CK
ScanFlyer Mile High Club
US: 'Arabic Assassin' fired as baggage screener
(Source : Reuters, July 15, 2005)
Bassam Khalaf was paid to help keep US air travel safe as a baggage screener. His alter ego, the Arabic Assassin, rapped about flying a plane into a building. The TSA could not reconcile the two and fired him last week, saying his free speech rights as an aspiring rap singer did not extend to his right to check luggage at Houston Intercontinental Airport. 'I was one of the ones screening the bags thoroughly,' Khalaf said on Friday. 'I wouldn't let a bomb get on a plane.' He also was the self-proclaimed 'Arabic Assassin,' who didn't do songs about love but preferred to sing about killing, raping and blowing things up. Khalaf said the incendiary lyrics about rape, murder and mass attacks were meant only to get attention and help get his first album, 'Terror Alert,' a distribution deal. Instead, the TSA fired Khalaf, 21, after six months on the job and gave his name to other federal agencies for investigation, spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said.
Full Story: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1121467144.html
(Source : Reuters, July 15, 2005)
Bassam Khalaf was paid to help keep US air travel safe as a baggage screener. His alter ego, the Arabic Assassin, rapped about flying a plane into a building. The TSA could not reconcile the two and fired him last week, saying his free speech rights as an aspiring rap singer did not extend to his right to check luggage at Houston Intercontinental Airport. 'I was one of the ones screening the bags thoroughly,' Khalaf said on Friday. 'I wouldn't let a bomb get on a plane.' He also was the self-proclaimed 'Arabic Assassin,' who didn't do songs about love but preferred to sing about killing, raping and blowing things up. Khalaf said the incendiary lyrics about rape, murder and mass attacks were meant only to get attention and help get his first album, 'Terror Alert,' a distribution deal. Instead, the TSA fired Khalaf, 21, after six months on the job and gave his name to other federal agencies for investigation, spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said.
Full Story: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1121467144.html
