In a peculiarly unsatisfying news story from Reuters, a 35-year-old Iraqi national from New Jersey, exhibiting bizarre behavior, triggered a small storm at LAX when he set off an alarm and it was discovered he was wired and concealing a magnet in his rectum. Fadhel al-Maliki, as he’s called, was about to board a flight to Philadelphia when he was stopped, cavity-searched, and approached by a bomb squad.

“He was secreting these items in a body cavity and that was a great concern because there were also some electric wires associated with that body cavity,” Larry Fetters, security director for the Transportation Security Administration at the airport, told reporters.

The plane, which took off without Maliki but with his luggage, made an unscheduled stop in Las Vegas. Passengers were not evacuated while the plane was searched. Nothing untoward was found. “There was never a threat,” said Fetters. So if he wasn’t on a suicide mission, why did Maliki have a magnet up his ass? (Reuters)