Salam Ibrahim el Zaatari, a former art student who pleaded guilty to attempting to carry a dangerous weapon onto an airplane leaving Pittsburgh International Airport, insists he had no idea a utility knife that got him in so much trouble was in his carry-on bag. "I seriously did not remember I had it," el Zaatari said in a telephone interview last week from Lebanon. "It's been in my bag a long time, and I just never checked it." But U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan says the evidence suggests el Zaatari claims were not believed by anyone. Authorities detained el Zaatari after a Northwest Airlines gate agent found the utility knife Oct. 28 in a carry-on bag along with other pens and art supplies. The discovery came only six weeks after knife-wielding Islamic terrorists crashed four airliners in New York, Washington, D.C., and Somerset County. El Zaatari, a Lebanese national, departed the United States last week after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court here. As part of a plea bargain, el Zaatari was permitted to leave after serving almost two months at the Allegheny County Jail and to return to Lebanon, where he says he was headed at the time of his arrest. U.S. Judge Donetta Ambrose followed prosecutors' recommendations in releasing el Zaatari, even though federal sentencing guidelines recommended a six-month prison sentence. El Zaatari said in the interview that when the gate agent questioned him about the utility knife, he thought he still would be allowed to fly to Lebanon. Then, he saw other passengers boarding while he waited with security personnel. When the FBI arrived, he began to worry. "It was the fastest my heart ever pounded," el Zaatari said. An aspiring filmmaker who had attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, el Zaatari said he used the utility knife, which has a retractable blade, to cut negatives. "I completely forgot that it was with my stationary," he said. "It wasn't even concealed." Prosecutor Buchanan said that even though an investigation into el Zaatari's background showed no connection to terrorism, her office was justified in pushing the prosecution. "He did clearly violate the law by attempting to board an airline, or plane, with a dangerous weapon," Buchanan said. "He had numerous opportunities to declare the weapon to security officers, and he failed to do so." She said el Zaatari was staying in Pittsburgh on an expired student visa. The visa was only valid as long as he was attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He attended the Art Institute on and off between October 1999 and May 2000 to study filmmaking. El Zaatari forged documents to support claims he made to his father that he had completed his film studies, court documents show. Prosecutors also asserted el Zaatari had no job and his father supported him. Buchanan said el Zaatari told authorities he didn't know his utility knife was similar to the weapons the terrorists used Sept. 11. That statement raised suspicions, Buchanan said, since el Zaatari had news articles about those attacks on the carry-on bag where the utility knife was found. "It was not a statement believed by anyone," Buchanan said. "Our job is to enforce federal law, which was exactly what we did in this case. We enforced the law. We have to think about the safety of passengers." El Zaatari said he initially feared other inmates might kill him because they believed he was a terrorist. Some inmates would bang on his jail cell and threaten him, he recalled. "They were saying 'come outside so we can kill you,'" he recalled. Later, news reports quoting el Zaatari's friends softened some of the harsh language, and the inmates actually took a liking to him, el Zaatari said. Deputy Warden Ed Urban said el Zaatari was placed in protective custody in the jail. He had his own cell but other inmates, who also were in protective custody, could talk to him through his cell. Urban said he didn't know how the other inmates interacted with el Zaatari. The first week in the jail was the hardest, el Zaatari said. "I was just sitting between four walls," he said. "I had nothing to read. I had nothing to do, except think." El Zaatari said that a sympathetic inmate eventually gave him a Bible, which he read front to back. He also read the Quran after another inmate gave him a copy. He said he pleaded guilty because he wanted to return home and avoid a protracted legal battle. El Zaatari has made several documentaries, including one called "Trail of Tears," about the violence he witnessed while growing up in Beirut, Lebanon. He said he plans to make another documentary about his detention in the United States. Even though el Zaatari has been convicted of a felony, he can apply to re-enter the country later because he agreed to a voluntary departure as a condition of his release, his attorney, Anthony Mariani, has said. The INS would review any application and would have to approve his return. For now, he has been resting much of the time at the home of his parents in Sidon, Lebanon, his fiance said. El Zaatari said he doesn't plan to try to return to the United States anytime soon. "I don't want anyone to doubt for one second that I love the United States," he said. "But it's impossible for me to go back to the United States right now. It's too risky. It's not safe."

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