Grenedes are not toys 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- A small explosion -- apparently caused by a
security guard's own grenade -- went off in the baggage screening area of
Amman airport Thursday, killing the guard.
CNN correspondent Rula Amin, who was standing nearby, said authorities
first believed the explosion had occurred in a piece of luggage as it went
through a baggage screening machine. They had detained one man, who said he
was Japanese. Security officials said the man was a newspaper reporter
returning from Iraq. They would not disclose his name and when Amin
attempted to speak with the man, he said, "Not me, not me."
But later, passengers who were standing near the guard said he was
holding what appeared to be a grenade that was apparently part of his own
equipment. They said he was twisting the pin while talking on a cell
phone. Sources told Amin that it appeared the guard set off the device.
Passengers standing near the guard said he suffered severe injuries to
his head, chest, right shoulder and right arm. He was killed instantly,
airport authorities said.
Amin said passengers who were standing nearby were not hurt.
Authorities evacuated the immediate area around the blast and temporarily
halted the boarding of flights, she said.
Another reader, Michael
LaViolette, objects: "Why would a security guard in an airport have
a grenade? The two news items below gives the actual events. Since the
Japanese reporter was carrying an explosive device, the security
guard is not eligible for a Darwin, because he found the explosive during a
routine search of the reporter's baggage. Had the explosive detonated on
the aircraft I'm sure everyone onboard would have been killed."
Toronto Star
Jordan: Journalist jailed over deadly 'souvenir' bomb. Japanese
photographer Hiroki Gomi was jailed for 18 months in Jordan on 1 June after
a cluster bomb he took from Iraq as a souvenir killed an Amman airport
security guard.The explosive detonated as a guard searched the bag, killing
the man and wounding three people.
Gomi, of Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, said he didn't know the
bomb was live. He was unhurt. The Jordanian court convicted Gomi of
negligence resulting in the guard's death and accidentally damaging
property at the airport. He was acquitted of illegal possession of an
explosive device because there was no evidence he intended harm.
His Jordanian translator, Abdul-Salam Hilweh, was acquitted on similar
charges. Gomi had given him a similar bomblet, which was later
destroyed.
"The cluster bomb controversy"
BBC online report
Monday, June 16, 2003 Posted: 11:27 AM EDT
The official Petra news agency said the king had decreed a "special
clemency" for Hiroki Gomi, 36, a photographer with the Japanese daily
Mainichi Shimbun. The decree endorsed a Cabinet decision adopted last
week, Petra added. Gomi had petitioned the king for a pardon earlier this
month.
Japan is a major aid donor to Jordan.
In Tokyo, the Japanese newspaper issued a statement Monday thanking the
king and apologizing for the blast. "We are deeply appreciative of the
generous decision taken by King Abdullah II," it said. "We would like to
again express our sorrow over the victim's death and apologize to the
injured and all those affected by this incident."
Gomi was passing an Amman airport security check May 1 when an X-ray
machine detected a cluster bomb he had picked up in Iraq while covering the
recent war. The bomb exploded as security guard Ali al-Sarhan searched his
bag, killing al-Sarhan and wounding three others. On June 1, a military
court convicted Gomi of accidental killing and damage to property and
sentenced him to 18 months jail.
The court acquitted Gomi's Jordanian assistant, Abdul-Salam Hilweh, who
had been charged with illegal possession of an explosive device. The judge
said there was insufficient evidence against him. Gomi had given a second
cluster bomb to Hilweh as a souvenir. After the explosion at the airport,
police confiscated Hilweh's bomb and detonated it in a controlled
explosion.
Gomi had told the court he was unaware the bombs were alive.
Ito Yoshiaki, Mainichi's deputy managing editor who has been in Jordan
pursuing Gomi's case since early May, told The Associated Press he was
awaiting word from Jordan on the photographer's release. Afterward, he
added, Gomi "should undergo a medical checkup and then I'll decide the day
he will be sent back to Japan."
And Paul Taylor says,
"The Japanese newspaper, whose photographer was accused of posessing the
grenade, runs a different story from the one submitted, on their website:
(CONFIRMED URL)
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200305/02/20030502p2a00m0dm004003c.html
Mainichi photographer detained over explosion at Jordan
airport
A Mainichi Shimbun photographer was detained after a metal object he had
picked up in Iraq as a "souvenir" exploded at an international airport in
the Jordanian capital of Amman on Thursday, killing a security guard and
injuring three other people, the Mainichi learned Friday. Jordan's
security authorities took Hiroki Gomi, 36, a photographer at the Mainichi
Newspapers Co. Tokyo headquarters, into custody and are questioning him
over the blast.
A senior Mainichi board member apologized for the incident. "We are
doing our utmost to get to the bottom of the incident, but we think it was
caused by photographer Hiroki Gomi's ill-advised actions," Tatsuaki
Hashimoto, managing director for public relations, said. "I would like to
express my condolences to the victim and hope that people who were injured
will get well soon. I offer our heartfelt apologies for the incident."
Hashimoto said the company will dispatch Yoshiaki Ito, deputy managing
editor of its Tokyo editorial division to Amman to meet Gomi. "It's
unbelievable that photographer Gomi put something that could explode in his
baggage. We would like to question him directly."
The incident occurred at the departure terminal of the Queen Alia
international airport at 6:50 p.m., Thursday (12:50 a.m., Friday, Japanese
time). A security guard found a suspicious metal object in Gomi's suitcase
during an X-ray screening and was examining it when it went off, according
to Associated Press and other reports. The security guard died instantly
and two other security guards and a bystander were injured. One of the
injured security guards is in critical condition.
The explosive was one of numerous bell-shaped metal objects he found
scattered around a car abandoned along a road in Iraq on April 11 while
traveling from Amman to Baghdad, according to Japanese diplomat Tatsuya
Tajima in Jordan. Gomi picked up two of them as "souvenirs." He had been
carrying them in his camera bag.
He was quoted as telling Jordanian officials that he was aware they were
explosive devices, but that he decided to take them home anyhow because he
thought they had already been used and would no longer go off. When the
airport security guard asked him about a metal object in his bag, Gomi
picked it up and told the guard that he had found it. The guard
confiscated it and was examining it about five meters away from Gomi when
it suddenly went off.
The location of the other object he picked up in Iraq was unknown.
Gomi is currently in custody of the Jordanian security authorities, and
is set to face interrogation by prosecutors on Sunday.
Gomi began his news coverage in Baghdad in February. He went to Jordan
after the U.S.-led war against Iraq broke out, but returned to Baghdad on
April 11. He finished his work in Baghdad on Monday and traveled to Jordan
by road. He was to leave Amman for Japan via Cairo. Gomi joined the
Mainichi Newspapers Co. in 1991 as a photographer. He also lived in Jordan
for two years as an overseas cooperation volunteer under the
semigovernmental Japan International Cooperation Agency. (Mainichi Shimbun,
Japan, May 2, 2003)
Submitted on 05/02/2003
Submitted by:
Jay Schober
Reference:
CNN Thursday, May 1, 2003
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