[PEN-L:33705] your papers, please

[Dan Scanlan <dscanlan@xxxxxxx>]

This story was posted by Ralph Nader's California organization

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Green Party "Terrorists"

 By Frederick Sweet

http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=14884

(Intervention magazine, Jan. 6) -- Writing about his no-fly nightmare
in the Fairfield County Weekly, art dealer Doug Stuber, who had run
Ralph Nader's Green Party presidential campaign in North Carolina in
2000, was pulled out of a boarding line and grounded. He was about to
make an important trip to Prague to gather artists for Henry James
Art in Raleigh, N.C., when he was told (with ticket in hand) that he
was not allowed to fly out that day.

 Asking "Why not?", he was told at Raleigh-Durham airport that
because of the sniper attacks, no Greens were allowed to fly overseas
on that day. The next morning he returned, and instead of paying $670
for a round-trip ticket, was forced into a $2,600 "same day" air
fare. But it's what happened to Stuber during the next 24 hours that
is even more disturbing.

 Stuber arrived at the airport at 6:00 a.m. and his first flight
wasn't due out until nearly six hours later. He had plenty of time.
At exactly 10:52 in the morning, just before boarding was to begin,
he was approached by police officer Stanley (the same policeman who
ushered him out of the airport the day before), who said that he
"wanted to talk" to him. Stuber went with the police officer, but
reminded him that no one had said he couldn't fly, and that his
flight was about to leave.

 Officer Stanley took Stuber into a room and questioned him for an
hour. Around noon, Stanley had introduced him to two Secret Service
agents. The agents took full eye-open pictures of Stuber with a
digital camera. Then they asked him details about his family, where
he lived, who he ever knew, what the Greens are up to, and other
questions.

 At one point during his interrogation, Stuber asked if they really
believed the Greens were equal to al Qaeda. Then they showed him a
Justice Department document that actually shows the Greens as likely
terrorists -- just as likely as al Qaeda members. Stuber was released
just before 1:00 p.m., so he still had time to catch the later flight.

 The agents walked Stuber to the Delta counter and asked that he be
given tickets for the flight so that he could make his connections.
The airline official promptly printed tickets, which relieved Stuber,
who assumed that the Secret Service hadn't stopped him from flying.
Wrong! By the time Stuber was about to board, officer Stanley once
again ushered him out the door and told him: "Just go to Greensboro,
where they don't know you, and be totally quiet about politics, and
you can make it to Europe that way."

 In Greensboro, after Stuber showed his passport he was told that he
could not fly overseas or domestically. Undeterred, he next traveled
an hour-and-a-half to Charlotte. In Charlotte, the same thing
happened. Then Stuber drove three hours to his home after 43 hours of
trying to catch a flight. Stuber said he could only conclude that the
Greens, whose values include nonviolence, social justice, etc., are
now labeled terrorists by the Ashcroft-led Justice Department.

 Questions about how one gets on a no-fly list creates questions
about how to get off it. This is a classic Catch-22 situation. The
Transportation Security Agency (TSA) says it compiles the list from
names provided by other agencies, but it has no procedure for
correcting a problem. Aggrieved parties would have to go to the
agency that first reported their names. But for security reasons, the
TSA won't disclose which agency put someone on the no-fly list.

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Frederick Sweet is professor of reproductive biology in obstetrics
and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St.
Louis.
--

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Drop Bush, Not Bombs!
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"During times of universal deceit,
telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
George Orwell

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