arrest
And if you are there, check out the other one too:
‘Guards had no right to shoot’
Why I love the idea of people getting weapons.