Heads Up, possible terrorists removed from flight at Atlanta Airport

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Istanbul-Bound Plane Stopped At Atlanta Airport

Updated 8:38 PM ET August 3, 1999

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Delta airlines flight to Istanbul was stopped at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport Tuesday because of a security situation involving the FBI, a Delta spokesman said.

An FBI spokesman would confirm only that the plane was stopped because of a "national security situation" and would not confirm a local television report that four "suspected terrorists" had been removed from the flight.

"The Atlanta office received information related to a national security matter and that's all we're saying right now," a spokesman for the FBI in Washington said.

Delta spokesman Dan Lewis said Flight 40, an MD-11 scheduled to depart for Istanbul with 231 passengers on board, had been delayed.

"There was a security procedure. In fact it is still going on," he said.

Atlanta NBC television affiliate WXIA-TV reported that federal agents boarded Delta Flight 40 and removed four people. Citing unnamed sources, the station said sources described the four as "suspected terrorists".

Lewis said Delta expected the plane would be able to begin the 12-hour flight later Tuesday evening. "We don't have a departure time but we anticipate that we will be able to get the flight and its passengers in the air for Istanbul with this crew

-- Forum regular (just trying to help@y2ktb.com), August 03, 1999

Answers

Wowzee! Keep the updates coming.

-- another regular (trying@to.keepup), August 03, 1999.

Updated 9:19 PM ET August 3, 1999ATLANTA (Reuters) -

A Delta airlines flight to Istanbul was stopped at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport Tuesday and four people were removed by the FBI, Delta and FBI officials said.

"We received some information this afternoon relative to a matter of national security and based on that information we decided to take every available precaution," Celestine Armstead, spokeswoman for the FBI in Atlanta, said. Armstead said "four individuals" were removed from the plane at about 5:45 p.m. EDT .

But she declined to comment on a report that the four were suspected extremists heading for the Turkish city.

Delta spokesman Dan Lewis said Flight 40, an MD-11 scheduled to depart for Istanbul with 231 passengers on board, had been delayed.

"There was a security procedure. In fact it is still going on," he said,

Atlanta NBC television affiliate WXIA-TV reported that federal agents boarded Delta Flight 40 and removed seven people, one of whom was arrested. The station earlier had cited unnamed sources described those removed from the plane as "suspected terrorists".

Lewis said Delta expected the plane would be able to begin the 12-hour flight later Tuesday evening. "We don't have a departure time but we anticipate that we will be able to get the flight and its passengers in the air for Istanbul with this crew

-- Forum regular (with an upd@te.com), August 03, 1999.


Perhaps the FBI discovered a bag of rice and a can of Skoal on one of them.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), August 03, 1999.

Where ya been, Will Continue?

-- chewing cud (spitooey@pickup.desert), August 03, 1999.

It is somewhat disconcerting to hear more problems in the Atlanta area. It is worrisome to think this area is already having more gut churning 'events'. This area has been reported to be behind in 'readiness' -- whatEVER that means.

Just really bugs me that we're seeing this kind of stuff in this area.

Can't help but be reminded of where the Center for Disease Control is located.

Pray hard.

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), August 04, 1999.



He was arrested because he paid for his ticket with cash.

-- Jay (havocuz@mindspring.com), August 04, 1999.

Jay, I read your comments earlier and laughed thinking you were joking. Then I came across this update.

==========================

Suspect From Atlanta Plane To Turkey Held By INS

Updated 12:25 PM ET August 4, 1999 By Patricia Zengerle

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A man removed by the FBI from a Delta Air Lines flight to Turkey was turned over to immigration authorities Wednesday as federal agents investigated a possible "threat to national security" linked to the plane, an FBI spokesman said.

FBI agents and other police boarded Delta Flight 40 Tuesday night on the tarmac at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport just as it was about to depart for Istanbul. The plane was searched.

Seven people were removed from the plane and questioned. Six were released quickly, but the seventh, a man who was not identified, was handcuffed and held before being turned over the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service.

"The individual who was removed from the Delta flight and interviewed is currently in INS custody in Atlanta, pending INS charges. The FBI investigation is ongoing," FBI Special Agent Joe Parris said.

"He has been detained by the INS pending charges of violation of U.S. immigration law," he said, declining any further comment.

The passenger taken into custody was described by witnesses as a white male, about 6 feet (2 meters) tall.

INS spokeswoman Sue Brown would confirm only that the man was in her agency's custody.

The FBI ordered all the passengers to leave Delta Flight 40 and identify all of their baggage. Bomb-sniffing dogs searched the plane and it then departed about four hours behind schedule at 10:23 p.m. EDT (0223 GMT Wednesday).

Delta said the plane reached Istanbul Wednesday after its 12-hour flight without further incident. FBI spokesman Tom Bush had said Tuesday night that the agency had received a tip from someone in Valdosta, Georgia, that someone aboard the plane was a threat to national security.

"Nothing that we learned led us to believe that anyone was in any imminent danger," Bush said. "But you can't take a chance on that. If you're getting sketchy information, you just have to resolve it." Atlanta television stations reported Tuesday night that authorities had investigated a rental truck left parked at the airport in Valdosta.

CNN quoted a national security source in Washington as saying that someone taken off the plane was detained because he had purchased his ticket -- a one-way ticket to Istanbul would cost about $700 -- with cash.

The FBI declined comment.

Eighteen of the ticketed passengers on the flight decided to make other travel arrangements, leaving about 200 on the flight.

=====================

This is bizarre. You can be arrested and detained for using cash? $700.00 in cash?

Very, very, very strange.

Mike

=====================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 04, 1999.


Heads UP.

Cohen - he did sound like he expected some terrorism fairly soon?

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), August 04, 1999.


You bet. Only a criminal madman terrorist would use *gasp* CASH. $700? Too rich!

Wheez po folk, yessm, an only use cash, no credit cards, nosir, and guess what? no debt either. Pay as we go, sensible, no luxuries, guess we be dangerous element to society. Them damn responsible citizens ... arrest them!

-- cash 'n carry (not@much.unfortunately), August 04, 1999.


Michael,

Im not sure that you can be arrested and detained SIMPLY because you paid for a $700 flight with cash, but I'd imagine that if you already had a security casefile open on you, and you made travel plans which culminated in a large cash purchase of a ticket like that, it'd lead to the kind of action which has been reported.

I wouldn't start arguing that making large purchases in cash is a watertight indicator that you are up to no good, but I think you'd agree that it might raise eyebrows. Who really does use cash in such high amounts these days ?

I spent some time working in a Mercedes Dealership, and as a matter of policy, we informed the police anytime someone tried to pay for a vehicle with cash. It was partly a matter of covering our own ass, because if it later transpires that the transaction was tainted with illegal money, there can be implications for the seller as well as the buyer. Having said that, if the customer had nothing to hide, the whole process took very little time, and was handled sensitively. We never heard a complaint about it in all the time I was there.

The fact is, in these days of electronic money, credit cards and bankers checks, the use of cash for anything larger than a bag of groceries is becoming a rarity. Hence the connection. Youd hardly expect a hardened international terrorist to pay for a ticket using a personal credit card, or would you ?

All in all I think this story holds a positive message . . that the systems which help to guarantee safe passage for private citizens on international air routes is working well.

Just my $0.02

Kind Regards

W

-- W0lv3r1n3 (W0lv3r1n3@yahoo.com), August 04, 1999.



I guess the greater question is where had those four men been PRIOR to leaving for Istanbul?

Were they coming from a connecting flight or was Atlanta where they'd been?

I don't like this. I don't sit around and worry about terrorism but I'm uneasy about the short time elapsed between Cohen's statement and this incident.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), August 04, 1999.


W,

Thanks. When I read the story my first thought was that detaining someone for paying cash was simply an interim way to hold them while an investigation is made into their recent activities.

I'm feeling more like Lisa, very uneasy about where these people were prior to Atlanta. Also, Atlanta seems to be in the news quite a bit lately which means there is media focus there. Isn't CNN also located in Atlanta?

Cohen's recent remarks don't make me feel more at ease, either.

When I think about "Y2k" I don't simply think of a computer problem. I think about all the crazies who might use the possibility of disruptions to further their "war", I think about all the individuals who want to use the millennial change as a catalyst to bring about the Revelation, etc.

We have from now until long after 2001 to consider these possibilities as a very high threat to our national security. And, with LA having more than it's share of "scares" from someone or some group who is planting fake biochem devices I'm pretty much sitting at the edge of my seat anyway.

Argh.

Mike

======================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 04, 1999.


Here's where Cohen gets nervous about terrorism, in the event your day was going too beautifully and you'd like to come down a notch or two.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), August 04, 1999.

CNN hasn't posted this yet.... either it was a huge mistake or it was a huge catch?....?

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), August 04, 1999.

Another victory for the Mastercard hit squad! Seriously- there are people who exist that don't carry credit cards for whatever reasons. How can anyone tell them "you can't use cash"? It's just idiocy. When a passport or license is issued to you, don't you think your address is verified? If folks want to blow up planes, do you really think they care about leaving a valid address via credit card?

-- Gia (laureltree7@hotmail.com), August 04, 1999.


I've heard the reasons the man was detained: he'd rented a U-Haul in another location under a different name he unloaded his luggage from a U-Haul he paid for his ticket in cash **and probably because he was going to Turkey** I've found the Atlanta airport much more vigilant since the two bombings.

Oh, and I live in Atlanta--I'd agree weird stuff's been happening. Over the past year, two anthrax threats and an as-yet-unidentified (by the FBI, btw)chemical exposure/attack (?) on our rapid transit system that had a hospital haz-mat team scrambling. Sort of odd to see EMT's hosing down people in the street--then hosing them down again outside the hospital. News was pretty big locally for a few days and then it just went away. News that the FBI could not identify the person or chemical agent responsible was a postscript weeks later. Interesting.

-- Sally (AERONWY@HOTMAIL.COM), August 09, 1999.


Suspicious activity has different meanings in different countries. We always travel on the cheap and carry only a small backpack...even for a trip that lasts 5 weeks or longer. We were detained for over an hour at the airport in Amsterdam one year first because we had such limited luggage, and secondly because we really didn't know where we had stayed the last three days. We'd met a girl at a train- station in Amsterdam who said she had a room. The price was right, we stayed there, and had no idea who she was nor the address.

Regarding cash only being used for a large bag of groceries, I can't believe the number of people in checkout lines who pay with check or credit card for one small item.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), August 09, 1999.


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