The Department of Homeland Security allowed a man whose checked-in luggage tested positive for a highly sensitive and dangerous homemade explosive at Boston Logan International Airport to get on an international flight to Paris. The man is now wanted by the FBI for bomb-making activities.
Aram Brunson from Newton, Massachusetts, first came to the attention of federal law enforcement in January 2023 when he was a student at the University of Chicago after an explosion occurred in his dorm room.
Brunson, who was just 20 years old at the time, fled his dorm room and later told FBI agents that the explosion was caused after his attempt at copying a prank he watched on YouTube went wrong.
FBI agents obtained a search warrant for Brunson’s laptop and while they could find no evidence that he had ever watched the YouTube prank video prior to the explosion, they did find various videos of Brunson discussing how to ‘form, fund and arm a revolutionary group’.
Brunson is a US citizen of Armenian descent, and federal officials now believe that he has formed a desire to undertake militant action against Azerbaijanis and others who pose a threat to ethnic Armenians living in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In around ten videos seized by the FBI, Brunson discusses how to make and transport bomb and goes into detail about how to safely handle a homemade explosive known as HMTD – The very same explosive that was discovered on his checked-in luggage.
Brunson also discussed potential targets for assassination, and throughout 2022, Brunson carried out multiple online searches for the addresses of Azerbaijani and Turkish officials in the United States.
The investigation into Brunson’s potential links with Armenian militant groups was still ongoing when in August 2023, he was due to fly from Boston Logan to the Armenian capital Yerevan via a stopover in Paris.
His checked-in luggage was subject to a random security check by TSA officials who carried out a swab of the exterior two bags being used by Brunson. The swabs set off an alarm that alerted to the presence of HMTD.
Brunson was stopped by Homeland Security but he claimed that he had never handled explosive materials and had no idea why the swabs would have alerted for HMTD.
Several days later, a search warrant was executed at Brunson’s family home where law enforcement found a notebook with notes about the precursor chemicals used to manufacture HMTD. A bomb sniffer dog also alerted to three locations in Brunson’s bedroom.
By the point that the search warrant was carried out, however, Brunson had already left the United States. Officials believe he remains in Armenia but despite recent efforts to ‘encourage’ Brunson to return to the US, he has so far refused.
Brunson has now been charged with falsifying, concealing and covering up a material fact by trick, scheme or device and making false statements to federal officials.
“While radical political views may be offensive, they are constitutionally protected,” commented Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. after the charges were announced. “However, experimenting with extremely dangerous explosives in support of those views and then engaging in false statements about your conduct is crossing the line.”
Each of the two charges that Brunson faces carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment plus a $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised release.
So, TSA not only misses over 90% of weapons that Homeland Security Red Teams place during tests, but when TSA accidentally catches real bomb makers, the terrorists are allowed to travel unimpeded. The bureaucratic response is always: “If it’s not successful, let’s do more of it…hire more blue shirts, buy more tech, increase the budget…”