AP Omits Key Details About Nuclear Smuggler

How interesting. Note the small detail the AP leaves out in the story about a potential terrorist:

Airport Arrest Turns Up Nuclear Info

Nov 16 9:36 AM US/Eastern

A man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after officials say they found him carrying more than $78,000 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide.

Sisayehiticha Dinssa, an unemployed U.S. citizen, was arrested Tuesday after a dog caught the scent of narcotics on cash he was carrying, according to an affidavit filed in court.

When agents asked him if he had any cash to declare, he said he had $18,000, authorities said. But when agents checked his luggage, they found an additional $59,000. When they scrolled through his laptop, they said they found the
mysterious files.

At a court hearing Wednesday, Dinssa was ordered held in custody until at least until Monday at the request of prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonid Feller argued Dinssa was a potential risk to the community and federal agents want to get a warrant to search his computer more thoroughly, The Detroit News reported Thursday. U.S. Magistrate Donald Scheer approved Feller's request to detain him.

Dinssa, who is from Dallas, arrived in Detroit from by way of Amsterdam and was headed for Phoenix, Feller said. He is charged with concealing more than $10,000 in his luggage, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the Detroit Free Press reported.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday with his lawyer, Leroy Soles.

[see the original here]

Sounds like great coverage of a possible national security matter, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, it isn't. Here's the relevant section of the same story from AP's source, the Detroit Free Press (which for some reason doesn't list the story as national news):

A 34-year-old Dallas man was arrested at Detroit Metro Airport on Tuesday, carrying $78,883 in cash and a laptop computer containing mysterious files about cyanide and nuclear materials.

Authorities said Sisayehiticha Dinssa, a U.S. citizen who was born in Ethiopia, was arrested after getting off an airline flight from Amsterdam. They said he had spent four months in Nigeria on unspecified business.

Something funny going on here. Clearly, and mysteriously, AP neglects to mention at least two huge points:

1. Mr. Dinssa was born in Ethiopia.
2. He was in Nigeria for four months on "unspecified business."

Isn't it nice that AP assures us first that he is a U.S. citizen -- as if that means something. The trouble is, AP doesn't just leave out the info about Mr. Dinssa being born in Ethiopia and spending an extended length of time in Nigeria -- they cut it out. Perhaps it doesn't mean anything that he was born in Ethiopia, but why conceal the facts?

Michelle Malkin has more here.