[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [sftalk] No-fly blacklist snares political activists
Alfred Kagan
akagan at uiuc.edu
Mon Sep 30 08:43:33 CDT 2002
More bad news
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>Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 07:16:48 -0400
>Subject: [sftalk] No-fly blacklist snares political activists
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>Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 4:31 AM
>
>No-fly blacklist snares political activists
>
>
>> When Green Party USA representative Nancy Oden was one of the first people
>> stopped from boarding a flight last year, we reported that her name was
>> "flagged" in a computer and 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 and went on an email rampage slandering the Greens/Green
>> Party USA and doing the work of the FBI. The magazine "The Progressive"
>ran an
>> important article over the summer upholding our analysis. Here's the most
>> recent article, from last Friday's San Francisco Chronicle, further
>exposing
>> the government's new "activist blacklist".
>>
>> - Mitchel Cohen
>>
>> No-fly blacklist snares political activists
>>
>> Alan Gathright,
>> San Francisco Chronicle
>> Friday, September 27, 2002
>>
>>
>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/09/27
>/MN181034.DTL
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> One detainment forced a group of 20 Wisconsin anti-war activists to miss
>their
>> flight, delaying their trip to meet with congressional representatives by
>a
>> day. That case and others are raising questions about the criteria federal
>> authorities use to place people on the list -- and whether people who
>exercise
>> their constitutional right to dissent are being lumped together with
>> terrorists.
>>
>> "What's scariest to me is that there could be this gross interruption of
>civil
>> rights and nobody is really in charge," said Sarah Backus, an organizer of
>the
>> Wisconsin group. "That's really 1984-ish."
>> Federal law enforcement officials deny targeting dissidents. They
>suggested
>> that the activists were stopped not because their names are on the list,
>but
>> because their names resemble those of suspected criminals or terrorists.
>>
>> Congress mandated the list as part of last year's Aviation and
>Transportation
>> Security Act, after two Sept. 11 hijackers on a federal "watch list" used
>> their real names to board the jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon. The
>> alerts about the two men, however, were not relayed to the airlines.
>>
>> The detaining of activists has stirred concern among members of Congress
>and
>> civil liberties advocates. They want to know what safeguards exist to
>prevent
>> innocent people from being branded "a threat to civil aviation or national
>> security."
>>
>> NO ACCOUNTABILITY
>>
>> And they are troubled by the bureaucratic nightmare that people stumble
>into
>> as they go from one government agency to another in a maddening search to
>find
> > out who is the official keeper of the no-fly list.
>>
>> "The problem is that this list has no public accountability: People don't
>know
>> why their names are put on or how to get their names off," said Jayashri
> > Srikantiah, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of
>Northern
>> California. "We have heard complaints from people who triggered the list a
>> first time and then were cleared by security to fly. But when they fly
>again,
>> their name is triggered again."
>>
>> Several federal agencies -- including the CIA, FBI, INS and State
>Department
>> -- contribute names to the list. But no one at those agencies could say
>who is
>> responsible for managing the list or who can remove names of people who
>have
>> been cleared by authorities.
>>
>> Transportation Security Administration spokesman David Steigman initially
>said
>> his agency did not have a no-fly list, but after conferring with
>colleagues,
>> modified his response: His agency does not contribute to the no- fly list,
>he
>> said, but simply relays names collected by other federal agencies to
>airlines
>> and airports. "We are just a funnel," he said, estimating that fewer than
>> 1,000 names are on the list.
>>
>> "TSA has access to it. We do not maintain it." He couldn't say who does.
>> Steigman added he cannot state the criteria for placing someone on the
>list,
>> because it's "special security information not releasable (to the
>public)."
>>
>> However, FBI spokesman Bill Carter said the Transportation Security
>> Administration oversees the no-fly list: "You're asking me about something
>TSA
>> manages. You'd have to ask TSA their criteria as far as allowing
>individuals
>> on an airplane or not." In addition to their alarm that no agency seems to
>be
>> in charge of the list, critics are worried by the many agencies and
>airlines
>> that can access it.
>>
>> "The fact that so many people potentially have access to the list," ACLU
>> lawyer Srikantiah said, "creates a large potential for abuse."
>>
>> At least two dozen activists who have been stopped -- none have been
>arrested
>> -- say they support sensible steps to bolster aviation security. But they
>> criticize the no-fly list as being, at worst, a Big Brother campaign to
>muzzle
>> dissent and, at best, a bureaucratic exercise that distracts airport
>security
>> from looking for real bad guys.
>>
>> "I think it's a combination of an attempt to silence dissent by scaring
>people
>> and probably a lot of bumbling and inept implementation of some bad
>security
>> protocols," said Rebecca Gordon, 50, a veteran San Francisco human rights
>> activist and co-founder of War Times, a San Francisco publication
>distributed
>> nationally and on the Internet.
>>
>> Gordon and fellow War Times co-founder Jan Adams, 55, were briefly
>detained
>> and questioned by police at San Francisco International Airport Aug. 7
>after
>> checking in at the American Trans Air counter for a flight to Boston.
>While
>> they were eventually allowed to fly, their boarding passes were marked
>with a
>> red "S" -- for "search" -- which subjected them to more scrutiny at SFO
>and
>> during a layover in Chicago.
>>
>> Before Adams' return flight from Boston's Logan International, she was
>trailed
>> to the gate by a police officer and an airline official and searched yet
>> again.
>>
>> While Gordon, Adams and several of the detained activists acknowledged
>minor
>> past arrests or citations for participating in nonviolent sit-in or other
>> trespassing protests, FBI spokesman Carter said individuals would have to
>be
>> "involved in criminal activity" -- not just civil disobedience -- to be
>banned
>> from U.S. airlines.
>>
>> DEFINING AN ACTIVIST
>>
>> But, Carter added, "When you say 'activists,' what type of activity are
>they
>> involved in? Are they involved in criminal activity to disrupt a
>particular
>> meeting? . . . Do you plan on blowing up a building? Do you plan on
>breaking
>> windows or throwing rocks? Some people consider that civil disobedience,
>some
>> people consider that criminal activity."
>>
>> Critics question whether Sister Virgine Lawinger, a 74-year-old Catholic
>nun,
>> is the kind of "air pirate" lawmakers had in mind when they passed the
>law.
>> Lawinger, one of the Wisconsin activists stopped at the Milwaukee airport
>on
>> April 19, said she didn't get upset when two sheriff's deputies escorted
>her
> > for questioning.
>>
>> "We didn't initially say too much about the detainment, because we do
>respect
>> the need to be careful (about airline security)," the nun recounted. "They
>> just said your name is flagged and we have to clear it. And from that
>moment
>> on no one ever gave me any clarification of what that meant and why. I
>guess
>> that was our frustration."
>> Five months later, the 20 members of Peace Action Wisconsin still haven't
>been
>> told why they were detained. Even local sheriff's deputies and airline
>> officials admitted confusion about why the group was stopped, when only
>one
>> member's name resembled one on the no-fly list.
>>
>> At the time, a Midwest Express Airlines spokeswoman told a Wisconsin
>magazine,
>> the Progressive, that a group member's name was similar to one on the list
>and
>> "the (Transportation Security Administration) made the decision that since
>> this was a group, we should rescreen all of them."
>>
>> At a congressional hearing in May, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold pressed
>FBI
>> Director Robert Mueller about the Milwaukee incident, asking him pointedly
>for
>> an assurance that the agency was not including people on the list because
>they
>> had expressed opinions contrary to the policies of the U.S. government.
>>
>> Mueller's response: "We would never put a person on the watch list solely
>> because they sought to express their First Amendment rights and their
>views."
>>
>> DATABASE OF SUSPICION
>>
>> The law orders the head of the Transportation Security Administration to
>work
>> with federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies to share database
>> information on individuals "who may pose a risk to transportation or
>national
>> security" and relay it to airlines, airports and local law enforcement. It
>> also requires airlines to use the list to identify suspect passengers and
>> "notify appropriate law enforcement agencies, prevent the individual from
>> boarding an aircraft or take other appropriate action."
>>
>> In November, Nancy Oden, a Green Party USA official in Maine, wound up
>being a
>> suspect passenger and was barred from flying out of the Bangor airport to
>> Chicago, where she planned to attend a Green Party meeting and make a
>> presentation about "pesticides as weapons of war."
>> Oden said a National Guardsman grabbed her arm when she tried to help a
>> security screener searching her bags with a stuck zipper. The middle-aged
>> woman, who said she was conservatively dressed and wore no anti-war
>buttons,
>> said the guardsman seemed to know her activist background.
>> "He started spouting this pro-war nonsense: 'Don't you understand that we
>have
>> to get them before they get us? Don't you understand what happened on
>Sept.
>> 11?"
>>
>> Airport officials said at the time that Oden was barred from boarding
>because
>> she was uncooperative with security procedures, which she denies.
>>
>> Instead, Oden pointed out that the American Airlines ticket clerk -- who
>> marked her boarding pass with an "S" -- had acknowledged she wasn't picked
>by
>> random.
>>
>> "You were going to be searched no matter what. Your name was checked on
>the
>> list," he said, according to Oden.
>>
>> "The only reason I could come up with is that the FBI is reactivating
>their
>> old anti-war activists' files," said Oden, who protested the Vietnam War
>as a
>> young office worker in Washington, D.C. "It is intimidation. It's just
>like
>> years ago when the FBI built a file about me and they called my landlord
>and
>> my co-workers. . . . They did that with everyone in the anti-war
>movement."
>>
>> A TOOL FOR TERROR
>>
>> In his testimony before Congress, Mueller described the watch list as an
>> necessary tool for tracking individuals who had not committed a crime but
>were
>> suspected of terrorist links.
>>
>> "It is critically important," he said, "that we have state and locals
>(police)
>> identify a person has been stopped, not necessarily detained, but get us
>the
>> information that the person has been stopped at a particular place."
> >
>> None of this makes the peace activists feel any safer -- about flying or
>about
>> their right to disagree with their government.
> >
>> "It's probably bad for (airport) security," said Sister Virgine. "Stopping
>us
>> took a lot of staff away from checking out what else was going on in that
>> airport."
>>
>> Ultimately, she said, "To not have dissent in a country like this would be
>an
>> attack on one of our most precious freedoms. This is the essence of being
>an
>> American citizen -- the right to dissent."
>>
>> E-mail Alan Gathright at agathright at sfchronicle.com.
>>
>>
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--
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
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