Wonkette
Ha ha, so, funny story: a traveling Marine packed enough ammunition and explosives in his checked luggage to blow up, hmm let’s say a Pliosaur, and nobody really noticed or appeared to care until his luggage was inspected by TSA workers during a layover in Boston.Thus concluded the first incident in recorded history when TSA goons did something useful.
The guy checked his mini munitions factory in Las Vegas and was bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, but he got stuck in Boston due to his “possession of an infernal machine” (!) and having a concealed weapon in the secure area of an airport.
What the hell did this guy want to do with all this crap?
Boston TSA workers turned up a 9 mm gun, “several hundred rounds” of military 7.62 mm ammunition, a hand grenade fuse assembly and detonator, three model-rocket engines containing an explosive mixture, numerous switches and military pull-type fuses in Reed’s bag, authorities said.
Maybe one of our military/firearm-oriented commenters might shed some light on this weirdness. Till then, let’s just assume this guy just couldn’t think of anything fun to do in Charlotte besides assemble bombs.
Feds: Marine had material for bomb [Boston Herald]
“possession of an infernal machine” … wow, that’s kind of an achievement in itself
Are you implying that shutting down a city because of an imminent threat from Aqua Teen Hunger Force characters was NOT the TSA’s finest moment?
“possession of an infernal machine?” I see Boston’s laws haven’t been updated since the early 1600’s. Are they going to burn him at the stake or just tar & feather him?
karn-saggit! Those dern infernal machines!
The Salvation Army has some sort of facility in Charlotte. Maybe he was defecting?
OMG! My first concern is for these poor weapons’ 2nd amendment!
user-of-owls:
Yes. Those bastards were freaked out by the Moonites, but ignored HandBanana.
“three model-rocket engines containing an explosive mixture”
Duh. What the hell do they think rocket fuel is? Rainbows and sunshine?
the average military guy is about as good at telling reality from fantasy as the average trekky. we’d probably crap our collective pants if we knew the reality, which is probably something like the TSA has caught 1 of 1250 military guys who did something like this week.
full disclosure: i have brothers and sisters in the military, they routinely bring home hand grenades and more in their luggage, for show and tell.
Was he packing any Truck Nutz in his luggage? That’s the real question here.
I thought this sort of thing was supposed to be thwarted by
the Bush created DHS. I don’t want my
tax dollars going toward a useless government agency. Am I
too late to dump my teabags? Also, too.
If he was flying into Charlotte, NC, that means he was headed to Camp Lejune (FRENCH!).
I can tell you - as much as you get shuttled around the world in the Jyrenes, it might be easy to unwittingly leave some crap in your duffel bag. But there is no way in hell he should have had what he had in anything other than his field equipment, which you do not typically fly commercial with.
And the model-rocket engines? Don’t think that’s standard issue. Obvs a science nerd.
Was it one of those Wile E. Coyote-style detonators? I like those.
It had something to do with some kind of Eric Alan Rudolph tribute, I’m thinking. Oh and April 19th was the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Branch Davidian compound fire, and the first appearance of The Simpsons. Also.
There was a hardcore band in Boston in the ’90s that had a song titled “Infernal Machine”. It’s pure awesomeness is probably what led Beantown authorities to make it illegal.
I wonder why they didn’t charge him for possession of ammo and bomb making materials.
Wait a minute, I can’t get fucking shampoo through airport security…
The TSA will protect us all.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5937/johncandyvacation.jpg
This guy’s problem was he was carrying ammo that didn’t fit his handgun.
The “military pull-type fuses” are sex toys.
I saw this movie this weekend called “State of Play”. It showed how this wacked out veteran dude was walking around assassinating people and shit. Scared the crap out of me until I walked out into the sunshine and realized it was just a movie.
Moleman v2.5: It’s kind of neat that the law still kept that term. I like it, personally. “Bomb” is a bit ambiguous. “Infernal machine” really gets the point across.
…just like Rush said! The liberals are already targeting our soldiers!!!
Confound this infernal machine!
Yeah… the radical right was hard at work recruiting this guy.
If every airport was equipped with a Deus Ex Machina, we wouldn’t be in danger from these infernal machines.
bfstevie@yahoo.com: Yeah, I was wondering about that. I could understand that maybe he intended to use the 7.62mm rounds for blowing shit up or something, but in that case, why even bring the nine?
Hmmm, somehow the fact that he was toting ’several hundred’ rounds of ammunition is less weird to me than the fact that he didn’t have the proper gun to shoot it with. I guess that makes me American?
People are packing grenades and guns for their apocolyptic picnics.
randem: Right wing extremism? OH NO THAT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE.
…geez people, whats the big deal?! Its not like we got a NIE report last week that warned us against returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans or something!!! Right?!
Due to Gates’s spending cuts, the US military is now forced to use regular servicemen as couriers on commercial flights. And that copy of the Anarchist Cookbook was a coincidence, I’m sure.
Sussemilch: Yeah, that’s as wonderfully archaic as William Blake’s “dark satanic mills.”
They still burn witches in Massachusetts, right?
Pistol in the locked case sounds like he stole somebody’s pistol, ditto with the 7.62 ammo. Both totally normally for a Marine or random Southerner to own, but something you wouldn’t put in your checked bag unless you were smuggling it. The other stuff sounds like 4th of July toys, or else stuff for his militia buddies to build bombs with. Which they totes want for self defense against ATF raids.
Thank God that no right wing extremist would ever try to recruit people like this.
Why didn’t he just drive there?
Good on Logan Airport though. Keeping America Safe Since September 12, 2001.
Ahneta: Apparently the budget cuts also now mean that our men in service must hurl their 7.62 ammunition at the enemy, rather than being provided with the appropriate weapon. I suppose getting beaned with a 7.62 might leave a welt.
The Infernal Machine was one of my favorite episodes of Space 1999. There, I said it.
Also, though that might be the beginnings of any number of things, the only immediately dangerous item there is the pistol.
did he have any tea bags, ron paul stickers and poorly drawn protest signs emblazoned with incoherent blather?
if so, that’s more like an shaving kit than anything to worry about.
Wait for Rush Limbaugh to condemn the TSA fascists for persecuting our dedicated military personnel in three…two…
I can understand the gun and ammunition, because I’m a southerner, and guns are ubiquitous in the south, but I can’t understand the explosives. You can’t hunt with exposives.
Of course, he could have been going fishing…
i believe that all machines become infernal at some point or another. also, when did yosmite sam become a d.a. and what’s he doing in Boston?
Min: Win. Either that, or he needs to remove some stumps.
Ahneta: The U.S. government fails as usual; real mules would have swallowed all that shit and shat it out at the base.
I love that Massachusetts law about infernal machines. It sounds so much cooler than “bomb”.
Some of the commenters on the BH article say they know the guy, and that he did declare everything. So who knows. It certainly doesn’t take a genius to apply Occam’s Razor here and assume a clerical fuckup of paperwork is the likelier cause than some looney wingnut planning mayhem, even if you don’t totally exclude the latter possibility.
Having been to Charlotte myself, I’m going to assume Sara’s theory is the correct one.
If he’d been on his way TO Vegas, this would be more understandable.
magic titty: You can’t go wrong with Acme brand explosives.
According to the wingnut commenters on Red State and the Boston Globe, this guy was just bringing home combat souvenirs and “glorified fireworks” so he could “goof off with his friends on the weekends.”
I can assure you that since Jim and Tammy Bakker’s Heritage USA closed down, there IS nothing fun to do around Charlotte, NC.
vkladchik: There’s still the minor detail that even if you declare them, aren’t detonators/rocket engines/etc, not allowed no matter what? There are obviously ways to legally take firearms, but my understanding was that the rest is a no go, so couldn’t have been declared without being removed. *shrug*
I like the conspiracy theory in those other comments that’s convinced that everything was planted in his bags in Logan by the DHS. Since when does Homeland Security frame marines? I thought their job was to frame those horrid libruls (and muslins!)…
user-of-owls: I must take the time to chide you for your underestimation of the power of the Mooninites. Once Mooninites feel they are welcome somewhere they are impossible to get rid of.
threeb: “Goof off” of course meaning “blow up helpless liberal babies and shoot their doe eyed mothers frantically attempting to escape from the maniacs disguised as Imperial Stormtroopers.”
bfstevie@yahoo.com: Yeah, but were the fuses 15- or 20-amp?
user-of-owls: http://wesmokewhileweflipthebird.ytmnd.com/
norbizness: http://holymooninite.ytmnd.com/ Also
President Beeblebrox: Why is it that my (semi-)beloved state is the most progressive in the country and yet somehow manages to keep one foot stuck in the 1660’s? It’s all like that around here — Blue laws for a blue state? sumfin….
“Infernal machine?” Why is someone bringing up teleprompters again?
2druk2phluq: norbizness: Racists!
“Davis said the TSA was investigating why the items were not discovered during the bag’s initial screening in Las Vegas.”
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
I bet this makes Janet Napolitano’s press conferences way easier.
So Marines can just bring home explosives and stuff?
Why book a layover in Boston, if USAirways has cheaper flights directly from Vegas to Charlotte, NC? Makes no sense. Other articles I have seen on this say he arrived in Boston around 6AM, with a layover for a flight to Charlotte that left at 8AM. Why go out of your way and pay more than twice as much for a flight itinerary that goes Vegas-Boston-Charlotte, when you could just fly directly in half the time and cheaper?
Also, if he was returning to LeJeune with “combat souverniers,” why was he at Vegas first? Did he bring them to Vegas with him? That would mean he had to have snuck them through multiple airports, unless he picked them up in Vegas. This doesn’t really make much sense, in the “he just forgot to fill out the paperwork” kind of way.
Origami: Can, probably not, Do all the time i know a lot of vets keep weapons that arnt legal for civilians to own when they leave the military
proudgrampa: Nope, an infernal machine is any laptop running Vista. Or XP. Or any M$FT product. Christ, the lines at Logan are going to get long now.
Maybe just a “boys and their toys” kind of thing? A buddy of mine in Vietnam managed to get a Tommy Gun shipped back home, just ’cause it was all Eliot Nessy. Nobody in the unit thought anything of it.
Origami: They’re not supposed to, but, yeah, soldiers been doing this for a long time. Grampa’s WW I souvenir sometimes goes off when no one expects it.
Zhu Bajie
OK, old people story.
Back when I was in the Vietnam war (which never existed, swamp gas, look this way}.
We had a troop that was found to be in possession of (during one of those inspections that I was smarmy enough to get out of) a Rocket Launcher (probably a LAW).
He was told to send it home.
@ZombieRichardFeynman A whole lot of that went around.
xx test