[The Great Satan]

In fact, officials said, he intended to attend a four-day aviation course at Miami's Aeroservice Aviation Center -- the same flight school used by a September 11 hijacker -- to re-certify his license to fly Boeing 747s.

This is surreal.

[Mitchell]

This is surreal.

It's certainly consistent with what you've been saying all along.

[browardchad]

This is surreal.

I can't help thinking that this apprehension was publicized so as to be a feather in the cap of the INS/FBI/CIA. It's starting to backfire, as people start asking

a) Why did Saffi think no one would notice his entry/exit into the U.S.?
b) Why wasn't he stopped at the New Zealand end?
c) Why didn't the flight school check to see if he had a student visa?
d) Why was it so easy for a prominently linked Iraqi to exit/enter the US before 9/11?

According to Orlando Salinas of Fox News, they are hurrying up the deportation -- can't wait to get rid of what should have been good PR, gone sour. (BTW, he is being held in the same detention center as Hassoun, the Fort Lauderdale IBF founder, linked to Padilla, probably a much bigger fish in the big picture, though everyone seems to have forgotten about his existence.)