DUBAI — Emirates Airline’s president said Thursday that the carrier complied with U.S. security rules before allowing the Times Square bombing suspect to board a flight for Dubai and blamed President Barack Obama’s administration for exaggerating the airline’s role.
“We’re not a security agency,” Tim Clark told Zawya Dow Jones in a telephone interview. “For the Obama administration to say that we dropped the ball on this, it’s a bit much.”
Mr. Clark said Emirates was fully compliant with security procedures before flight EK202 was due to depart on Saturday evening, but said airlines shouldn’t be left to apprehend alleged criminals.
U.S. officials including New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg have accused Emirates of failing to prevent the alleged bomber on the flight.
“Perhaps the U.S. needs to reexamine the flow of information between all the different authorities and also take a look at exit controls. The U.S. 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. Mr. Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan, admitted his role in the plot, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said May 4. [Read More]
