Allegedly Upset He Didn't Land Translator Job

We don't vouch for the logic of the following story... we just report it.

A Saudi man, apparently frustrated that he wasn't hired as a translator by the US military in Iraq, is now in jail -- accused of threatening to blow up a Delta Air Lines flight.

The indictment says 45-year old Saleh Suwailem of Boise, ID was at Fort Benning, GA applying for the job, when military officials told him that he wouldn't be hired because he didn't pass a security background check.

Prosecutors say Suwailem went out drinking with some friends the day before he was to be sent back to Boise on a Delta flight. That's when he's accused of saying he would bomb the plane.

"Okay, I'm going to bomb the plane," the complain alleges Suwailem said.

That remark got back to authorities at Fort Benning.

Even though Suwailem said it was all a joke, the military alerted the FBI and he was arrested.

The federal magistrate hearing the case ordered Suwailem held as both a flight risk... and a security risk, although the magistrate did not elaborate on why.

Suwailem will be back in court next Tuesday.

FMI: www.infantry.army.mil/fbhome