Contractor: Airport suspect recently back from Iraq

ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- The man accused of trying to sneak bomb-making materials onto a flight from Orlando, Florida, to Jamaica recently returned from a contract job in Iraq, a spokesman for his former employer said Thursday.

Kevin Brown worked for Lear Siegler International in Iraq from July until mid-December, said a spokesman for Lear Siegler International, which does contract work for the U.S. Defense Department.

The spokesman would not describe the kind of work Brown did in Iraq.

Lear Siegler Services Inc.'s Web site says it provides operations, maintenance, logistics support and training services to government agencies and commercial customers in the U.S. and abroad.

Brown, a Jamaican national, was arrested Tuesday at Orlando International Airport.

He faces a charge of attempting to carry an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft, and he was booked into Seminole County Jail, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

He was taken into custody after an air safety officer noticed him acting strangely as he waited to board an Air Jamaica flight, federal authorities said. A witness reportedly said Brown was leaning right and left and back and forth while in the ticket line.

Brown made an initial court appearance Wednesday, but government officials asked for a delay, saying there were indications that he might have a history of mental illness.

Brown admitted that he planned to create a bomb after landing in Jamaica, authorities said in court papers.

Officials said Brown, who is believed to be about 32, had checked baggage that contained two galvanized pipes, end caps, two containers of BBs, batteries, bottles containing nitromethane, a laptop and bomb-making literature and one model rocket ignitor.

Brown said he planned to "detonate the device on a tree stump in Jamaica but later told us he was going to show friends how to build explosive devices like the kind he saw in Iraq," FBI Task Force Agent Kelly Boaz said in an affidavit.

Brown's defense attorneys contend that the materials might have been bomb components but did not constitute a bomb.

A bail hearing will be scheduled for later, when Brown's defense attorneys ask for one, U.S. Magistrate Karla Spaulding said. In the meantime, Brown was ordered held without bail Thursday.

Boaz, who is also a member of the bomb squad for the Orange County, Florida, sheriff's office, said the items could have been used to make a bomb.

"The items found in Brown's baggage constitute an incendiary device," Boaz said in court papers. "The nitromethane was in a breakable container and the model rocket ignitor would act as the wick."

FBI agents are investigating Jamaican media reports that Brown may have been taking the explosive materials to Jamaica to avenge the murder of his mother.

The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper reported that Brown's mother was strangled to death in 2005.

U.S. Army officials said Brown was in the service from September 1999 through December 2003, when he received an honorable discharge. His record did not show a deployment to Iraq, but he received an Army commendation medal in 2003 for serving in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, officials said.

His court-appointed attorney declined to comment Wednesday.

Initial record checks that indicate Brown was in the United States legally, the FBI said.

Transportation Safety Administration officials said a "behavior identification officer" noticed Brown acting strangely about noon Tuesday as he approached a ticket counter at the Orlando airport.

Airport officials said several ticket counters were closed during the incident, and 11 flights were delayed. Airport spokeswoman Carolyn Fennell said Air Jamaica, Air Canada, West Jet and Frontier flights were among those delayed. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Susan Candiotti, Rich Phillips and Mike Mount contributed to this report.

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