"Student who hid box cutters on planes to be sentenced"

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Student who hid box cutters on planes to be sentenced 
By BRIAN WITTE
The Associated Press


BALTIMORE -- A college student who hid box cutters on airplanes to
expose security weaknesses carefully tried to avoid risk to passenger
safety and never meant to embarrass government security personnel, his
attorney said. 

Nathaniel Heatwole of Damascus was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in
U.S. District Court on a misdemeanor offense of entering an airport area
in violation of security requirements. 

His attorney, Charles Leeper, has asked the court for probation and a
modest fine. 

"The actions undertaken by Mr. Heatwole ... were unquestionably
motivated by constructive and commendable concerns regarding certain
aspects of airport security," Leeper wrote to the court. 

Heatwole pleaded guilty in April in a plea agreement. He faces a maximum
six months in prison and a fine between $500 and $5,000. 

"Although Mr. Heatwole embarked upon an ill-advised course to express
those concerns -- using a 'live' demonstration of the security
deficiencies he perceived ... he did not create an actual dangerous
condition by doing so," Leeper wrote. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Eisenberg, who has been handling the
case, could not be immediately be reached for comment. 

Heatwole has cooperated with federal investigators, who asked him to
make a video that could be used to train federal airport screeners. He
also submitted to additional interviews by FBI and TSA agents. 

"Indeed, the government has described that assistance as 'valuable,'"
Leeper wrote. 

Federal prosecutors initially charged Heatwole last fall with a felony
-- taking a dangerous weapon aboard an aircraft -- at
Baltimore-Washington International Airport. That charge carried a
possible 10-year prison sentence. The charge was reduced later to a
misdemeanor. 

Heatwole placed three disassembled box cutters and razor blades -- with
tape over the sharp edges -- on a Southwest Airlines flight Sept. 14,
along with strike-anywhere matches and about 8 ounces of liquid bleach.
He also smuggled aboard modeling clay made to look like plastic
explosives. During the flight, he hid the items in the rear lavatory. 

Heatwole told federal authorities he concealed the items on Southwest
Airlines flights in an act of "civil disobedience" to expose weaknesses
in security. 

The TSA received an e-mail Sept. 15 from Heatwole saying he had
"information regarding six security breaches" at BWI in Maryland and
Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina between Feb. 7
and Sept. 14, according to an FBI affidavit. 

In the e-mail, Heatwole provided his name, e-mail address and telephone
number and asked to be contacted by authorities to show them how he
committed the security breaches. 

More than a month later, the e-mail was forwarded to the FBI on Oct. 17.
The FBI found Heatwole that night at his parents' home in Maryland. 

In the e-mail, Heatwole told authorities that he left packages in rear
bathrooms on four of six planes he flew on. Packages were found last
year on April 13 and April 14 in planes in Raleigh-Durham and Tampa,
Fla. Objects placed in mid-September aboard Southwest Airlines flights
that landed in New Orleans and Houston were not found until Oct. 16,
when maintenance staff accidentally discovered them. 

The discovery was a chilling reminder of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, in
which hijackers used box cutters to take over the jets. Box cutters and
bleach are now are among the items that cannot be carried onto planes. 

After the discovery, the government ordered a stepped-up inspection of
the U.S. commercial airline fleet. 

Heatwole is a student at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., a Quaker
school that has drawn pacifists throughout its history.


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