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Haison Jiang

January 9, 2010 by · Comments Off on Haison Jiang 

Haison Jiang,New York (CNN) — A man who faces a trespassing charge for allegedly triggering a security breach at the Newark, New Jersey, airport was released from custody early Saturday, Port Authority police said.

Haison Jiang, 28, of Piscataway, faces a charge of defiant trespass, the Port Authority said.

Security video from the incident Sunday shows an officer of the federal Transportation Security Administration who left his post unattended a few minutes after he asked an unidentified man in a light-colored jacket to stay behind the rope line. Moments later, the man ducks under the rope and walks the wrong way through security to greet a woman, prompting a security breach that shut down Terminal C for hours and forced the rescreening of thousands of passengers.

A law enforcement source briefed on the investigation said Jiang was arrested in Piscataway, about 25 miles south of Newark.

On Thursday, the TSA said the action’s of the officer on the video led to the breach.

“We will use this hard lesson to reinforce the sharp focus and tight discipline at all our stations across the country and ensure we maintain the public trust,” spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, had called on the man to turn himself in to authorities.

“The message cannot go out to terrorists, people who would do damage to our citizens, that you could take a chance and get in,” he told reporters Friday night. “This has to be seen as the equivalent of a terrible crime.

“What he did was a terrible injustice to the 16,000 people who were inconvenienced terribly,” he said. “This fellow was responsible for it. As such he has to pay whatever the maximum price is.”

The senator praised Port Authority police on the arrest, saying that with it, “law enforcement will be able to take a closer look into how and why this incident occurred and make sure that it never happens again.”

Lautenberg will participate in a Senate Transportation Committee hearing on U.S. aviation security on January 20.

Davis said earlier this week that although authorities were unable to locate the man, any threat he may have presented was eliminated “by rescreening everyone and recombing the airport to make sure he didn’t introduce anything to the environment or hand anything off to anyone.”

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