[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [SRRTAC-L:6987] [ALAOIF:18298] Book kept a passenger off of a flight

[Al Kagan]

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
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>Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2001 00:10:31 -0400
>To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
>From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra at earthlink.net>
>Subject: [SRRTAC-L:6987] [ALAOIF:18298] Book kept a passenger off of a flight
>Reply-To: srrtac-l at ala.org
>Sender: owner-srrtac-l at ala.org
>Status:  
>
>Just the beginning...
>More food for thought about the fragility of democratic rights.
>MCR
>
>>Status:  U
>>Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 14:55:28 -0700
>>From: "Steven Dunlap" <sdunlap at ggu.edu>
>>To: ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom List <alaoif at ala1.ala.org>
>>Subject: [ALAOIF:18298] Book kept a passenger off of a flight
>>Mime-Version: 1.0
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>>
>>from the Philadelphia CityPaper.Net:
>>:
>>: October 18, 2001 news
>>:
>>: Novel Security Measures
>>:
>>: A local man was kept off a recent flight because of a book he was carrying.
>>: by Gwen Shaffer
>>:
>>: Everyone knows it is a bad idea to try and board a plane carrying a box
>>: cutter, a flight manual written in Arabic, or a sack full of mysterious
>>: white powder. But with ultra-tightened airport security, a book could also
>>: prevent you from boarding that plane.
>>:
>>: No kidding. It happened just last week in Philadelphia.  Neil Godfrey
>>: arrived at Philadelphia International Airport around 9:30 a.m.	on
>>Wed.,
>>: Oct. 10. His brother's girlfriend dropped him off with plenty of time to
>>: spare before his 11:40 a.m. United Airlines flight. Godfrey was on his way
>>: to Phoenix, where his father lives. From there, the family was planning to
>>: head out for a vacation at Disneyland.
>>:
>>: It is fair to say that Godfrey - brother of City Paper webmaster Ryan
>>: Godfrey - doesn't look unusual for a 22-year-old kid living in Center
>>: City.
>>:
>>: His outfit that day was typical: black Dockers, a T-shirt with a logo for
>>: the now-defunct Phoenix Gazette newspaper and New Balance running shoes.
>>: He has a medium build, recently dyed jet-black hair and a quiet demeanor.
>>: When Godfrey stepped up to the ticket counter, the United clerk informed
>>: him he had been selected for a random baggage search.
>>:
>>: "No problem," he replied, going through the usual motions of checking his
>>: bag and getting a boarding pass. Now toting nothing but a novel and the
>>: most recent copy of The Nation magazine, Godfrey hiked through the
>>: concourse toward his boarding gate.
>>:
>>: As he passed through the metal detector, an airport security guard furrowed
>>: his brow at Godfrey's reading selections as they disappeared through the
>>: conveyor belt.
>>:
>>: On the cover of the book, Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey, is an
>>: illustration of a man's hand holding several sticks of dynamite. The 1991
>>: novel is about a radical environmentalist, George Washington Hayduke III,
>>: who blows up bridges, burns tractors and sabotages other projects he
>>: believes are destroying the beautiful Southwest landscape.
>>:
>>: "For the first time, it occurred to me the book may be a problem," Godfrey
>>: recalls.
>>:
>>: He proceeded through the security checkpoint and sat down to read near his
>>: boarding gate. About 10 minutes had passed when a National Guardsman
>>: approached Godfrey.
>>:
>>: "He told me to step aside," Godfrey says. "Then he took my book and asked
>>: me why I was reading it."
>>:
>>: Within minutes, Godfrey says, Philadelphia Police officers, Pennsylvania
>>: State Troopers and airport security officials joined the National
>>: Guardsman. About 10 to 12 people examined the novel for 45 minutes,
>>: scratching out notes the entire time. They also questioned Godfrey about
>>: the purpose of his trip to Phoenix.
>>:
>>: The fact that Godfrey recently dropped out of Temple University and has
>>: yet to find a job may have piqued suspicion of law enforcement officials
>>: even more.
>  >:
>>: "The fact that I don't work or go to school may have contributed to them
>>: thinking I have nothing to live for," Godfrey speculates.  Eventually, one
>>: of the law enforcement officials told Godfrey his book was "innocuous" and
>  >: he would be allowed to board the plane.
>>:
>>: "I was pretty shaken up," he says. "But I also felt guilty that I hadn*t
>>: realized bringing this book to the airport may cause a problem."
>>: Another 10 minutes or so passed while he sat in the waiting area. A female
>>: United employee - Godfrey failed to jot down her name - came over and
>>: informed him that he wouldn't be allowed to fly, "for three reasons."
>>:
>>: The first reason, she said, was that Godfrey was reading a book with an
>>: illustration of a bomb on the cover. Secondly, she said, he purchased his
>>: ticket on Sept. 11. (Godfrey bought the ticket on Priceline.com shortly
>>: after midnight, at least eight hours before the World Trade Center was
>>: attacked).
>>:
>>: And the final reason cited by the United employee was that Godfrey's
>>: Arizona driver's license had expired. The employee pointed to a date to
>>: substantiate this allegation.
>>:
>>: "No," Godfrey told her. "That's the day the license was issued." The woman
>>: then pointed to another date on the card, Feb. 17, 2000, contending it was
>>: the expiration date. Godfrey countered that the date identified him
>>: as "under 21" until then.
>>:
>>: "Too bad, it's too late," the flight attendant informed him. 
>>	A defeated
>>: and disappointed Godfrey reclaimed his luggage and was escorted out of the
>>: airport.
>>:
>>: When he got home, Godfrey did what a lot of guys do when they need
>>: consoling -- he phoned his mom.
>>:
>>: Godfrey's mother offered to call United and attempt to straighten
>>: things out. A central reservation clerk assured her that her son was not
>>: banned from ever flying United again. She booked him on a different flight
>>: to Phoenix, this one departing Philadelphia at 3:04 p.m. that same
>>: afternoon.
>>:
>>: Godfrey scurried back to the airport, leaving the Abbey novel at home. He
>>: exchanged it for a seemingly benign novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner
>>: of Azkaban.
>>:
>>: When Godfrey arrived at the airport around 1:15 p.m., his luggage was
>>: again searched. But as Godfrey passed through the metal detector, a police
>>: officer recognized him from the commotion just a few hours earlier. The
>>: cop pulled Godfrey aside and made a few phone calls. Ultimately, he
>>: declared that everything checked out fine. But a National Guardsman
>>: standing nearby vetoed that decision.
>>:
>>: "This time, they took my Harry Potter book and about four people studied
>>: it for 20 minutes," Godfrey says.
>>:
>>: Finally, at about 1:45 p.m., officials apparently felt reassured that
>>: Godfrey was not a security threat. They told Godfrey he would be permitted
>>: on the plane, but that he couldn't pass through security until 2:30
>>: p.m.
>>:
>>: At the appointed time, an escort took Godfrey through security, while at
>>: least 15 law enforcement officials looked on. Rather than taking Godfrey
>>: directly to his gate, however, he was ushered into a private interrogation
>>: room.
>>:
>>: "They patted me down and found nothing," Godfrey says. But when he emerged
>>: from this room, Burt Zastera, supervisor of airport operations for United,
>>: told him he would not be allowed to fly.
>>:
>>: "He told me he didn't know the reason why, that he was just conveying
>>: the information," Godfrey recalls. Zastera gave Godfrey a contact
>>: number he could call for a full explanation.
>>:
>>: Godfreys father called that number and was told his son was banned
>>: from flying United because he cracked "a joke about bombs."
>>:
>>: "That is totally false," Godfrey says, pointing out that no one at the
>>: airport ever mentioned this to him. Plus, Federal Aviation Administration
>>: (FAA) regulations stipulate that any passenger who jokes about 
>>explosives be
>>: arrested on the spot. By contrast, Godfrey was never charged or even
>>: accused of breaking the law. In fact, Philadelphia Police officers didn* t
>>: even file an incident report, according to department spokesman
>  >: Cpl. Jim Pauley.
>>:
>>: Other airport and law enforcement officials have very little to say about
>>: Godfreys treatment.
>>:
>>: Zastera says he is "not allowed to comment" on what happened because it
>  >: is a security matter. United Airlines spokesman Chris Bradwig says he is
>>: "unaware" of the Oct. 10 incident.
>>:
>>: "Even so, we dont comment on security matters," he says.
>>: A supervisor with Aviation Safeguard, the company United contracts to
>>: man security checkpoints in Philadelphia, denied responsibility for
>>: detaining Godfrey.
>>:
>>: "The only ones who determine who cant get on a flight is the
>>: airline," says an Aviation Safeguard supervisor, who refused to provide
>>: her name. "We dont stop any books."
>>:
>>: Philadelphia International spokesman Mark Pesce agrees that only
>>: individual airlines determine whether to permit a passenger to fly.  "When
>>: a passenger passes through security, it is under the jurisdiction of the
>>: airline. We dont get involved," he says, adding that stories like
>>: Godfreys are likely to become increasingly common.
>>:
>>: The FAA has no policy regulating "specific types of reading material,"
>>: says spokeswoman Arlene Salac.
>>:
>>: ----------
>>:
>>: See text and photo at:
>>:
>>:
>  >http://cgi.newcity.com/exitlog/frameset.php?close=http://www.citypaper.net/arti
>  >>: cles/101801/news.godfrey.shtml&back=http://www.newcity.com
>  >:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Steven Dunlap               sad at ggu.edu
>>Librarian, Regional Campus Services
>>Golden Gate University - University Library
>>http://internet.ggu.edu/university_library/reg/
>>

-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu