Men detained at NY airports cleared in terrorist attacks

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- Travelers of Middle Eastern descent who were detained at two New York airports have been cleared of any connection with Tuesday's terrorist attacks, Sen. Joseph Biden said Friday.

Biden was told by the FBI that about 10 travelers were questioned and found to have no connection to the attacks, according to the senator's chief of staff, Alan Hoffman.

An FBI spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated the same. "We investigated the incident in New York and resolved it to our satisfaction," the spokesperson said.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN the arrests were based on suspicions that the men were linked to the attacks. Those connections turned out to be "totally, totally coincidental," he said.

One man was arrested because he was belligerent, while the others were merely detained and questioned, Hoffman added. A source with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Biden heads, said all but one of the group had been released.

Biden said there were explanations for the suspicions.

One man was originally thought to be traveling with a fake pilot's license. Biden said the man was a pilot who "coincidentally had his brother's identification as well."

"His brother happened to live in an apartment complex that was one in Boston where some of these people had actually been. Totally totally coincidental," said Biden, D-Del.

Biden added that others were traveling to a Boeing Co. conference, either because they work for the airline manufacturer or were invited.

"The folks at the airport thought, 'Hey, wait a minute, are they impersonating crew?' And they weren't."

The individual who was still being held has not been charged with anything, officials with the Foreign Relations Committee said.

The incidents Thursday caused the region's three major airports -- Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J. -- to close again just hours after service had been restored because of Tuesday's attacks.

Authorities were investigating whether the two groups -- detained at Kennedy and LaGuardia -- were more would-be hijackers or people related to the attack trying to flee the New York area.

Several of those detained had attempted to board airlines Tuesday around the time of the hijackings but were turned away and fled, a U.S. official requesting anonymity told The Associated Press.

A source familiar with the workings of the airline industry told the AP that law enforcement officers secretly boarded a plane at Kennedy using a catering cart. The officers, with weapons drawn, then removed the three from the plane.

One of those who was detained was believed to have had flight training similar to that obtained by Tuesday's hijackers, the U.S. official said.

A passenger on a San Jose, Calif.-bound American Airlines jet at Kennedy told The New York Times that officers boarded and closely questioned about 15 people.

"Anyone with dark skin or who spoke with an accent was taken aside and searched," passenger Mike Glass of Seattle told the Times. "And then they went to any male with too much facial hair."

Also, the Times, quoting unidentified law enforcement sources, reported that two men were detained from a Saudi aircraft at Newark after being identified on a terrorist watch list.

Separately, new information emerged about Tuesday's events. A law enforcement source told the AP that the FBI was investigating an altercation at Kennedy on Tuesday, and trying to understand whether that incident might have been an aborted hijacking attempt.

Tuesday's incident occurred about 9 a.m. -- around the same time two hijacked jet airliners crashed into the World Trade Center towers. After passengers had boarded United Airlines Flight 23, bound for Los Angeles, officials told them it had been canceled.

Three men refused to disembark and argued with the flight crew, who called airport security. The men vanished before security arrived, the source said.

There have been persistent, unconfirmed reports that a fifth hijacking had been attempted Tuesday but somehow averted.