[Imc] detailed account of airport incident (fwd)
Sascha Meinrath
meinrath at uiuc.edu
Wed Nov 14 05:10:51 UTC 2001
unfortunately, noone at the airport was willing to talk with the press -- i
attempted multiple different avenues, all without avail. it is an
interesting problem: print a one-sided account or don't print at
all. since publishing the piece, i've received a message from the airport
assistant to the director, but have not had time to follow up with
him. dave (or other journalists), if you would like to follow up, i can
get you the guy's phone number.
let me know or give me a call (384-5346), i should be home most of the day
today,
--sascha
At 11:40 PM 11/12/01 Monday, David Young wrote:
>Sascha et al.,
>
>Are there any witnesses to Ms. Oden's mistreatment at the airport besides
>Ms. Oden herself? This story tripped my skept-o-meter the first time
>I read it. After reading the more detailed version, my brain screams
>for corroboration.
>
>Dave
>
>On Mon, Nov 12, 2001 at 01:55:26PM -0600, Sascha Meinrath wrote:
> > Hi Everyone,
> >
> > I received this today from Nancy Oden (an activist who was detained at
> > Bangor International Airport) in early November. There is an interest in
> > forming a national "Bill of Rights Defense Committee" and I thought that
> > both the IMC and AWARE might be interested in affiliating with this
> > coalition.
> >
> > --Sascha
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 01:32:15 -0500
> > From: nancy oden <cleanearth at acadia.net>
> > To: nancyoden at greens.org
> > Subject: detailed account of airport incident
> >
> > Excellent Cartoon -
> > http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbydate.asp?id=522
> > >From Nancy Oden, Green Party USA
> > , www.greenparty.org, gpusa at igc.org
> > 1-866-GREENS2 (toll-free)
> >
> > What's Happening with the Bangor Airport Incident
> > - Nancy Oden, November 10, 2001
> >
> > Postscript: I have since gotten in touch with the Bangor Airport manager
> > who assures me that it's fine with them if they fly out of there, but that
> > it ultimately isn't their decision.
> > I've also been told by American Airlines' head of security in Texas that I
> > am welcome to fly on their airline any time, and that they will contact
> > Priceline.com about both of them giving my money back. This is all good,
> > excepting that the military can arbitrarily, at any time, revoke my
> right to
> > travel for no good reason, as they did November 1 in Bangor, Maine.
> > So long as the military are in charge of civilian affairs, we are not
> free;
> > we do not have our Bill of Rights protecting us because they've
> abrogated it
> > and declared themselves the Law.
> > We are forming a national Bill of Rights Defense Committee, and invite all
> > of you and/or groups you're affiliated with to help us form such a
> coalition
> > based on defense of our civil liberties. Please email back saying
> you'll be
> > part of this new coalition of groups and individuals, and include your name
> > and phone number. Then we can call a meeting to decide what to do.
> > We need a large, strong, united voice to tell the military government
> we now
> > have (Bush, Sr., who used to be not only President but before that head of
> > the CIA, Dick Cheney, Daddy Bush's fellow oil man and defense contractor,
> > and the Pentagon brass) that we will not accept killing democracy in order
> > to save it.
> >
> > We do not want corporations, with their only interest in next quarter's
> > profits, running the world. We, the people, should be making the decisions
> > that affect our lives. Real Democracy. Nothing less will do.
> >
> > ***********************************************************
> >
> > Bangor Airport Incident, November 1, 2001
> > - Nancy Oden, Jonesboro, Maine
> >
> > On Thursday, November 1, 2001, I left my farmhouse on the North Coast of
> > Maine, where I'm an organic grower, and headed for the Bangor International
> > Airport in Bangor, Maine. I was dressed conservatively in a long, brown
> > skirt with a matching jacket and turtleneck sweater, no jewelry, no buttons
> > or other political indications attached, looking very like other women my
> > age in this part of the world.
> >
> > I am a relatively well known environmental, social, and political activist
> > who has run for public office. It should be noted that, while I've been an
> > activist for over thirty years, I've never been arrested, nor has there
> been
> > anything in my life that would signal I meant harm to anyone.
> >
> > Also, this was the third time this year I had traveled out of (or attempted
> > to, in this case) Bangor Airport on American Airlines using an e-ticket
> > purchased from Priceline.com bought weeks before with my own credit card.
> > They had no reason for profiling and singling me out. It had to have been
> > because of my political views which, of course, is not a good reason (see
> > U.S. Constitution's first Ten Amendments, otherwise known as the Bill of
> > Rights).
> >
> > I was headed for Chicago for a Green Party USA National Coordinating
> > Committee meeting, where I was to speak the next night on biochemical
> > warfare and pesticides as weapons of war. I was also scheduled to
> interview
> > job applicants, present several proposals and financial reports, and so on.
> > I am a lead person on the National Coordinating Committee of the Green
> Party
> > USA (the original Green Party, although there is now another which took a
> > very similar name).
> >
> > I arrived at the Bangor Airport the now-requisite two hours ahead of the
> > flight and walked in to the airport to the sight of a couple of dozen
> > National Guard troops carrying machine guns in their hands wandering around
> > the lobby. I walked down to the American Airlines ticket counter, where
> > there were no other passengers, and told the airlines ticket agent my name.
> > I was holding out my picture ID and the printed itinerary they told us to
> > bring, but he barely glanced at them. I remember thinking, "Does he have a
> > picture of me under that counter? Why didn't he look at my ID?"
> >
> > No one checked my ID at any time. They all knew what I looked like and, it
> > became clear, my antiwar stance. I am not that well known that they would
> > have known me on sight. Why were they briefed about me before I arrived at
> > the airport? What were they told? Was it the FBI or some other agency?
> > Which one?
> >
> > The ticket agent spent an inordinate amount of time on his computer, then
> > finally produced a boarding pass with a large "S" written on it. I asked
> > him what that meant, and he said I had been picked to have my bags
> searched.
> > Well, one expects that now, so I said, "Oh, that's okay." But I had a
> > feeling there was more.
> >
> > Since there was no one else around, I turned back to him and looked him in
> > the eye - he seemed a decent guy - and asked him, "My being picked wasn't
> > random, was it?" He hesitated a moment, but then said, "No, your name was
> > already flagged in the computer and you would have been searched in any
> > case." Well, still possibly coincidence.
> >
> > Then to the x-ray for my bags and me. I said to the two women sitting by
> > the machine that scans the bags. sort of apologetically, "I've been picked
> > to have my bags searched. I know this might sound silly, but since you
> > handle all these people's bags and belongings--with the Anthrax scare and
> > all--I'd like it if whoever searches through my clothes and things wash
> > their hands first." They looked at me with hate and loathing and one said,
> > "We don't want YOUR germs, either." (Turns out they wear rubber gloves.)
> >
> > "Whoa," I thought, "either I'm back in kindergarten or these normally quite
> > civil women have some reason for being hostile." I had the distinct
> > feeling they had been told awful things about me - I want to know what they
> > were told about this profiled individual coming to their airport.
> >
> > Neither my bags nor I set off any beeps in the machinery so we walked right
> > through to the boarding area. Here I sat down with the other passengers.
> > There was one National Guard soldier in the boarding area; he was a short
> > man with a black eye wearing camo gear and carrying a machine gun.
> >
> > Soon after I sat down, the National Guardsman looked at the dozen or so
> > passengers, his eyes stopping at me and he yelled, "Bring those bags over
> > here!" Since he didn't call my name, how did he know which person was me,
> > since I did not look appreciably different from the others?
> >
> > When I didn't move fast enough, he yelled again, "Hurry up! Move! Bring
> > those bags up here!" This did not make me move faster. By now people were
> > beginning to stare at me as if I might possibly be someone bent on doing
> > something wrong.
> >
> > I set my two smallish bags on the table where two women were waiting to
> > search my bags. As one of them had trouble with a zipper on my older
> bag, I
> > said, "Oh, that zipper is not right, here, let me open it for you," and I
> > reached over the table to undo the zipper. Immediately, the soldier yelled
> > out, "Get your hands away from there!" By now the other passengers were
> > getting nervous, of course.
> >
> > He was standing at the end of the table with the women on one side looking
> > in my bags and me standing on the other side of the table. I turned to
> face
> > him, which put my back towards everyone else, and he grabbed my left
> arm and
> > began loudly spouting pro-war nonsense into my face. "Don't you understand
> > we have to get them before they get us? Don't you understand what happened
> > September 11?" and so on.
> >
> > I immediately pulled my arm away from him and said, "Do not touch me. You
> > cannot do that," and stepped back a foot or so, saying that I didn't
> want to
> > hear his views on why he thought we should kill starving, helpless
> people in
> > Afghanistan.
> >
> > He grabbed for me again. I stepped back further stating emphatically, "Do
> > Not Touch Me," and further emphasizing that I did not want to listen to his
> > views on the war. He was about to leave his position and come after me
> > again, but I saw the senior security man who is usually there shake his
> head
> > "No" at the soldier, who then backed off, but he was angry that I would not
> > submit to his holding me while he forced his views on me.
> >
> > I turned and there just a couple of inches away was the man with the
> > metal-detecting wand. I stepped back a foot or two so he wasn't right up
> > against me, and he did the wand thing. I was the only one whose bags were
> > searched. For a woman of a certain age such as myself to stand there with
> > arms outstretched while a man skimmed my body with a device was very
> > embarrassing and demeaning.
> >
> > I asked him not to touch me with the wand, as I didn't know what it was,
> > but, of course, he had to touch my shoulder with it. I ignored this, just
> > wanting to get out of there. While he was doing the wand thing, I
> heard the
> > soldier, who was behind me, say, "Don't let her on the plane." I
> thought he
> > was talking to himself.
> >
> > Then they were done with the searching, and I walked the three feet to the
> > boarding gate. The American Airlines agent said, "You can't get on the
> > plane." I asked why. He replied, "Because he [indicating the soldier]
> says
> > you didn't cooperate with the search." I said, "But you were standing here
> > the whole time. Didn't you see him grab my arm and talk loudly into my
> > face?" He said he couldn't see that because my back was to people,
> only saw
> > me back off.
> >
> > I then told the American Airlines agent that I needed to get to Chicago and
> > stated what I had to do there. The American Airlines agent then said,
> > rather softly, probably so the guardsman soldier couldn't hear, "We'll put
> > you on the four o'clock plane; that's the last one out today that you
> can go
> > through Boston and still get to Chicago tonight." I replied, "Fine, let's
> > just do this. I don't care if I'm late so long as I get there."
> >
> > Unfortunately, the Guardsman overheard, and he wasn't done with me.
> > Clearly, this non-subservient female had to be punished for not being
> > sufficiently obsequious. He saw me picking up my bags to go out into the
> > lobby and wait for the 4 o'clock plane, and yelled (that seemed to be his
> > only means of communication), "Come With Me!" I asked, "Why? Where are we
> > going?" He replied, louder, "Come With Me!"
> >
> > A few people to whom I've told this insist the government/military is
> trying
> > to "criminalize" me and other political activists who don't have criminal
> > records. This is what's done to people of color. When they're harassed
> > and/or beaten by police, they eventually, of course, do something to
> protect
> > themselves and then get arrested for hitting an officer or whatever. If
> > they then get convicted of a felony, they've go to prison and probably
> a few
> > years of parole when one's rights are mostly non-existent, and draconian
> > restrictions are put upon one's activities. Convicted felons lose a lot of
> > rights in this country: their travel is henceforth limited, in some states
> > they can't vote, own a gun, and various other limitations.
> >
> > Under the circumstances, and because I had a few hours until four o'clock
> > anyway, it seemed best to go with the guardsman. The circumstances being
> > that each individual soldier/national guardsman seems to be The Law unto
> > themselves. Each of them makes it up as they go along, punishing
> people who
> > don't hop to. Military law is not democracy.
> >
> > He took me to the entrance area, apart from anyone else. Then he ordered,
> > loudly, "Sit Down!" I gave him a look and then sat. The soldier found the
> > airport policeman and told him to stay with me. Upon reflection, I
> probably
> > wasn't free to leave, but I thought I was waiting for the next plane so
> just
> > stayed there.
> >
> > The Airport policeman was a pleasant local man and we talked about what had
> > just happened as well as people we knew, etc. Within minutes I looked
> up to
> > see 5-6 National Guardsmen in their camo gear all carrying machine guns
> > marching in a sort of formation towards me. I was sitting down quietly
> > talking with the policeman. The situation looked like a bad movie.
> >
> > It occurred to me that this is how people get "disappeared," which has
> > happened to over 1,200 Americans so far since September 11. We used to
> hear
> > about this only in repressive military regimes in other places (usually
> > bolstered by our tax dollars). I'm sure they were ready to arrest me for
> > allegedly "not cooperating with a security search," with which I had,
> > indeed, cooperated.
> >
> > All of a sudden the ludicrousness of the situation struck me. There I am,
> > sitting down with my bags, a woman clearly not a physical threat, and this
> > phalanx of soldiers in formation descends upon me ready to arrest me for
> > something I did not do. I gave a little laugh and said to the lead man,
> > "What, all this, just for me?" Then, I asked, "What's this really about?
> > What's going on here?"
> >
> > He replied, "We understand you didn't cooperate with a security search." I
> > said, "That's ridiculous. They searched my bags and they did the wand
> > search. The only problem was your man here [I indicated the short guy with
> > the black eye] grabbing my arm and spouting pro-war views loudly in my
> > face." The lead soldier (I don't know his rank) said, astonishingly, "He
> > told me only hit your arm."
> >
> > I looked at the lead soldier wide-eyed with a few unbidden (certainly
> > unwanted when I'm trying to look fierce) tears in my eyes, and asked, "Even
> > if that's all he had done, would that be okay?" I think he then realized
> > the guardsman had been way out of line and said, "Wait here." They left,
> > and the policeman stayed with me. I don't really think I was free to go,
> > although I had not been arrested.
> >
> > I found out later they had gone upstairs and told the Bangor Airport
> manager
> > to tell all airlines in the Airport not to allow me to fly out of Bangor
> > that day, and possibly more than just that one day. Since the military are
> > in charge of our airports and they can override civilians in charge, this
> > was made to happen.
> >
> > I was to be punished for the crime of questioning their authority,
> > especially for the guardsman to hold my arm and force me to listen to his
> > brain-washed rantings.
> >
> > Every airline in the Bangor Airport was given my name and told that I did
> > not cooperate with a security search. Not cooperating with a security
> > search at an airport is a federal crime. If, indeed, I had not cooperated,
> > they would have arrested me right then and there. But I had been searched
> > so they couldn't say that.
> >
> > However, now I have to wonder if every airline in the world doesn't have me
> > in their computer as a person who didn't cooperate with the security
> search,
> > which means they can deny me passage in their airplanes. We will find out
> > as time goes on.
> >
> > They told the policeman this news and had him tell me that I wouldn't be
> > allowed to fly out of Bangor that day. So I said I had to go American
> > Airlines and get my money back. The policeman came with me.
> >
> > The same AA clerk was at the counter. He stepped outside the counter to
> > converse with the policeman and me. He confirmed that they had been told
> > not to allow me to fly out of Bangor that day. I asked him about the next
> > day and he said he didn't know. This is not a small matter for me
> since the
> > Bangor Airport is 100 miles from where I live.
> >
> > The AA clerk then suggested I drive to Boston (5-1/2 hour drive) and
> fly out
> > of there. There were several problems with that, I told him. First,
> my old
> > car barely made it the 100 miles to the Bangor Airport and might not
> make it
> > to Boston or back again. Then there were the parking fees in Boston as
> well
> > as the fact that I might not be allowed to fly out of there or might not be
> > able to get a seat once I got there. Also, if they would not honor my
> > now-expired ticket, I'd have to pay full fare, which I couldn't
> afford. Not
> > a serious option.
> >
> > I then asked the American Airlines clerk for my money back so I might
> > consider some alternative means of transport. He said he couldn't
> refund my
> > money. I asked him why and he said, "It's a non-refundable ticket." This
> > was so ridiculous that all three of us laughed a little. All the airlines
> > issue tickets on other tickets all the time. So I asked him again and he
> > said he couldn't refund the ticket, indicating it wasn't his decision,
> which
> > I understood, and told him I'd take it up with the airline later.
> >
> > Then the policeman, half apologetically, told me I'd been banned from the
> > Airport for that day, and that he had to escort me out. I told him I
> > understood that he was under the military's rule, and that I would call it
> > his walking me to the door, rather than escorting me out of the
> Airport. We
> > walked to the exit. I thanked him for being kind and considerate, which he
> > had been, and left with the sinking feeling that something bad is happening
> > to our country. And this is how it begins.
> >
> > **********************************************************
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > IMC mailing list
> > IMC at urbana.indymedia.org
> > http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/imc
>
>--
>David Young On the Job Consulting
>dyoung at onthejob.net Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933
>_______________________________________________
>IMC mailing list
>IMC at urbana.indymedia.org
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