An Ethiopian-born man was arrested Tuesday at Detroit Metro Airport with information about cyanide and nuclear materials: Man, 34, arrested at airport. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

A 34-year-old Dallas man was arrested at Detroit Metro Airport on Tuesday, carrying $78,883 in cash and a laptop computer containing mysterious files about cyanide and nuclear materials.

Authorities said Sisayehiticha Dinssa, a U.S. citizen who was born in Ethiopia, was arrested after getting off an airline flight from Amsterdam. They said he had spent four months in Nigeria on unspecified business.

When agents asked him whether he had any cash to declare, he said he had $18,000, authorities said. But when agents checked his luggage, they found an additional $60,883. When they scrolled through his laptop, they said they found the mysterious files. Dinssa told agents he was interested in learning about cyanide and nuclear materials.

Oddly enough, the AP wire story leaves out some important facts; namely, that he was born in Ethiopia, and that he had just spent four months in Nigeria: Airport arrest turns up nuclear info.

And even more oddly, not one of the news agencies thinks we need to know his religion.

UPDATE at 11/16/06 8:26:36 am:

The arrested man’s lawyer, Leroy Soles, has previously represented at least two terror suspects. Here’s an article about one, Karim Koubitri, whose case was overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct: How a terrorism case came undone. (Hat tip: Chicken Kiev.)

Less than a week after Islamic extremists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, here were three North African Muslim men caught in a barren apartment with airport security passes, forged passports, videotapes of U.S. landmarks and a crude sketch labeled in Arabic an “American base in Turkey.”

They also had virulent jihadist tapes, including a rant against Christians and Jews that said, “Allah, kill them all. Don’t keep any of them alive.”

UPDATE at 11/16/06 8:51:03 am:

Just to keep the record straight, a reader from Michigan emailed to point out that Soles was appointed to the above case by the court, and was not a “hired gun.”