The Transportation Safety Administration has issued a new alert that remote control devices used in toys should not be in carry-on luggage.
"While not associated with a specific threat at this time, TSA is aware that remote control toys can be used to initiate devices used in terrorist attacks," said Washington-based TSA Administrator Kip Hawley.
Atlanta-based TSA spokesman Jon Allen said if screeners detect a remote-controlled toy in carry-on luggage, the passenger will be subjected to additional screening.
"The biggest thing people can do to help is not to bring these items through the security checkpoint," Allen said. "They'll be subject to additional security screening. It may take a few more minutes, and it could include a pat down."
Fox News reported TSA is increasing screenings of the toys in part because of the National Intelligence Estimate in July, which outlined possible methods of terrorist attacks.
This news comes on the heels of an arrest at Boston's Logan Airport Saturday of a man claminng to be an al-Qaeda operative.
"Massport officials tell the Herald the 27-year-old man had a ticket on his bag from Dubai of the United Arab Emirates and security began asking him questions.
“He seemed aggravated and said "I’m Al-Qaeda and I’m here to blow things up,” said Massport spokesman Phil Orlandella.
Orlandella said the man, Asfaw Ermiyas of Washington, D.C., was taken into custody at the AirTran gate Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. He is set to be arraigned today in East Boston District Court on a charge of making a bomb threat. Massport officials say Ermiyas was heading to Baltimore and listed his occupation as self-employed taxi driver."
In other breaking news today, a man was arrested in Austria trying to gain entrance into the American Embassy there. He had a backpack with hand grenandes inside.
"A man who tried to enter the U.S. Embassy in Vienna with a backpack that contained hand grenades, nails and Islamic literature was arrested Monday, Austrian authorities said.
The suspect was taken into police custody around after he was seen dropping the bag and fleeing on foot, Vienna police spokeswoman Michaela Raz said.
No one was injured, but police sealed off the neighborhood as a precaution and shut down or rerouted nearby bus and tramway lines."
The suspect was described only as a 42-year-old Bosnia native who now lives in the province of Lower Austria. Police said they made the arrest a short distance from the embassy building in a neighborhood where security is tight."
When will this madness end?
"Last month, court documents revealed that a University of South Florida engineering student facing a terrorism-related charge made a video showing how to detonate explosives using a remote-control toy.
An FBI agent said in a sworn statement that Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed told authorities he made the video "to assist those persons in Arabic countries to defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries."
Recent Comments