Monday, October 20, 2003
NATION
THE BATTALION
FBI looking into how student evaded airport security
WASHINGTON (AP) — A college student
who the FBI believes hid box cutters and other
banned items aboard two Southwest Airlines
planes had warned government officials he would
try to bring forbidden articles onto commercial
flights to expose holes in security.
A federal law enforcement official said
Saturday that investigators are interviewing the
man to learn how, despite stepped-up security
since the Sept. 11 attacks, the man got through air
port screeners while also carrying bleach, match
es, modeling clay and notes detailing his intention
to test security.
A Bush administration official said the sus
pected perpetrator last month sent the government
an e-mail warning of his intention to conceal sim
ilar suspicious items on six planes and provided
dates and locations for the plan.
Federal authorities “reviewed the correspon
dence and determined this individual did not pose
an imminent threat to national security,” said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A man who said he had been interviewed by
the FBI in connection with the Southwest Airlines
incidents Thursday night identified himself to the
Greensboro News & Record in North Carolina as
Nathaniel T. Heatwole, a 20-year-old junior at
Guilford College in Greensboro. The federal law
enforcement official confirmed that he is the stu
dent being questioned.
“I have a ton of stuff I’d like to say, but ... I
have to work with government before I work with
the media,” Heatwole told the newspaper in an
interview from his home in Damascus, Md.
Guilford is a Quaker college with a history of
pacifism and civil disobedience that dates to the
Civil War. Randy Doss, vice president for enroll
ment and campus life, said in a statement that the
FBI on Friday inquired about a student in connec
tion with the investigation.
A woman who identified herself as Heatwole’s
sister told an Associated Press reporter in Damascus
on Saturday that her brother had no comment.
The suspect was identified through a database
search that linked the bags found on the planes to
the e-mail, the Transportation Security
Administration said.
An FBI statement said legal proceedings were
expected Monday in federal court in Baltimore.
Government prosecutors still were trying to deter
mine what charges they might bring.
Southwest Airlines maintenance workers found
small plastic bags containing box cutters and other
items in lavatory compartments on planes in New
Orleans and Houston. Notes in the bags “indicat
ed the items were intended to challenge
Transportation Security Administration check
point security procedures,” according to a state
ment from Southwest Airlines.
Each note also included precise information
about where and when the items were placed on
board the aircraft, according to a federal law
enforcement official who spoke on condition of
anonymity. That information has not been made
public, so it’s unclear how long the items were
aboard the planes.
The discovery triggered stepped-up inspections
of the entire U.S. commercial air fleet — roughly
7,000 planes. By Friday night, after consulting with
the FBI, the TSA rescinded the inspection order.
No other such bags were found in the inspection,
The aviation security system has undergone |
enormous changes since the Sept. 11 attacks,
which 19 hijackers used box cutters to takeover
four planes. Airport screeners — who now are fed
eral employees — receive more training, cockpit
doors have been made bulletproof, many more air
marshals are riding on commercial flights and some
pilots are allowed to carry guns when they fly.
But gaps remain. Government officials
acknowledge X-ray machines can miss pi
explosives and box cutters. Airport workers
have access to planes are not screened, nor is r
of the cargo that goes aboard commercial
Undercover federal investigators who recent
ly tested security were able to sneak weapons
past screeners.
The modeling clay found aboard the Southwesl
planes was made to look like an explosive, while
the bleach could have been used to demonstrate
how a corrosive or dangerous liquid could be
smuggled aboard a plane.
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=U Ernst & Young
Quality In Everything We Do
Report: Army
investigation
closed and no
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TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - An
elite unit of American soldiers
mutilated and killed hundreds of
unarmed villagers over seven
months in 1967 during the
Vietnam War, and an Army inves
tigation closed with no charges
filed. The Blade reported Sunday.
Soldiers of the Tiger Force
unit of the Army’s 101st Airborne
Division dropped grenades into
bunkers where villagers -
including women and children -
hid, and shot farmers without
warning, the newspaper reported.
The Army’s 4 1/2-year inves
tigation, never before made pub
lic, was initiated by a soldier
outraged at the killings. The
probe substantiated 20 war
crimes by 18 soldiers and
reached the Pentagon and White
House before it was closed in
1975, The Blade said.
William Doyle, a formet
Tiger Force sergeant, said he
killed so many civilians in 1967
he lost count.
“We didn’t expect to live.
Nobody out there with any brains
expected to live,” he told the news
paper. “The way to live is to kill
because you don’t have to wony
about anybody who’s dead.”
In an eight-month investiga
tion, The Blade reviewed thou
sands of classified Anny docu
ments, National Archive records
and radio logs and interviewed
former members of the unit and
relatives of those who died.
Tiger Force, a unit of 45 vol
unteers, was created to spy on
forces of North Vietnam in South
Vietnam’s central highlands.
The Blade said it is not
known how many Vietnamese
civilians were killed.
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Records show at least 78 were
shot or stabbed, the newspaper
said. Based on interviews with
Tiger Force soldiers and
Vietnamese civilians, it is esti
mated the unit killed hundreds of
unarmed people, The Blade said.
Army spokesman Joe Burlas
said Sunday that only three
Tiger Force members were on
active duty during the investiga
tion. He said their commanders,
acting on the advice of military
attorneys, determined there was
not enough evidence for suc
cessful prosecution.
He also cited a lack of physi
cal evidence and access to the
crime scene, since a number of
years had passed. He would not
comment on why the military did
not seek out the evidence sooner,
Investigators took 400 sworn
statements from witnesses, Burlas
said. Some supported each other
and some conflicted, he said.
According to The Blade, the
rampage began in May 1967. No
one knows what set it off. Less
than a week after setting up
camp in the central highlands,
soldiers began torturing and
killing prisoners in violation of
American military law and the
1949 Geneva Conventions, the
newspaper said.
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