Saudi Natl Charged w/Threatening to Blow Up Delta Flight
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Jun 7, 4:38 PM EDT
Saudi national charged with threatening to blow up Delta flight
By HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) -- A Saudi national faces charges he threatened to blow up a Delta Air Lines flight because he was upset he was denied a job as an interpreter for U.S. military operations in Iraq.
A federal magistrate ordered Saleh Al Suwailem, 45, of Boise, Idaho, held by the U.S. Marshal's Service after a hearing Tuesday in Columbus.
He is charged with making a terroristic threat against an airplane, and he is due back in court June 13.
According to a criminal complaint, Al Suwailem was at Fort Benning on Monday, where he was going through the process to become an Arabic interpreter for a communications division that contracts to hire interpreters for operations in Iraq.
After he was told he would not be hired because he was denied security clearance and that he would have to fly home to Idado the next day on a Delta flight, he started drinking with some acquaintances, the complaint says.
"Okay, I'm going to bomb the plane," he blurted out, according to the complaint.
When he was questioned by Fort Benning officials about the remark, he said it was a joke and that he did not actually plan to bomb the flight.
The FBI was alerted and Al Suwailem was arrested.
In their request to have the defendant detained, the government argued that he poses a flight risk. The magistrate who ordered him held also described him as a security risk. The order did not say why.
Reached at his office Wednesday, Al Suwailem's lawyer, David Roberts, said, "I'm just not going to comment."
Another of those people w/a "Peaceful Religion".
