http://www.newsday.com/entertainmen...11083,print.story?coll=sns-ap-music-headlines July 14, 2005, 8:59 PM EDT HOUSTON -- When Bassam Khalaf raps, he's the Arabic Assassin. His unreleased CD, "Terror Alert," includes rhymes about flying a plane into a building and descriptions of himself as a "crazy, suicidal Arabic ... equipped with bombs." Until last week, Khalaf also worked as a baggage screener at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. "I've been screening your bags for the past six months, and you don't even know it," said Khalaf, who also said Thursday that he is not really a terrorist and that his rhymes are exaggerations meant to gain publicity. Andrea McCauley, a spokeswoman for the regional Transportation Security Administration office in Dallas, said the agency checks criminal records before hiring screeners, but it does not investigate what people do in their spare time. "We have eyes and ears in the workplace," McCauley said. "Once we discovered these Web sites, we fired him." An Internet search of Khalaf's name brings up Web sites that feature his obscene, violent and misogynistic raps that threaten to fly a plane into a building on Sept. 11, 2005. Khalaf, 21, was hired on Jan. 16 and fired July 7, according to a TSA termination letter that cited his "authorship of songs which applaud the efforts of the terrorists on September 11th, encourage and warn of future acts of terrorism by you, discuss at length and in grave and alarming detail various criminal acts you intend to commit, state your belief that the U.S. government should be overthrown, and finally warn that others will die on September 11, 2005." Khalaf, who was born in Houston and is of Palestinian descent, said working as a baggage screener was the best paying job he's ever had. He said he hoped to use any extra money he earned to produce his CD. "I kept my music and my job separate. I told a couple of people who I thought was cool with me at work that I rapped, but I never sat there and told them lyrics or anything," said Khalaf. "I guess somebody probably told them that I had a Web site." Khalaf said his terrorist-themed rhymes are more about marketing. He called his songs art and pointed to other rappers who have rhymed about terrorism. He specifically cites Eminem's song, "My Dad's Gone Crazy," which discusses blowing everything on the map up except Afghanistan and says: "There's no tower too high, no plane that I can't learn how to fly." "Controversy sells," Khalaf said. "It brings a lot of attention. Everybody wants to label all Arabics terrorists just because a couple of people messed up. Well, I'm going to play along with that character. I'm going to let you think I'm one."
i got 10 dollars saying that the feds willl be paying him a visit sometime tommorow morning. what a dumbass.
Oh, that fool is on the list, and his friends are on the list too. If you know him, and you see him, just walk the other way....
This reminds me that I flew out of Boston a few months or so before 9/11, and one of the baggage screeners looked like Bin Laden. Security was really bad there, there was some construction going on - I walked out and in again without getting screened again. Why am I telling this story...I guess all I am saying is that they need to really thoroughly screen the screeners...
to his defense there are more than a few "crazy" rapper who make mention of 9/11. but this is pretty stupid being a palestinian and rapping about committing more terror.
I can't believe this is even an issue. The boobs on talk radio are babbling insessently about this. We're talking about some 21 year old dumbass kid who lives at home with his parents. He is as much a 'rapper' as MacBeth is. OK, bad example, but you get what I'm saying. NON ISSUE
You can say what you want about me, but I've never had a hard time admitting when I was mistaken or wrong about something. You can argue it's because I've had a lot of practice, but I'm still man enough to admit it.
It's some dumbass kid that is trying to get popular by being controversial, you know, kind of like Eminem making songs about killing his girlfriend and putting her in a trunk, etc. I just think the fact that he is of an Arab background should make him think twice about saying stupid insensitive stuff in today's America. The fact that he worked as an airport security guy tells you just how successful his rap career was
Yes it is a very bad example. You just described a few of the guys that were involved in the very recent London bombings. On another note, this moron is the perfect example of what is wrong with rap these days. Very few rappers care about their own product. They only care about the money. However I can't say I blame them too much because there are clearly millions of mindless idiots that continue to purchase this garbage while true artistic and gifted artists are easily overlooked.
