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Mogadishu,
Somalia, January 2, 2010 -- In a setback for U.S. investigators probing
links to the attempted attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, a Somali
official said yesterday that another suspect who tried to board a plane
with chemicals in that country already had been freed.
His release last month will hamper efforts to learn whether the incident
in Mogadishu was linked to the attempted attack against the U.S.-bound
plane on Christmas Day.
Gen. Ali Hassan Loyan, the Somali police commissioner, said a Somali
court released the suspect Dec. 12 after ruling that officials hadn't
demonstrated he intended to commit a crime. The man, whose name has not
been released, said the chemicals were for processing camera film.
In light of the attempted attack on the Detroit-bound plane, Loyan said
Somali authorities would share information and the confiscated materials
with U.S. officials.
"Somalia's federal government affirms that it is ready to double its
cooperation with the countries in the world, particularly with America,
for it is clear that the incident that happened in Mogadishu and the one
that happened in a region in America are similar," Loyan said at a news
conference in the Somali capital.
The Somali case drew little attention before the attempted attack on the
U.S.-bound plane. The Homeland Security Department did not learn of the
November incident at Mogadishu's international airport until Wednesday,
when U.S. officials began investigating for links between it and the
Detroit case.
A Nairobi-based diplomat said the incident has similarities to the
attempted attack on the Detroit-bound plane. The Somali was said to have
a syringe, liquid and powdered chemicals -- tools similar to those used
by the Nigerian suspect on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
The Somali suspect was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops
before boarding the Daallo Airlines plane bound for the northern Somali
city of Hargeysa. The plane was then headed to Djibouti and Dubai.
Source: AP, January 1, 2010
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