Suspects removed at New York airports cleared in terrorist attacks

By John Solomon

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Up to 10 people of Middle Eastern descent were detained at two New York airports – at least three removed at gunpoint from a Los Angeles-bound jet, sources told The Associated Press.

All people detained at New York airports have been cleared in terrorist attacks, Sen. Joseph Biden says.

Biden said there were explanations for the suspicious travelers.

One man was originally thought to be traveling with a fake pilot’s license, but Biden said the man was a pilot who “coincidentally had his brother’s identification as well.”

“His brother happened to live in an apartment complex that was one in Boston where some of these people had actually been. Totally totally coincidental,” said Biden, D-Del.

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Biden added that others were traveling to a Boeing Co. conference, either because they work for the airline manufacturer or were invited.

“The folks at the airport thought, ‘Hey, wait a minute, are they impersonating crew?’ And they weren’t.”

The individual who was still being held has not been charged with anything, officials with the Foreign Relations Committee said.

At least some of the people detained Thursday were carrying knives, according to published reports. Authorities were investigating whether the two groups – detained at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports – were more would-be hijackers or people related to Tuesday’s terrorist attack who were trying to flee the New York area.

One man was arrested with a fake pilot’s license, Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said. Several of those detained had attempted to board airlines Tuesday around the time four airliners were hijacked but were turned away and fled, a U.S. official requesting anonymity told the AP.

The incidents caused the region’s three major airports – Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J. – to close again just hours after service was restored for the first time since Tuesday.

The Washington Post, citing unidentified government sources, reported that two armed groups of five people each were detained with knives, false identification and open tickets dated Tuesday – the day of the attacks. ABC News also reported that those detained were carrying knives.

A source familiar with the workings of the airline industry told the AP that law enforcement officers secretly boarded a plane at Kennedy using a catering cart. The officers, with weapons drawn, then removed the three from the plane.

One of those being detained was believed to have had flight training similar to that obtained by Tuesday’s hijackers, the U.S. official said. The Post reported that those detained had certificates from the same Florida training school attended by some terrorists who pulled off Tuesday’s hijackings.

How the events unfolded was not completely clear, but passengers’ accounts indicated that authorities boarded two separate planes.

A passenger on a San Jose, Calif.-bound American Airlines jet at Kennedy told The New York Times that officers boarded and closely questioned about 15 people.

“Anyone with dark skin or who spoke with an accent was taken aside and searched,” passenger Mike Glass of Seattle told the Times. “And then they went to any male with too much facial hair.”

Jim Olson of Santa Monica, Calif., was on an American Airlines flight preparing to take off from Kennedy for Los Angeles when authorities jumped on board.

“Basically half a dozen to a dozen storm troopers, or SWAT team, burst into the back door of the plane, had us put our heads down in crash position,” he told NBC’s “Today” Friday morning. “They dragged out at least one, and I heard later on as many as three potential terrorists.”

Jim Hunter, a passenger on the Los Angeles-bound flight, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that one of the men authorities were after didn’t speak English and resisted being hauled away by the SWAT team.

“He was absolutely resisting,” Hunter said. “He was kicking, screaming.”

Also, the Times, quoting unidentified law enforcement sources, reported that two men were detained from a Saudi aircraft at Newark after being identified on a terrorist watch list.

Separately, new information emerged about Tuesday’s events. A law enforcement source told the AP that the FBI was investigating an altercation at Kennedy on Tuesday, and trying to understand whether that incident might have been an aborted hijacking attempt.

Tuesday’s incident occurred about 9 a.m. – around the same time two hijacked jet airliners crashed into the World Trade Center towers. After passengers had boarded United Airlines Flight 23, bound for Los Angeles, officials told them it had been canceled

Three men refused to disembark and argued with the flight crew, who called airport security. The men vanished before security arrived, the source said.

There have been persistent, unconfirmed reports that a fifth hijacking had been attempted Tuesday but somehow averted.