RichardKenner

That's the only way that I'd read it. Trying to interpret a news story as if every word had a very precise meaning will almost always be incorrect.

RichardKenner

The article said the hearing was cancelled because he waived it.

chollie

I understand that. The article does not divulge what led him to waive it. He may have been encouraged to waive it.

Loren Pechtel

Something that seems to be missed in all this--is there any indication at all that he intended to do anything to the plane?

Yes, he had the boom (although I haven't seen anything yet that says he had the ability to set it off) but he was just transporting it.

Soldiers take home stuff all the time and it's rarely used to do evil.

N830MH

Not necessarily, why he taking C4 into security? It's could be potential threat. They shouldn't say "BOMB!". They will forced evacuation from the terminal. Nobody who is not TSA fault. Why TSA who blame military? This should being caught the guy. He could go to jail for that. He almost gotten away for this. TSA should be called LEO immediately or bomb squard will call-in. The explosives are very extremely dangerous to others and could be destroyed the airports.

Yeah, excellent idea! TSA will listening the news media. Why they didn't have sound a horn?

Wally Bird

I'm guessing that's exactly it.

Going out on a limb, I assume 2lbs of C4 is not readily available on the streets of Austin so it was clearly in his bergen on the outbound. The TSA found the grenade then gave up - not so much a Big Catch as a Big Drop.

I would love to see Blogger Bob's explanation but there isn't going to be one; there are limits to even his ability to spin.

chollie

He's still polishing his cute cupcake post - you know, you can't fool TSOs with C4 disguised as cupcake frosting that conforms to the shape of its container.

Apparently, however, you can fool TSOs with two pound blocks of C4 in original government wrapping.

Well, actually, in both cases, TSA caught the prohibited item on the second try and no one was in any danger at any time anyway.

Letitride3c

But, the incident with the elite solider's forgotten "smoke grenade" in the bag on the 24th of December was discovered at the checkpoint or ... ?

And, he also "forgotten" to inform the FBI agent of that incident during his initial interview, or, to him - "it wasn't a big deal!"

Even if we're to believe the story given that it was forgotten, it doesn't speak well to safeguards in place on our own military bases - he isn't Mr. "Rambo" yet being an expert specialist, qualified & trained, and assigned as an instructor really mock the men & women in our armed forces, regardless of his intent.

Had they traveled via bus and/or Amtrak, this would've not been discovered unless they ran into one of the Viper teams - and his bag would end up safely again in the garage and "in good hands," thus, ready for deployment again. Besides, up until this weekend, nobody realized that about 2 pounds of C-4 were missing abroad anyway, right ?

cardiomd

EXACTLY. It is also the reason you *don't* want to give military a "free pass" for much of security, at least deter the curious from taking home the pound or two of explosive on the plane. If you can bypass swabs and much of security, this is a bad demographic to loophole. Congress and government security initiatives, in this context, makes little sense in their laws / emphasis.


I'm sure stuff like this goes on all the time without us knowing. A tiny bit of C4 would be very interesting to a lot of people, and most of those people are not out to blow up planes, just being silly / curious / immature, etc.

chollie

I was being sarcastic. If this guy had been FWB and/or had the wrong last name, we'd be seeing a whole different approach to the incident.

I wonder if the Congress critter(s) who came up with the feel-good, hopefully vote-garnering idea to exempt military and their families from more rigorous screening as a 'thank you' for their service and a tribute to their loyalty to their country - I wonder how many of these Congress critters routinely give up their first class seat to someone travelling in uniform?

Loren Pechtel

It's a security issue for the military, it's not a threat to the plane. TSA shouldn't be used as a means of avoiding the Fourth.

CBear

Yes to the bolded segment. Usually a business has to provide information that shows that you are a legitimate business and the cargo that you ship is used within the regular course of your business. Involves checking vendors, licenses, background checks, that sort of thing.

I doubt the average TSO would recognize a electric, plastic blasting cap if it hit them in the face. Some types of blasting caps are not as dangerous as others, some are fairly stable and won't "explode" from being mishandled. That said, unless there is another secondary explosive material in the vicinity, it's not going to do much harm.

danl08

told ya so..... they missed them the first time around. He flew from NC to TX with that in his bag and NO ONE CAUGHT HIM! I feel much safer now

TSORon

2.5 pounts of C4.

Yes.

ND Sol

That was already answered previously.


We know, but at what point? How about the question of whether he traveled with the C4 on the outbound?

BTW, C4 is a heavy duty explosive, but it is very stable such that you can pretty much hit it, light it and throw it without an explosion occurring (unlike the liquid explosives that were purported to be the subject of the "liquid bomb plot").