Botched Slovak Airport Test Turns Irish Man Into Bombing Suspect
30 replies, posted
[quote]DUBLIN – A 49-year-old electrician has emerged as an unlikely symbol of what can go wrong in the war on terror after authorities in Slovakia planted an explosive in his backpack to test airport security — then let it travel all the way to Ireland.
The incredible chain of events included a pilot taking off with the explosives on board, the Slovaks' failure to tell the Dublin airport or police about the incoming ordnance, and the man's arrest days later as Ireland's bomb squad closed in.
It all began Saturday when a policeman in Slovakia slipped 3.4 ounces (96 grams) of plastic explosive into Stefan Gonda's check-in luggage at the Poprad-Tatry Airport in central Slovakia as he and his wife were returning home to Ireland after a Christmas visit.
Slovak authorities said the bomb material and a dummy that smelled like explosives were hidden in the bag as a training test for a bomb-sniffing dog, who pinpointed the fake but missed the real thing.
But the police officer in charge got distracted and failed to remove the real explosives cache, the Slovak Interior Ministry said. That allowed the RDX plastic explosive to travel undetected through airport security onto a Danube Wings aircraft.
While the Slovak ministry blamed the incident on "a silly and unprofessional mistake," Irish officials and international security experts expressed disbelief that the Slovaks had hidden actual explosives in the luggage of an innocent passenger.
"It's unbelievable, it's astonishing," said Rick Nelson, a former Bush administration official who worked at the National Counterterrorism Center. "I'm not sure what they were thinking, using an unknowing civilian rather than an undercover security official."
The incident was bound to heighten the debate over airport security in the wake of the Christmas near-disaster when a 23-year-old Nigerian suspect tried but failed to detonate an explosive aboard a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit.
Gonda didn't find out about the explosive hidden in his bag until Monday night, when Slovak police called him and told him where to find it. Slovakia's deputy prime minister, Robert Kalinak, also telephoned to apologize.
That didn't stop Gonda from being arrested the next morning.
Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, said it received only a vague tip from their Slovak counterparts saying Gonda was suspected of possessing explosives — and even that information came three days after the airport test on Saturday.
So officers pounced Tuesday morning, closing a busy Dublin intersection at rush hour, evacuating several nearby apartment buildings, sending in the Irish army's bomb squad and taking Gonda into custody.
Gonda was released without charge three hours later after Slovakia's Embassy intervened with more information.
"I am truly sorry about what happened, and offer my deep regret and apology to the Irish people," Slovakia's ambassador to Ireland, Roman Buzek, told Irish broadcaster RTE.
Gonda declined to speak to journalists staking out his apartment.
Meanwhile, Slovakia's Interior Ministry said Wednesday it had ordered an immediate halt to such training exercises, though it maintained that no one was in danger during the flight because the explosive was harmless without a detonator.
Tibor Mako, commander of the Slovak Border and Foreign Police, told a news conference Wednesday that the pilot of the Danube Wings aircraft was told about the explosives while taxiing for takeoff — but chose to leave anyway when reassured it couldn't detonate on its own.
Danube Wings, a Slovak airline that began flying to Dublin last month, confirmed that air traffic controllers told the pilot a bag on board contained "a harmless sample" — but said they didn't specify it was explosives.
Mako and the Interior Ministry also contended they informed the Dublin Airport of the explosives in a telex message Saturday while the aircraft was en route.
However, the Dublin Airport Authority and the Dublin Airport Police said they received no such warning — apparently because the telex was sent to an international baggage-handling company. The company, Servisair, said Wednesday it received the Slovaks' broken-English message — but didn't know what to make of it.
The telex, released to Irish media on Wednesday, said the Slovaks wanted the explosives to be collected and shipped back.
The message described the bag's appearance and said the "test sample" would not explode or catch fire. "We would kindly ask you to return that sample by return flight," it said.
U.S. and international security experts were shocked by the whole Slovak airport test.
Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general of the U.S. Homeland Security Department, called the test "crazy."
"It should be a controlled exercise," Ervin said. "It never should be done to someone unwittingly."
Jane's Aviation analyst Chris Yates agreed.
"The whole idea of putting devices in passenger bags scares the living daylights out of me, frankly. It leaves it wide open to a whole range of things, including theft," Yates told The Associated Press in London.
Yates said that although professional-grade explosives wouldn't explode unless triggered by a detonator and power-timer unit, even well-packaged explosives could have left a chemical trace on Gonda's backpack.
"If he turned up at an airport with the same bag anytime soon and those traces were still on that bag, the passenger could be hauled aside and given the third degree if his bag was swabbed. You could conceivably end up on a (terrorist) watch list," he said.
The experts also noted that Slovakia was ignoring past mistakes in using civilians' luggage for bomb-sniffing tests without their knowledge. In 2004, France stopped such tests after losing track of more than 100 grams (over 3.5 ounces) of explosives surreptitiously planted in an unwitting passenger's suitcase. It was never recovered.[/quote]
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20100107/ap_tr_ge/eu_travel_brief_hidden_explosives[/url]
Nice one Slovakia. It sounded like a good idea.
tl;dr slovakia thinks its a good idea to slip 7 real bombs into unsuspecting travelers as a security test, one gets by them, they forget who had it, bomb ends up in Ireland.
Well, now we know where to get free plastic explosive with every bag of peanuts.
You know there's at least one guy who's like "Well, 7 out of 8 isn't too bad, eh guys?" and proceeds to nudge the guy next to him with a huge :smug: on his face
[QUOTE=Sgt. Khorn;19497476]Well, now we know where to get free plastic explosive with every bag of peanuts.[/QUOTE]
I don't even think the explosives could open the fucking bags though.:saddowns:
I can't believe they slovaks," Can we have our bomb back?"
[editline]03:22AM[/editline]
Intresting side-note: 5,000 news threads reached, Congratulations "In the News"
So now terrorists can just claim that they have no knowledge of their bombs, as long as they pass through Slovakia at some point.
[quote=op] "It's unbelievable, it's astonishing," said Rick Nelson, a former Bush administration official who worked at the National Counterterrorism Center. [/quote]
Because you fucks wouldn't ever try anything like this
(yeah I'm looking at you Patriot act)
[IMG]http://thewhittles.name/webpage/media/Player/Demo.jpg[/IMG]
PRANCIN' ABOOT WITH YER HEADS FULLA EYEBALLS!
[QUOTE=InsanePyro;19498400]Because you fucks wouldn't ever try anything like this
(yeah I'm looking at you Patriot act)[/QUOTE]
Even the Bush administration wasn't dumb enough to put bombs onto their citizens and not tell anyone except themselves.
[quote]
The experts also noted that Slovakia was ignoring past mistakes in using civilians' luggage for bomb-sniffing tests without their knowledge. In 2004, France stopped such tests after losing track of more than 100 grams (over 3.5 ounces) of explosives surreptitiously planted in an unwitting passenger's suitcase. It was never recovered.[/quote]
:v:
[QUOTE=Kinversulath;19499314]Even the Bush administration wasn't dumb enough to put bombs onto their citizens and not tell anyone except themselves.[/QUOTE]
I wouldn't put it past them
(I'm aware they didn't actually do it)
Ugh, it's things like this that make me think humans to be so silly.
[QUOTE=ironman17;19503597]Ugh, it's things like this that make me think humans to be so silly.[/QUOTE]
You are indeed correct Bloxorian Theta, those silly humans are so ignorant on their tiny planet.
[QUOTE=Skwaire;19499257][IMG]http://thewhittles.name/webpage/media/Player/Demo.jpg[/IMG]
PRANCIN' ABOOT WITH YER HEADS FULLA EYEBALLS![/QUOTE]
Irish, not Scottish.
[QUOTE=Unib5;19505608]Irish, not Scottish.[/QUOTE]
They're both drunkards :v:
[QUOTE=markg06;19505641][QUOTE=Unib5;19505608]Irish, not Scottish.[/QUOTE]
They're both drunkards :v:[/QUOTE]
stop w/ the racism towards me pls
Haha, reminds me of that one time in Japan they put weed in someone's bag to test security and failed to retrieve it.
'Cept this is more worrying.
Thats absolutely fucking ridiculous.
I cant even put into words how irresponsible that is, "silly mistake" really? they could have singlehandedly ruined this mans life.
I once flew in a Slovakia Airlines plane. It was so old that there were ashtrays on the seats and it was using a propeller.
irish man?
yeah, i wouldn't be surprised
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/sz7jaq.jpg[/IMG]
Irishman with bombs eh?
Not a surprise if a man mistakes explosive for something else and accidentally blows his jaw off.
[QUOTE=SomeENG;19507062][IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/sz7jaq.jpg[/IMG]
Irishman with bombs eh?[/QUOTE]
ye an irish man with bombs cant u read...
Hohoho... Saboteur.
Anyway, I wonder if this could affect diplomatic relations between Slovakia and Ireland. Morons.
Imagine if the guy really was a terrorist.
He'd think it was a sign from god
[QUOTE=TH89;19507620]Imagine if the guy really was a terrorist.
He'd think it was a sign from god[/QUOTE]
He didn't know he had the explosives.
I didnt do it, I SWEAR
Somebody dropped the ball... Dumbasses.
The best part is, someone genuinely thought sticking a bomb on a random civilian, with no way of tracing it, and with the man having no idea, was a REALLY GOOD IDEA!
[QUOTE=InsanePyro;19503576]I wouldn't put it past them
(I'm aware they didn't actually do it)[/QUOTE]
Not on our citizens but they did hold that one exercise where they snuck explosives into I forgot how many Federal buildings, around 10, all successfully
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