Federal agents arrested a Saudi Arabian traveler who arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport with a pressure cooker, a key component used in the Boston Marathon bombings last month.
Hussain Al Kwawahir will be arraigned at 1 p.m. in federal court for allegedly using an altered passport and lying to a Customs and Border Protection Agent about the pressure cooker.
So it's okay to take a pressure cooker on a plane if you don't lie about it?
"What's your name?"
"Mahmoud."
"What's ya got in that pressure cooker, Mahmoud?"
"Falafel."
"You can make falafel in a pressure cooker?"
"Sure, it's easy. Wanna try some?"
"No thanks. Move along!" |
Al Kwawahir arrived at the airport Saturday from Saudi Arabia, via Amsterdam, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in federal court.
He told agents he was visiting his nephew, who attends the University of Toledo.
During baggage inspection, officers noticed a page missing from his passport.
| Maybe he had visited Israel? |
Al Kwawahir told officers he did not know how the page was removed from the passport.
During the baggage exam, officers found a pressure cooker. Al Kwawahir said he brought the pressure cooker for his nephew because the devices are not sold in the United States, according to the complaint.
Later, he changed his story and admitted that his nephew had purchased a pressure cooker in the U.S. but it was cheap and broken.
| So he bought a Chinese import in Amsterdam to replace the Chinese import his nephew bought at Walmart? |
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