A Qatari diplomat who sparked a national security scare by joking about setting fire to his shoe on a flight to Denver was on his way to visit an imprisoned al-Qaeda conspirator, officials said.
Mohammed al-Modadi, 27, the third secretary and vice consul of the Qatari embassy in Washington, was being released without charge after the incident on Wednesday on a United Airlines flight from Washington to Denver.
In a post-script to the bizarre incident, a US State Department spokesman said that Modadi was traveling to Denver to make a consular visit to a Qatari national being held in a Colorado prison.
US media reports identified the prisoner as Ali al-Marri, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy last year in connection with the September 11 attacks on the US.
Modadi set off alarm bells during the flight to Denver after sneaking a smoke in the bathroom and then, when confronted, joking that he was lighting his shoes.
His comments raised fears of a repeat of the 2001 “shoe bomber” incident in which British national Richard Reid tried to blow up an airliner using explosives hidden in his shoe.
An air marshal wrestled the diplomat to the floor, the pilot declared an emergency, two F-16 fighters were scrambled and intercepted the airliner, and top White House officials briefed US President Barack Obama, who was en route to Prague to sign a nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia.
Later, officials said there were no explosives on the plane and it was all a misunderstanding.
“It’s expected that he’s going to be turned over today to Qatari officials. I don’t know if he’s still with the FBI or if he’s been turned over to the Qatari officials yet,” a law enforcement official said on Thursday.
The source, who asked not to be named, said that even though smoking in airplane restrooms is a federal crime under US law, the diplomat is not likely to be prosecuted.
“He has diplomatic immunity. If he was a US citizen, that’s a violation, but he does have diplomatic immunity,” the official said. “Only a foreign government can lift the immunity.”
The US State Department said on Thursday it expected a quick diplomatic solution to the affair, adding US authorities had been in close contact with Qatar’s ambassador.
“We are satisfied with the seriousness by which they take what has occurred. That’s why we have confidence that this will be resolved very quickly,” spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, hinted Modadi would soon be sent home. “His ability to function effectively has been significantly compromised,” the official said.
Qatar’s ambassador to Washington, Ali Bin Fajad al-Hajari, said in a statement the diplomat had been traveling to Denver on official embassy business.
“He was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity,” the ambassador said. “The facts will reveal that this was a mistake and we urge all concerned parties to avoid reckless judgments or speculation.”
The reaction to Modadi’s actions appeared to have been prompted by fears of a possible repeat of the foiled Christmas Day bombing, when a Nigerian passenger tried to blow up a plane by igniting an explosive secreted in his underwear.
US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano praised the swift actions of the air marshals.
“We always treat security-related incidents seriously until verified otherwise, and thankfully this incident posed no actual security threat,” she said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS