Now this is rich: Airport security removes two knives from a man's pocket, then lets him through the security checkpoint. luckily his carryon was searched.....
Man arrested with knives, stun gun at O'Hare
Security screeners fired after weapons' discovery
November 5, 2001 Posted: 8:20 AM EST (1320 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man was arrested Saturday night at O'Hare
International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, when he tried to board a flight with
nine knives, a can of Mace and a stun gun, police said.
The man may have some connection with two men who were detained Sept.12 in
Texas as material witnesses in the investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
CNN has learned.
Police arrested Subash Gurung, 27, who said he was from Nepal, and charged him
with unlawful possession of a weapon and attempting to board an aircraft with a
weapon, both misdemeanor charges.
A security screener removed two knives from
Gurung's pocket before he was allowed through the
security checkpoint, said Monique Bond, a
spokeswoman for Chicago's aviation department.
The other seven knives, the Mace and the stun gun
were found in his carry-on luggage during a routine
search before he boarded a United Airlines flight
1085 to Omaha, Nebraska, said Officer Thomas
Donegan of the Chicago Police.
United Airlines immediately fired at least seven
people, including security screeners and a
supervisor after the weapons' discovery, Bond said.
In an interview with CNN affiliate WLS-TV in
Chicago, Gurung said he was in a hurry and had
carried the weapons in his bag by accident.
He said he was on his way to Omaha to visit friends
and that he had bought the weapons in Chicago to
protect himself. Gurung said he was unemployed,
but then told the reporter he worked in a
warehouse.
Police and FBI agents questioned Gurung, who was taken to a holding facility in
suburban Chicago, fingerprinted and processed, then released on bond, Donegan
said. He is to appear in court December 19.
CNN has learned that Gurung listed the same West Hollywood Avenue apartment
address in Chicago as Ayub Ali Khan, a material witness in the September 11
attacks.
Khan and Mohamed Jaweed Azmath were arrested September 12 in Fort Worth,
Texas, on an Amtrak train heading to San Antonio, Texas. Found in their
possession were $5,500 cash, two flat box-cutter type knives and hair dye. Azmath
also had copies of numerous passport photos.
The hijackers of the planes that crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon were believed to have used box-cutters as weapons.
On the day of the attacks, Khan and Azmath were on a TWA flight from Newark,
New Jersey, to San Antonio. The flight was diverted to St. Louis, when the FAA
closed the skies to commercial aircraft after the terrorist hijackings and attacks.
Khan and Azmath lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, but a records check by CNN
also found a Chicago address for Khan sandwiched between two New Jersey
addresses he'd used.
The Chicago address was the same apartment building as Gurung.
A government source told CNN that Khan never actually lived in the apartment in
Chicago and never actually worked there.
But, the source said, "many phone calls were made to and from that apartment, and
credit card bills were paid from that address."
Gurung's arrest also focused renewed attention on Argenbright Security Inc., the
firm for which the fired employees worked. Argenbright reached a settlement in
October with the Justice Department, admitting it had failed to complete
court-ordered background checks on its employees.
That move followed by less than a year guilty pleas by three Argenbright managers
who admitted breaking FAA rules. They allowed untrained employees -- some with
criminal backgrounds -- to operate airport checkpoints, the managers said. |
