May 9 – Emirates Airline’s President Tim Clark said on Thursday that the airline had complied with US security rules before letting the Times Square bombing suspect to board a flight for Dubai. Clark also blamed the Obama government for unduly criticizing the airline. “We’re not a security agency. For the Obama administration to say that we dropped the ball on this, it’s a bit much,” he said, adding that it is not the carrier’s job to arrest criminals.
Earlier, US officials including New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg accused Emirates of failing to prevent the alleged bomber on the flight. “Perhaps the US needs to re-examine the flow of information between all the different authorities and also take a look at exit controls. The US government must also be asking itself why it doesn’t have tighter exit controls when entry controls are so strict,” he said.
Agents from the Department of Homeland Security arrested Faisal Shahzad at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport May 3 on Emirates’ EK202 flight to Dubai, which was about to take off. Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan, admitted his role in the plot, US Attorney General Eric Holder said May 4.
