The Qatari diplomat who caused a midair security scare won’t face charges after claiming he was trying to light his shoes on fire when it appears he was simply smoking in the bathroom.
Federal officials said Mohammed al Modadi was on official business when he boarded United Airlines Flight 663 from Washington to Denver, giving him diplomatic immunity. A law firm spokesman told The Associated Press that al Modadi has been released and was headed back to Washington.
More than 160 passengers and crew were onboard when flight attendants noticed smoke coming from the bathroom and notified federal air marshals on the plane, government sources said.
When the marshals demanded to know what he was doing, the man identified himself as a diplomat from Qatar and responded, perhaps sarcastically, “I’m trying to light my shoes on fire.”
It was a comment reminiscent of shoe bomber Richard Reid and also the so-called underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who successfully smuggled explosives onto a Christmas Day flight, but failed to detonate them.
“None of this is going to be taken as anything less than dead seriousness,” ABC News aviation analyst John Nance told “Good Morning America” today. “If you make the wrong comment at the wrong time and you’re going to come off the airplane in chains.”
Al Modadi’s comments Wednesday set off a chain reaction of security and terrorism responses, including F-16 fighter jets that scrambled from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado to accompany the flight during its descent into Denver. The plane was met by the FBI and local law enforcement.
“If this was an overreaction, it was not only an understandable one, it was a good one,” Nance said.
Al Modadi’s shoes were examined once the flight landed, government officials said, but no traces of explosives were found.
But, Oh, it was a big, huge, misunderstanding! 🙄
A statement was posted on the Qatar Embassy’s Web site in response to the incident, defending al Modadi and calling it a mistake.
“We respect the necessity of special security precautions involving air travel, but this diplomat was traveling to Denver on official embassy business on my instructions,” Ambassador Ali Bin Fahad Al-Hajri wrote in the statement, “and he was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity.”
“The facts will reveal that this was a mistake,” the statement continued, “and we urge all concerned parties to avoid reckless judgments or speculation.
The only damned mistake we made, was allow those jerks into our damn Country. If I were running that show; this little turban wearing prick would be on a flight back to Qatar, with a BILL for everything that happened to the Government last night. If it was not paid, I would be telling Qatar to close that embassy and get the hell out of our Country for good! I just wonder, what sort of business was he on? Approving visa’s for terrorists? I mean, they did bust a ring of terrorists out in Colorado. I wonder if he had any connections to them? It is to wonder. But, we’ll never find that out, seeing we have a President who is friendly to these sort of vermin.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 460,000 in the week ended April 3, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a result of 442,000. The four-week average of initial claims — a better gauge of employment trends than the volatile weekly number – rose 2,250 to 450,250. For the week ended March 27, continuing claims fell 131,000 to 4.55 million. The four-week average of these ongoing claims declined 36,000 to 4.65 million, the lowest level since January 2009. In the week ended March 20, about 5.8 million jobless workers, not seasonally adjusted, were receiving extended federal benefits, down 223,000 from the prior week. Altogether, 11.1 million people were collecting some type of unemployment benefits in the week ended March 20, down about 373,000 from the prior week. A Labor Department official said interpretation of the data around this time period is clouded by events such as Easter that make it difficult to properly adjust for seasonal factors
The number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits rose last week, a sign that jobs remain scarce even as the economy recovers.
The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims increased by 18,000 in the week ending April 3, to a seasonally adjusted 460,000. That’s worse than economists’ estimates of a drop to 435,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
The report covers the week that includes the Easter holiday, and a Labor Department analyst said seasonal adjustment for Easter can be difficult since the Easter holiday occurs in different weeks each year.
California also closed its state offices for a holiday March 31 honoring Cesar Chavez, the analyst said, which likely held down the claims figures. On an unadjusted basis, claims rose by 6,500 to nearly 415,000.
Economists closely watch unemployment claims, which are seen as a gauge of layoffs and a measure of companies’ willingness to hire new workers.
The four week average, which smooths volatility, rose to 450,250. Two weeks ago, the average fell to its lowest level since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the financial crisis intensified.
Jobless claims peaked during the recession at 651,000 in late March 2009.
Again, this is what happens when you try and employ Keynesian economic policy tactics to “fix” the economy, it fails.
On a side note:
California also closed its state offices for a holiday March 31 honoring Cesar Chavez, the analyst said, which likely held down the claims figures. On an unadjusted basis, claims rose by 6,500 to nearly 415,000.
😯 Says much about that State and the people in it. Think of this, next time you plan your vacation.
The Report from ABC NEWS, The story is yet to break National News or they’re working on it:
Federal air marshals subdued a man who authorities say attempted to “light his shoes on fire” on a United flight from Washington Reagan to Denver Wednesday night, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Authorities say an explosive team is on the way to the airport, and that while the presence of explosives has not yet been confirmed, they believe it was an attempted “shoe bomb.”
The suspect was identified by authorities as a diplomat in the Qatar embassy in Washington, Mohammed al Modadi. The FBI said the man had full diplomat immunity as the 3rd secretary and vice-consul.
Authorities said two jet fighters were scrambled from Buckley Air Force Base to accompany United flight 663, a Boeing 757, as it flew the final 40 miles to Denver where it landed safely.
Authorities said the man, identified as from Qatar, was restrained by the air marshals who were on the flight.
The United jet was reportedly being directed to a remote location at the Denver airport.
A spokesman for the FBI in Denver declined to comment.
This is not good at all. This could cause some serious problems for Obama’s strategy on the war on terror.
Update: Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN story alerts up. Update #2: all have stories up now.
MSNBC (ugh!) is now reporting, that this dude was in the bathroom, and was smoking in the can. When someone, not sure whom, asked him what he was doing. He replied, “Well, I was setting my shoes on fire…” Apparently, the douche nozzle was kidding around. Well, the only one laughing was him! 😮 Anyhow, looks like this idiot is going back Qutar. MSNBC is giving the name of the person. I will print it, when it comes up. Update #3: Mohammed al-Modadi is his name. (H/T AP)
ABOVE THE POST UPDATE (11:00): According to CNN, another diplomat is saying that this is a misunderstanding. The story is that the man was smoking in the lavatory and when challenged by an air marshal, he mouthed off sarcastically “I was trying to light my shoe on fire.”
I mean, are we really to believe that this guy took his having diplomatic immunity as free rein to crack a joke about need to light his shoe bomb? I’m curious whether under international law a diplomat can be expelled from a host country simply for being a raging c@#k.
What we may be looking at here is the scariest smoke break in aviation history.
Ha! I wonder if AllahPundit will represent him in Court, if he sues the United States Government for false arrest? If he does, somebody better let Liz Cheney know, after all, we have to know who’s defending terrorists; whether real or wanna-be smart asses. 😉 I mean, that is the McCarthyism way, is it not? 😀
Update #6: Our Assclown of the day can be seen here. He is on the right. (H/T to Wizbang for the find…)
The Breitbart video very effectively makes the case that Waters is guilty of hypocrisy. Her behavior at the rally is at least as unattractive as her description of the tea partiers’s; conduct. On the other hand, so what? When has a politician ever complained about the other side's incivility without being guilty of hypocrisy?
But a look further back into Waters’s history reveals her hypocrisy to be far worse than is typical. The last time America experienced political mob violence–the Los Angeles riots of 1992–Waters was there offering excuses and justifications.
The L.A. riots began on April 29, 1992, after a jury returned a not-guilty verdict in the trial of four Los Angeles policemen charged in connection with the videotaped beating of Rodney King. By the time the riots wound down, six days later, 53 people had been killed and thousands injured.
Maxine Waters was a freshman representative from California’s 29th Congressional District (now the 35th), which covers areas of southern Los Angeles where the rioting was centered. Her own district office was burned to the ground. She quickly emerged as an advocate on behalf of the rioters.
“I accept the responsibility of asking people not to endanger their lives,” the Associated Press quoted her as saying on April 30. “I’m not asking people not to be angry. . . . I have a right to be angry.”
Looks like Maxine Water‘s past is coming back to haunt her. I guess that will teach her to open her mouth, when in all honesty, she should keep it shut.
But then again, does not that describe liberals in general? I mean, are they not all like that? Want others to conform to a high standard; all the while not living up to it themselves?
They’ve been doing it for years. This proves that.
Jeeez… I would have gotten the guy some hosting for a blog, if all he wanted to do is vent. 🙄
A 63-year-old Yakima County man has been charged with threatening to kill U.S. Sen. Patty Murray over her support of the health-care overhaul.
The FBI and local police arrested Charles Alan Wilson at his Selah home early Tuesday. He later made an initial appearance in federal court in Yakima on one count of threatening a federal official. He was appointed a public defender and ordered to be kept in custody pending a detention hearing Friday.
According to the charges, staffers in Murray’s office in the Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle had become concerned over phone calls by an unknown man in recent months. The calls came from a blocked number and often were made at night or on weekends.
Usually, according to a staffer, the calls were merely vulgar and harassing.
But on March 22, “the caller began to make overt threats to kill and/or injure Senator Murray,” according to the complaint signed by FBI Agent Carolyn Woodbury.
In that call, a man the FBI says it has identified as Wilson stated, “I hope you realize there’s a target on your back now … Kill the [expletive] senator! I’ll donate the lead.”
Again, the old man was most likely upset. But, he did break the law. As I have written on here before, it is one thing to get on a blog like mine, write about politics; it is another to start phoning in death threats. That is, I am afraid, just plain stupid. Hopefully this old man learns his lesson. He might have also been a little disturbed as well. Maybe he needed a little help. Either way, he will get that help or learn his lesson, one way or another.
Again, what the guy did was stupid, 50 years ago, you would have gotten away with something like that. But in this day and age of Caller ID and high tech phones. There’s no getting away with this sort of thing anymore. Besides all that; this woman is just one person. It is not like she was solely responsibility for the passage of the bill.
Again, while I feel for the old guy; what he did was wrong.
I just wanted to post something here to all my readers. I noticed that not too many Bloggers on my side of the political fence have said anything about this.
Well, once again, I will be the one to do it.
Politics is one thing, real life is another.
Losing someone to a tragedy such as this, is unimaginable. Unlike some on the left, I will NOT bring my personal politics into this. But I will say that I personally feel for this people. Mining is in my family too; sort of. My Father is from Middlesboro, Kentucky. Back when he was a young man, he drove a tri-axle dump truck down in his home town. He worked out of a strip mines down in that town. Oh, the stories he would tell, about Hazards of driving those trucks. Some of the stories were side splitting tales, some were quite scary.
Anyhow, my heart goes out to these people during their time of loss. This is where I will also deviate from my normal hard line Conservative stance, and say the following; which most likely will not do anything for my Conservative creds. Not that I quite honestly give a damn about that anyhow.
It would be a crime, if I did not mention the fact that this mine was, in fact, a non-union mine. Because of that, the safety record of this mine, was, in fact, terrible. Unions; for all their short-comings and horrible politics, are the best defense against companies who want to cut corners and allow their employees to work in unsafe conditions. I honestly believe that if the union that my Father was represented by at G.M. had not been there, my Father would have been dead ages ago. For those who are just passing through, my Father is a retired G.M. Worker and is represented by the U.A.W. The Union forces the big business owners to a very high standard of safety and if the companies do not adhere to them, they simply will not allow their employees on the job. Which I feel is a very good thing. Equipment can be replaced —- Human Lives cannot.
There are some possibly of the right, that might say my bringing this up is morbid or something silly like that. Well, too bad. As they say, all politics is local; and this my friends is a local, personal issue for me. One of the nicest things I read, was the fact that even though this mine was non-union, the President of the Union miners was sending a team of people up to the site, to offer their assistance. Because it is the human and responsible thing to do. That is what normal, sane, rational Americans do, when their fellow man is hurting. They put partisan differences aside and come together. I bet some in the world of Political Blogging could learn something from that; on both sides of the aisle.
Again, my and my family’s prayers go out to the people of MONTCOAL, W.Va. tonight.
War correspondents take huge risks to bring news of a war to readers far away. What this shows is just how risky it is to embed with terrorists, especially when their enemy controls the air. War is not the same thing as law enforcement; the US forces had no responsibility for identifying each member of the group and determining their mens rea. Legitimate rescue operations would have included markings on the vehicle and on uniforms to let hostile forces know to hold fire, and in the absence of that, the hostile forces have every reason to consider the second support group as a legitimate target as well. It’s heartbreaking for the families of these journalists, but this isn’t “collateral murder” — it’s war.
Worst case scenario this is a few innocent being accidentally killed in the fog of war.
But the video doesn’t even appear to be worst case scenario. It appears, in fact, that the video shows armed insurgents engaging or about to engage US troops. The Reuters camera men had embedded themselves with the insurgents. This makes them enemy combatants themselves and should have been shot.
Reuters has a long history of its local stringers embedding themsleves with terrorist forces. Perhaps they do this because they are sympathetic, perhaps they do this to get “the story”, but it matters little to those engaging insurgents.
When you embed yourselves with terrorists you know the risk. You are producing propaganda for them. You have become one of them.
Anything less than this understanding is purposeful naivite about “objective journalism”. In war there can be no objective journalism. You’re either with us or the enemy. If you want to stay neutral stay out of the war zone.
As for those who went in to pick up the bodies? Perhaps they were innocents. I’ve no idea.
But you drive your van into an active military engagement? What the hell were you thinking?
You are stupid. Innocent, but stupid. You’re asking to be killed.
And if you brought children into the midsts of an ongoing military engagement that makes you more than stupid: it makes youcriminally negligent.
“It’s their fault for bringing their kids to a battle,” says one of the Americans on the video. Indeed it is.
People, this is war. This happens in war. It can’t be avoided. If you want to end civilian casualties then end war. Start by asking armed Islamists to put down their weapons. But you won’t do that because your real objection isn’t war, it’s America. Which is why anti-war activists around the globe never protest al-Qaeda, only America.
They’re not anti-war, they’re anti-American.
I agree. If you embed yourself with terrorists, you die. Just that simple.
I humbly submit, that these so-called Journalists got just was coming to them.
Update #3: Apparently some liberals, including a gay pedophile stalker blogger, that I will never link to; cannot grasp the idea of sarcasm and are complaining about what I wrote here about Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. Well, you know what liberals? I got two words; FUCK YOU. You bastards sat out here in the Blogosphere and mocked and derided Conservatives and the Tea Party protesters, to the point of using a crude sexual phrase to describe them. —– and you are going to bitch about me being a snarky bomb thrower? Please. 🙄 Just like that stupid liberal jack assed twit Maxine Waters, do as I say, not as I do. 🙄
Update: Rusty Talks back to me… (wow! 😯 )
Over at Political Byline:
“I humbly submit, that these so-called Journalists got just was coming to them”
Perhaps. This wouldn’t be the first time Reuters had sent off it’s “crack team” of locals to give the terrorists’ “point of view”.
Now why am I not surprised? 🙄
Update #2: Leave it one of my commentators to point out the obvious, From Gaven in the comments:
First off, watch the full, unedited one, without the political editorializing:
A little background is given in this one that is absent from the edited one. First off, the Apache’s mission was to support that infantry platoon. A few minutes before the video starts, that platoon takes RPG and small arms fire in that vicinity, so the Apache is called up to find the guys doing it. Source: Click here to read – See the 12th paragraph.
Our video starts. They see a large group of people, all adult males, several of whom are armed. You can see 2 AK’s and at least one actual RPG around 3:30-3:45 (Pic) . Next, they see a man peeking around the corner and pointing what looks like an RPG at the infantryman about four blocks away. Armed men? Check. Immediate threat to American lives? Check. They get permission to fire, and as soon as they have a shot, they take it.
(For what it’s worth, the actions of this group of people are very suspicious looking, especially in a combat zone mere minutes after US forces have been fired on. Including having the RPG firer simply poke around the corner and fire while everyone else hangs back to avoid backblast. See here for a slightly humorous example: Click for pic . Obviously one example does not a trend make, but I’m just bringing it to your attention)
Secondly, I have yet to see anyone say that the group of guys with the reporters were NOT insurgents. For extra emphasis, at 30:45 there is more small arms fire. At 31:10 you see guys with AK’s and body armor running away from the area. There was DEFINITELY a battle going on in this area, something that Wikileaks biased editing job carefully omits.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Reuters stringers were hanging out with insurgents for some good pictures. For instance, this picture:
Here, Namir is obviously standing about 10 feet away from insurgents as they commit an act of violence. I’m not passing judgement on him, I actually think it’s good to have reporters as close as possible to the conflict, but I’m merely pointing out that hanging out with insurgents is something that Noor-Eldeen had been doing for a few years prior to his death.
Anyways, back to the video.
At 19:20, someone reports finding an RPG round.
At 32:54, someone asks if it’s been defused yet, and is told “no, it’s still live”
Even if everyone in Iraq has an AK, only the bad guys have RPG rounds. The discovery of an RPG round among the bodies makes me believe that Namir Noor-Eldeen was yet again hanging out with an insurgent group looking for great shots. He and the other photographer were almost certainly innocent of actual wrongdoing, but the armed men they were with were in all likelihood some of the ACTUAL insurgents who fired on US troops before the video started.
As for the van that was attacked, I’ll admit that it’s slightly sketchier, but I’ll clarify that by noting that insurgents often clean up their own wounded, so an black van showing up with three or four adult men who immediately jump out and start aiding wounded insurgents is absolutely suspicious enough to make a case for engaging it. I don’t know that I personally would have engaged that van, but I find in totally understandable that they did. Although, again, there’s no proof that the men in the van weren’t also insurgents, since the video leaves out a lot of context.
Yes, this video is disturbing simply for the sheer violence and immediate destruction. But think about it before mindlessly jumping to conclusions regarding what actually happened that day.
Also, allow me to point something out of the liberals and weak kneed Conservatives who are reading this. Let’s go back in history a bit, shall we? During World War 2, The Korean War and during Vietnam, I do not remember ever hearing of any American or international journalists embedding with the enemy then. So, why were these loons embedded with the Terrorists? Because point blank, these so-called “journalists” and their employer, who is quite obviously liberal; have an editorial position that the United States of America deserved the attacks on 9/11 and that these fighters in Iraq were a legitimate fighting force; that’s why! That is, as far as this writer is concerned, an Anti-American stance. Because of this, these bastards got EXACTLY AND I DO MEAN EXACTLY WHAT WAS COMING TO THEM! Period, end of story.
Cookie Consent
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
