Russian Plane Searched at JFK Airport

ByABC News
October 24, 2002, 12:07 PM

— -- Russian Aircraft Searched at JFK Airport

N E W Y O R K, Oct. 23 An Aeroflot aircraft fromRussia was searched at John F. Kennedy International Airport inNew York today for possible radioactive material butnone was found, law enforcement officials said.

They said the flight from Moscow with 176 passengers onboard landed about 2 p.m. in New York and wasinvestigated after Russian authorities called U.S. authoritiesand said an individual on the plane should be searched.

"Based on information that we received earlier today, wehave an interest in interviewing a passenger on that plane,"FBI spokesman Jim Margolin said. "We believe this should beresolved within a couple of hours."

One suspect was taken into custody, said Gordon Johndroe,spokesman for the White House Homeland Security Department.

"Information was received that led federal authorities tosearch the plane. The plane has been cleared and released toAeroflot for use. All runways are operational," Johndroe saidin Washington.

Agents from the FBI, U.S. Customs and the Port Authority ofNew York and New Jersey met the plane. Passengers were takenoff the Boeing 767 as the search was conducted.

One official said the suspect was being questioned aboutpossible smuggling and it appeared unlikely to be terroristrelated.

Reuters

Man Charged With Perjury for Allegedly Lying About Attack Plan

D E T R O I T, Oct. 23 A man who told federal agents a month beforeSept. 11, 2001, that an airplane attack was being planned onWashington is facing trial on perjury charges for allegedly lyingto a grand jury.

Gussan Abraham Jarrar, 42, a Jordanian, told the Detroit FreePress in a jail interview that nobody would listen to his warning.

An FBI report acknowledges that Jarrar gave vague statements inAugust 2001, but said agents determined he had no real informationand simply fabricated details of a nonexistent terrorist cell toliven up his jail stay.

"If they would have given me a chance, I would have found outwhat was going to happen," Jarrar told the newspaper.

According to the Aug. 30, 2001, FBI report, Jarrar predictedterrorists would "carry out a suicide plane bombing attack on theWhite House, Washington, D.C., sometime during the holiday season,2001, possibly Thanksgiving and or Christmas."

"He either had knowledge or he's an amazing soothsayer," hislawyer, Donald Ferris, said.

FBI spokeswoman Dawn Clenney in Detroit said Jarrar wastedvaluable FBI resources. Federal authorities spent monthsinvestigating his claims.

"He liked to talk," Monroe County Assistant Prosecutor KennethSwinkey said Tuesday. "He claimed he had a lot of informationabout criminal activity and literally took our sheriff's detectivesfor a ride."

At the time he talked to federal agents, Jarrar was being heldon a drug charge.

Called before a grand jury in Detroit on Aug. 16, 2001, hetestified that he and seven other men planned to blow up theMackinac Bridge, the federal building in Detroit and the CedarPoint amusement park at Sandusky, Ohio. He claimed the group,called Whatever It Takes, was an anti-Israeli organization.

Jarrar said he learned of the planned Washington attack fromdocuments he found in a briefcase in a vehicle he repaired for anassociate of the group.

The grand jury said he lied about the existence of the group,falsely claimed he bought parts to make pipe bombs and fabricated aletter he claimed had been written by a member of the plot.

Each charge is punishable by five years in prison and Jarrarcould be deported if he is convicted. His trial is scheduled fornext week.

The Associated Press

President Bush Signs Defense Spending BillW A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 23 With strokes of his pen today, PresidentBush signed into law a bill giving him the tools he wants to wagean expensive, no-end-in-sight global fight against terror andpossibly Saddam Hussein.

"Our nation faces grave new dangers, and our nation must fullysupport the men and women of our military who confront thesedangers on our behalf," Bush said before signing legislationproviding a hefty increase in defense spending and financing formilitary construction projects in 2003.