[Peace-discuss] Greens at airports

[Alfred Kagan]

Someone recently talked with me about folks being denied boarding at 
airports.  Here are some examples.

>
>FYI. Fred Stoss
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 11:10:43 -0500 (EST)
>From: Jean E Dickson <dickson at buffalo.edu>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 02:30:53 -0500
>From: Mitchel Cohen <mitchelcohen at mindspring.com>
>
>GREEN PARTY USA e-NEWSLETTER
>November 8, 2002
>Bi-Weekly Newsletter of the Greens/Green Party USA
>www.greenparty.org
>
>If electricity comes from electrons... does that mean that morality comes
>from morons?
>- George Carlin
>
>*****************************************
>ELECTION DAY has come and gone, and exhausted Greens across the country are
>debating "Where do we go from here?" In the next issue of this newsletter
>we'll print election results and updates, and we'll outline some of the
>larger strategic challenges for the Greens. Please send your thoughts on
>this topic to editor at greenparty.org.
>
>MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
>If you are not a member of the Greens/Green Party USA, you can join by
>going directly to the website at www.greenparty.org. You can also go to the
>website to send a credit card contribution via the web, or mail a check to:
>The Greens/Green Party USA, PO Box 1406, Chicago, Illinois 60690. Thank you!
>
>******************************************
>Former Green Party USA coordinator Nancy Oden last year became one of the
>first activists to be refused the right to board a plane, based apparently
>on a secret list now maintained by the federal government at airports. In
>the last issue of Green Politix  the national newspaper of G/GPUSA -- we
>published author Tariq Ali's tale of being harassed at an airport in
>Germany for carrying a book by Karl Marx, and Brooklyn bookstore owner
>Lynne Goldhammer's subsequent harassment at JFK airport for carrying a book
>by Tariq Ali! Since then, hundreds of activists and immigrants have been
>detained illegally at airports.
>
>Yet when we reported that Nancy Oden's name was "flagged" in a computer and
>warned that the federal government was compiling lists of activists under
>the guise of "terrorist threat," some extremely shortsighted people who
>represented themselves as Greens challenged this claim, and said we were
>making it up; they went on an email rampage slandering their fellow Greens
>when what they most needed was support. Last summer, The magazine "The
>Progressive" ran an important article upholding our analysis, and a new
>article has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle confirming what G/GPUSA
>had first reported. Here are three new tales and a link to the Chronicle
>article.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>HARASSMENT OF GREENS AND OTHER ACTIVISTS AT AIRPORTS ACCELERATE
>Doug Stuber, North Carolina Greens
>
>I was at the airport trying to make an important trip to Prague to gather
>artists for Henry James Art in Raleigh, NC, USA when I was told (ticket in
>hand) that I was not allowed to fly out that day. Curiously, I asked "why
>not" and the answer at Raleigh Durham Airport (RDU) was that, because of
>the DC sniper attacks, no Greens were allowed to fly overseas on THAT DAY.
>
>Naturally, I went back the next morning, and instead of paying $670 round
>trip was forced into a $2,600 "same day" air fare. I was mad enough about
>the money, but what happened in the next 24 hours was mind-boggling.
>
>So, it was 6 am and my first flight wasn't due out until 11:45, so I had
>plenty of time to kill. At exactly 10:52 am, just before boarding was to
>begin, I was approached by Officer Stanley (the same policeman I was
>ushered out of the airport the day before), and he said he "wanted to talk
>to me." I went with him, but reminded him that no one had said I could not
>fly, and that my flight was about to leave. The officer took me into a room
>and questioned me for one hour. By noon Stanley introduced me to two
>gentlemen I will refer to as Secret Service A and Secret Service B.
>
>SS-A and SS-B took full eye-open pictures of me with a digital camera. They
>then asked me all the details about my family, where I lived, who I ever
>knew, what the Greens are up to, etc., etc. At one point I asked if they
>really believed the Greens were equal to Al Qaeda. They showed me a
>document from the Justice department (Ashcroft and friends) that actually
>DOES state that greens are likely terrorists. I wish I had had a camera to
>be able to copy THAT document!
>
>We got out of there at about 12:45 -- enough time to catch the later
>flight. They walked me to the Delta counter and asked that I be given
>tickets for the flight so I could make my connections. The woman (she is a
>tall blonde with short hair and works for Delta at RDU) quickly printed out
>tickets so that I could make the flight, and I was relieved that the SS
>hadn't stopped me from flying. I was wrong again. Just as I was about to
>board the plane, officer Stanley ONCE AGAIN ushered me out the door.
>
>To be fair, he told me this: "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." I felt like I was  being set up, but I went to Greensboro
>anyway. In Greensboro, NC I showed my passport and was told flat out that I
>could not fly anywhere. Are Greens throughout the US being barred from
>flying? (Our former national Co-Chair, Nancy Oden, had already been denied
>a flight from Maine to Chicago eight months ago.)
>
>Not to be denied, I then traveled to Charlotte. This is another hour and a
>half away, so I'd been up for 40 hours, with a 1.5 hour drive ahead. I
>stocked up on Dr. Pepper and decided I would not be denied. Of course, at
>Charlotte the same thing: get this terrorist out of here was the mode the
>cops were in. I then drove three hours home (43 hours trying to catch a
>flight) and crashed hard in bed. It appears that greens, who have ten key
>values that include nonviolence, social justice, etc., are considered
>terrorists by the Ashcroft-led Justice Department. I had always speculated
>that capitalism had gone too far. Now I know for sure.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>PEACE ACTIVISTS GROUNDED
>Ellen Kaiser, War Times #6, Oct-Nov 2002
>
>Peace activists are showing up on a federal no-fly list, intended to keep
>terrorists off planes. Among the targets have been Wisconsin anti-war
>activists, a Green Party official from Maine and two War Times staff
>members. The activists emphasize that they support airport security but
>oppose a list that includes dissenters.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>AUTHOR CITES AIRPORT HARASSMENT, CANCELS US TOUR
>
>Rohinton Mistry, one of Canada's most celebrated authors, announced that he
>was canceling the remainder of his U.S. book tour due to what he
>characterized as racial profiling in American airports. "He was singled out
>at airports because of the color of his skin," said Paul Bogaards, director
>of publicity for Knopf, Mistry's publisher. "This is the way of the world
>now, and, after a time, Rohinton Mistry became uncomfortable."
>
>Mistry's latest book, Family Matters, which details the struggles of a
>father and his children in modern Bombay, was a Booker Prize nominee and a
>Book Sense September/October 2002 76 pick. Mistry is also the author of A
>Fine Balance, which was a March/April 2000 Book Sense 76 pick.
>
>Mistry's troubles with American airport security began in early October,
>when he was conducting the first leg of his U.S. book tour promoting the
>novel, said Bogaards. Traveling with his wife, Mistry found that "he wasn't
>being stopped just once [at airports], he was being stopped two or three
>times," Bogaards told BTW. "This happened repeatedly. So, he decided to
>pull back. We support him fully in his decision."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>NO-FLY BLACKLIST SNARES POLITICAL ACTIVISTS
>Alan Gathright,
>San Francisco Chronicle
>9/27/02
>A federal "No Fly" list, intended to keep terrorists from boarding planes,
>is snaring peace activists at San Francisco International and other U. S.
>airports, triggering complaints that civil liberties are being trampled.
>And while several federal agencies acknowledge that they contribute names
>to the congressionally mandated list, none of them, when contacted by The
>Chronicle, could or would say which agency is responsible for managing the
>list.
>[for rest of this extremely important article, click
>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/09/27/MN181034.DTL ]
>
>**************************************************
>GREEN  PARTY USA URGES: FREE FAROUK!
>Please call or write to prison officials below.
>
>Farouk Abdel-Muhti is a Palestinian activist who had been living in Queens,
>New York. He was arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service
>(INS) on Apr. 26 of this year immediately after denouncing the civil rights
>violations on WBAI/Pacifica radio.
>
>He has been held at three different county jails in New Jersey since his
>arrest. For the 55-year-old Palestinian, his constant relocation and the
>confusion over his whereabouts is not governmental ineptitude, but a
>conspiracy to curb his First Amendment rights. Conditions are terrible at
>all the jails: the INS detainees suffer from a complete absence of medical
>care, awful food, crowded conditions and frequent abuses and humiliations
>at the hands of prison guards and INS officials.
>
>The INS has repeatedly moved Farouk without telling his supporters where he
>is being taken.
>
>One reason they cite is his vast network of contacts in the Palestinian
>community in the United States and in the Middle East.
>
>"He knows people all over the place. If you wanted to talk to the mayor of
>Nablus or the mayor of Jericho, Farouk was the one to call," said Bernie
>McFall, a friend who was sharing his apartment in Queens with Abdel-Muhti
>and his son when authorities arrested him.
>
>In March 2002, as the second intifada started to heat up, Abdel- Muhti
>began to call upon those contacts to express their views on the radio. At
>that time, he was working for WBAI radio in New York, arranging interviews
>with Palestinian leaders for the morning radio show Wake Up Call.
>
>Abdel-Muhti was up and out the door early in the morning to prepare for the
>drive-time show. He was not at home the first time the INS came knocking.
>
>On Tuesday, April 9th, according to McFall, federal and city law
>enforcement agents first came to the apartment looking for the Palestinian.
>
>McFall said that after he told them Abdel-Muhti was out, they became
>abusive and threatening.
>
>"(The agents) said that I was a disgrace to the American people, that he
>wanted to throw me out the window," said McFall.
>
>After the first visit from police, Abdel-Muhti consulted with his lawyer
>and decided it would be better to offer to sit down with the agents in
>their office, with his lawyer present. But the offer was ignored, according
>to both Abdel-Muhti and McFall.
>
>Abdel-Muhti went back to work at the radio station and continued the radio
>show, focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
>
>On April 26, at 5 a.m., authorities came knocking again. This time,
>Abdel-Muhti was home and they were insistent on speaking with him,
>according to McFall. After a brief standoff with authorities, who, McFall
>said, never provided a search warrant, Abdel-Muhti was taken to 26 Federal
>Plaza, New York City, where authorities made him an offer.
>
>"They told me, 'If you cooperate with us, we will help you - get you out,'"
>Abdel-Muhti said.
>
>They offered to give him favorable treatment in exchange for a list of
>Palestinian aid organizations and the people who supported them, he said.
>
>"You are playing with my dignity, you are playing with my principles," he
>said he told them.
>
>After he refused, the agents became angry and beat him, Abdel- Muhti said.
>
>He was then taken to the Middlesex County Correctional Facility, where he
>was held until July 15.
>
>Abdel-Muhti said that he was moved, because protests organized both inside
>and outside the jail became a headache to the warden.
>
>Greens and other activists have made hundreds of calls to the INS and to
>the prison officials, forcing them to return Farouk as they appeared to be
>on the verge of deporting him, without a hearing.
>
>Farouk's lawyer is Joel Kupferman, a member of the Brooklyn Greens/GPUSA,
>and administrator of the NY Law and Environmental Justice Project. The
>Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti urges all supporters of
>human rights to call or fax INS New Jersey District Director Andrea
>Quarantillo (phone 973-645-4421, fax 973-297-4848) immediately to demand:
>
>1) Release Farouk Abdel-Muhti immediately. He is a stateless Palestinian
>who is not deportable, and he has been in jail almost seven months. Like
>the vast  majority of the INS detainees, he is neither a threat to society
>nor a flight risk. We oppose arbitrary administrative detentions. The INS
>should free all the detainees.
>
>2) Stop the arbitrary transfers of detainees and ensure that Farouk is not
>moved. Your urgent intervention is especially important as we are concerned
>that Farouk and other detainees at Passaic may face retaliation because of
>ongoing demonstrations outside the prison, and because of a favorable
>article about Farouk's case, which appeared in the Herald News
>
>3) Stop overcrowding the county jails, and take responsibility for
>improving the conditions. The INS seems to be deliberately overcrowding
>Passaic in an effort to make conditions there so miserable that detainees
>would be forced to accept deportation, even to a country where their lives
>may be at risk.
>
>4) Let INS detainees use public phones, which allow them to access
>toll-free numbers, outside of the costly "prison collect" phone rip-off.
>Why should MCI-Worldcom get $25 every time a detainee needs to talk to
>family members or report a new injustice?
>
>Please make your call or send your fax TODAY.
>Please send copies of (or reports about) your correspondence to Committee
>for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti at freefarouk at yahoo.com AND
>nicadlw at earthlink.net.
>
>For more info: 212-674-9499.
>
>=========================================================
>   Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti
>PO Box 20587, Tompkins Square Station, New York, NY 10009
>   Phone: 212-674-9499 * Email freefarouk at yahoo.com
>=========================================================
>*******************************************
>
>The Greens/Green Party USA is establishing the Committee to Save the Bill
>of Rights, through which we are working on the Campaign to Repeal the
>Patriot Act, among other issues. If you would like to work on these, please
>write to editor at greenparty.org and we'll put you in touch with other greens
>working with local committees on these matters.
>
>********************************************
>G/GPUSA SUPPORTS THE LONGSHORE WORKERS IN CALIFORNIA
>
>The Greens / Green Party USA gives full support to the International
>Longshore Workers Union in its fight to stop the slashing of health and
>pension benefits, loss of control over out-sourcing, and dangerous
>speed-ups in its negotiations with Pacific Maritime Association.
>
>In addition, we condemn Resident George Bush's support for management and
>his attempt to break the union.
>
>Labor's long struggle to organize and maintain trade union power is a
>critical aspect of the social and economic justice called for in the
>Greens' Ten Key Values. The ILWU's present fight is a critical event in
>that history.
>
>On the other hand, it is obvious that President Bush has set a goal of
>union-breaking equivalent to the PATCO break up engineered by Ronald
>Reagan. Beginning soon after May 13 when negotiations for a new contract
>began, the Bush Administration hinted repeatedly at government intervention
>in ILWU/PMA negotiations. First Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge
>threatened that Bush would invoke "national security" and step into the
>fray. Bush claimed that there was a crisis in Western ports that was
>hurting the economy and also "threatening our national defense."
>
>Resident Bush's radio address on October 12 came four days after he had
>invoked the Taft-Hartley Act forcing the Union into a 80-day "cooling off"
>period, making the ILWU vulnerable to daily court harassment by the
>PMA,draining the Union's strike fund and threatening its ability to continue.
>
>The Greens / Green Party USA opposes any anti-union federal intervention in
>ILWU/PMA negotiations, and particularly the use of federal troops as crane
>operators or otherwise. Not only does the PMA want to protect profits by
>cutting worker benefits but in this it is supported by importers of massive
>amounts of cheap foreign goods such as Walmart, Target and Home Depot, all
>with strong interests in breaking organized labor on West Coast ports. Such
>mass merchandisers not only displace American goods and jobs, but are
>complicit in the super-exploitation of foreign labor and in the destruction
>of vital ecosystems. Solidarity between labor and the Greens is essential
>for both economic justice and in stopping the present global ecological
>crisis. Pacific Maritime Association and Bush must not be allowed to bully
>the ILWU.
>
>- Patrick Eytchison
>Redwood Coast Greens, California
>
>*****************************************
>"REGIME CHANGE" BEGINS AT HOME
>GREENS MOBILIZE AGAINST WAR
>
>Thousands of Greens joined the one hundred thousand people who marched in
>Washington D.C. and San Francisco on Oct.  26th against the coming
>bombardment of Iraq. Antiwar demonstrations continue in all parts of the
>country. Here are a couple of reports from actions involving Greens in the
>antiwar movement that the corporate media refuses to cover.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>DALLAS, TX
>PROTESTERS EXPELLED FOR HECKLING BUSH AT SMU
>SECRET SERVICE HELD 12 ACTIVISTS, CHARGING THEY 'THREATENED THE LIFE OF THE
>PRESIDENT'
>
>George W. Bush, current resident of the White House, made his way to Dallas
>November 4th for a last minute campaign pitch for Texas Republicans at
>Southern Methodist University's Moody Coliseum.
>
>About 300 protesters opposing Mr. Bush's plans for "regime change" in Iraq
>braved the cold and rain and awaited Mr. Bush's arrival. Waving large
>anti-war banners, sporting signs and posters, and chanting slogans like "No
>War in Iraq" and "Drop Bush Not Bombs" from bull horns, the demonstrators
>gathered at the intersection of Mockingbird Lane and Central Expressway,
>near the SMU campus.
>
>After Mr. Bush spoke for about 10 minutes, 12 protesters who had gotten
>inside stood up and unfurled a banner they had smuggled in reading "No War
>in Iraq," and started chanting the same message in unison.
>
>The crowd went silent, and even Mr. Bush stopped talking. After several
>minutes of the 12 protesters chanting "No War in Iraq," the crowd started
>yelling over them, "USA, USA."
>
>Officers with the Dallas Police Tactical Division (SWAT Team), SMU Campus
>Police, and agents of the U.S. Secret Service converged on the 12
>protesters and told them to leave. The 12 protesters were escorted to the
>exit by three Dallas Police Tactical officers, two SMU Campus Police
>officers, and four Secret Service agents.
>
>Once outside,  a Secret Service agent would not allow them to leave without
>recording identification. "Ma'am," he told one protester, "you've
>threatened the life of the President of the United States. You will not be
>allowed to leave without identifying yourselves." The woman refused.
>
>The agent walked off and left the 12 hecklers in the custody of a Dallas
>Tactical police officer. The protesters got on four separate cell phones
>and started calling their attorneys. At about that time, several reporters
>- including TV news photographers - arrived on the scene to ask questions
>of the protesters.
>
>Immediately, the Dallas Tactical Police officer said, "You're all free to
>go. Go back to your cars and leave, and don't come back." The protesters
>complied willingly, and their identification ended up not being checked.
>
>The hecklers were reported on all the Dallas local news channels that night.
>
>- Cliff Pearson, Green Party of Dallas County
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>ANTIWAR ACTIVISTS CRASH MTV'S TOTAL REQUEST LIVE
>
>Student antiwar activists crashed MTV's live show "Total Request Live" on
>Oct. 9th, chanting slogans against the impending war in Iraq.
>
>Wearing T-shirts reading "NO WAR ON IRAQ," 4 students rushed the stage
>while 4 others were preemptively detained by MTV security guards. The
>Veejay looked on in shocked silence as the uninvited guests burst into
>pre-rehearsed speeches against "President" Bush's plans to invade Iraq.
>
>They were promptly pulled off the stage as the show's host embarrassedly
>explained "Well, that's live TV for ya...." One student had been scheduled
>to give a "shout-out" to Eminem, but used his space to give a shout out to
>"the people of the world" instead.
>(Eminem ended up having to do without any shout-outs).
>
>A second group of students that attempted to rush the stage were tackled
>and choked by security. MTV officials threatened to press charges, before
>realizing that there were no charges to press.
>
>The NYU Radical Arts Collective takes full responsibility for today's
>actions at MTV, and encourages everyone out there to do the same, on every
>idiotic live TV show they can think of.
>
>- Dmitri D'Alessandro, New York
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>New Mexico
>About two-thousand anti-war protesters, chanting, pounding drums and
>tooting horns, marched on the residence of Defense Secretary Donald
>Rumsfeld north of Taos today to demonstrate opposition to war with Iraq.
>Taos novelist John Nichols, author of "The Milagro Beanfield War" and the
>movie "Missing," and Mayor Fred Peralta spoke before the two-mile march to
>Rumsfeld's home in El Prado.
>
>Peralta says Taos is an international peace zone, and Nichols says the
>protest will have an impact. Marchers included people of all ages with many
>of the youngsters wearing Halloween skull masks.
>
>At Rumsfeld's modest adobe home on Camino de Montoya, at least ten state
>and federal agents stood guard. One Secret Service agent said Rumsfeld
>wasn't at home during the demonstration. Thedemonstration was peaceful.
>
>*********************************************
>
>GPUSAers: Please send reports of your activities to
>editor at greenparty.org.  And visit the website at www.greenparty.org! Join
>the Greens, Squash the State! Give Peas a Chance!
>
>*********************************************
>Democrats, like Republicans, are saying anything they think will get them
>elected. They all speak as isolated individuals, with the party they belong
>to being nothing more than a vote-hustling pimp with no guiding principles
>other than selling out to whoever pays the most to buy the most votes.
>
>The article below from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch illustrates the power of
>the Green Party when it remains focused on environmental destruction.The
>Green Party organizes AS A PARTY, rather than as isolated individuals, to
>further progressive agendas.
>
>- Don Fitz
>
>FOES OF SPRAYING SAY IT HURTS INSTEAD OF HELPING FIGHT TO END WEST NILE VIRUS
>
>By Phil Sutin
>St. Louis Post-Dispatch
>
>Opponents of the spraying of pesticides to control mosquitoes have urged the
>St. Louis County Council to stop the Health Department from using that
>insect-control approach. Nationwide, authorities have increased spraying to
>destroy mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus.
>
>They made their pleas to the Justice and Health Committee of the council in a
>hearing that took about 90 minutes. The committee made no decision.
>
>At the end of the meeting, Mike Zlatic, a representative of the Health
>Department, said his agency would conduct research on the information
>provided by opponents of spraying and comment later. He asked for copies of
>the written information the opponents had given to the council.
>
>Don Fitz, a spokesman for the Green Party, said, "The spraying of pesticides
>by the Health Department makes it more likely that we will get West Nile
>virus." Spraying, he said, killed fish and other animals that eat mosquitoes
>to allow the mosquito population to grow.
>
>He said that chemicals in sprays weaken people's immune systems and allow the
>virus to cross the blood-brain barrier into the brain. That, he said, means
>that some people who would have had a mild reaction from the virus would
>suffer a serious one and some people with a serious reaction would get
>encephalitis, which could kill them.
>
>Yvonne Homeyer, president of the St. Louis chapter of the North American
>Butterfly Association, said spraying destroys butterflies as well as
>mosquitoes. She doubted that spraying is very effective.
>
>"Many of our St. Louis chapter members have worked hard to create native
>plant gardens to attract butterflies, only to see the spray truck drive by
>and blanket their garden with toxic chemicals which kill the very butterflies
>their gardens were intended to attract," she said. "Our enjoyment of
>butterflies decreases as butterfly numbers dwindle."
>
>County Councilman Kurt Odenwald, R-Shrewsbury, the council committee's
>chairman, said anti-spraying advocates might be unfamiliar with the Health
>Department's extensive effort to minimize spraying.
>
>The department, he said, urged the public to remove standing water, a major
>breeding place for mosquitoes. The department staff spread larvacides to
>eliminate mosquitoes at an early stage of their life cycle, he said.
>
>http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/TodayThursday/86256A0E0068FE50
>
>(Note: G/GPUSA is a member of the No Spray Coalition, which has been
>organizing against the mass spraying of toxic pesticides in New York and
>now across the country. Please check out the No Spray Coalition's website
>at www.nospray.org.)
>
>**********************************************
>THE LAST WORD:
>
>BUSH SOLUTION TO FOREST FIRES:
>REMOVE THE FOREST
>
>The Bush administration sent a legislative proposal to Congress on Sept. 5
>that would allow increased commercial logging of old-growth trees in national
>forests, purportedly to reduce runaway forest fires that have plagued the West
>in recent years, even though such trees are not the source of the problem.
>   see OMB WATCH www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/1083/1/151/
>
>- Joel Kupferman, NY Law and Environmental Justice Project
>
>*********************************************
>The Greens/Green Party USA
>PO Box 1406
>Chicago, IL 60690
>1-866-GREENS-2
>
>*****************
>Join The Greens/Green Party USA
>Go to http://www.greenparty.org/member.html and sign up today! Embrace the
>Ten Key Values of the global green movement.


-- 


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