U.S. makes 'Plan B' for deporting plane bomber

WASHINGTON -- The federal government has been exploring a "Plan B" to deport a man who placed a bomb on a Hawaii-bound airplane in 1982 and who has remained in immigration custody since being released from prison two years ago.

Mohammed Rashed pleaded guilty in 2002 to his role in the bombing of Pan Am 830, which killed a Japanese teenager and injured more than a dozen others.

Under the terms of his plea agreement, the U.S. government said it would work to deport the Jordanian-born Palestinian to the country of his choice after he finished serving his sentence on murder and conspiracy charges.

But efforts to deport Rashed have stalled amid diplomatic complications since his March 2013 release from prison. He remains at an immigration detention facility in Batavia, New York, and his lawyer has complained to a judge the government appears to have failed to satisfy its end of the plea deal.

At a court hearing last month in Washington, Justice Department lawyer Christopher Dempsey said the government was developing a "Plan B" strategy to remove Rashed from the country. The details of that plan were not disclosed publicly in court, and lawyers involved in the case have declined to discuss it.

"The government wants him out of here and would love it if we could effect his removal," Dempsey said, according to a hearing transcript obtained by The Associated Press.

The attack on the Pan Am jetliner was set in motion when Rashed, on a flight to Japan, tucked a bomb beneath a seat cushion, pulled the pin, engaged a timer and then disembarked when his flight landed in Tokyo. The device exploded as the plane continued on to Honolulu, killing a 16-year-old boy.