Washington:
The Qatari diplomat who caused a nationwide security alert by trying to sneak a smoke on a Denver-bound jetliner - and who was on a consular mission to visit a jailed Al-Qaida agent - will voluntarily leave the country, according to a US official.
The agreement with the Qatar embassy to withdraw Mohammed al-Madadi "within days" diffused a potential diplomatic row with US authorities, who nonetheless faced limited options because of al-Madadi's status as a foreign diplomat.
But it left Qatari officials struggling to control a public relations storm: An embassy official who disregarded airline safety under cover of diplomatic immunity while going to visit an imprisoned terrorist operative.
"This is a very serious issue. Any of us who travel on airlines are reminded of this when we take off," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, speaking of al-Madadi's illicit smoke break aboard the United Airlines flight Wednesday. The incident caused authorities to scramble two F-16s and issue a nationwide aviation alert before the plane landed at Denver International Airport at about 7 p.m.
"In our communications with the Qatari ambassador last night, he fully understood the seriousness of the charges."
Crowley said Thursday that U.S. authorities have "every confidence this will be resolved very quickly." A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that al-Madadi would voluntarily leave the country.
Al-Madadi was transferred from the airport to a Denver hotel Wednesday night, where he was interviewed by federal agents, Crowley said. He was released Thursday and met by a team from the Qatari embassy who had flown in from Washington. Al-Madadi boarded a flight back to Washington before mid-day Thursday.
The Qatari embassy later confirmed that al-Madadi was on the Denver flight Wednesday on his way to visit Ali al-Marri, an al-Qaida sleeper-cell agent being held at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo. Al-Marri admitted having contact with the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In a statement released Thursday, Qatari Ambassador Ali Bin Fahad al-Hajri said al-Madadi "was traveling to Denver on official embassy business on my instructions, and he was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity."
Consular visits to check on the treatment of prisoners are a routine duty of embassy personnel, and Alison Bradley, a spokeswoman for the Qatari embassy, noted that it's guaranteed under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
Bradley said that al-Madadi's missed Thursday appointment with al-Marri was the first since the al-Qaida agent was transferred to Colorado, but that Qatari diplomats had made several similar visits while he was being held in federal prison in Marion, Ill. Prior to that, al-Marri was held in a Navy brig in South Carolina, where defense attorneys charged he was subjected to harsh treatment.
Al-Madadi was detained aboard the United flight to Denver from Washington's Reagan National Airport by two air marshals, who confronted him as he left the plane's first class lavatory.
Al-Madadi made a sarcastic remark heard by at least one marshal about "lighting a bomb in his shoe," after he had apparently put out the smoking material on the sole of his shoe, according to an account in The Washington Post.
But the incident was subdued enough that even other first class passengers on the flight had little idea of what was going on.
Tim Burney, vice president of a Colorado medical company, noticed the odd way the plane was landing - coming in very fast and low, and taxiing to a remote part of the field - and said he could hear the marshals reading al-Madadi's passport number into their cell phones after landing.
As law enforcement officers approached the plane, the marshals told al-Madadi, "when they come on board, just tell the truth," Burney recounted.
He heard al-Madadi tell the marshals that he was embarrassed over the incident, but also described the envoy as "very calm, almost cocky."
"He had this 'whatever' attitude," Burney said.
The plane was escorted for the last 5 minutes of its flight by two F-16s scrambled from Buckley Air Force Base just outside of Denver, after crew members aboard the Boeing 757 smelled smoke and following al-Madadi's confrontation with the air marshals.