----- Original Message ----- From: Eric V. Kirk To: Redbadbear at yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2001 3:12 PM Subject: Re: [Redbadbear] Green Leader's Harassment and "Detention" at Bangor Airport ...
"authorities said it was more likely due to the manner in which she purchased her ticket than for her activist past."
And then they say she bought her ticket online. I want to know if they will say for the record that they single out all passengers who buy their tickets that way. I seriously doubt it.
Eric
-----Original Message----- From: WSheasby at cs.com <WSheasby at cs.com> To: Redbadbear at yahoogroups.com <Redbadbear at yahoogroups.com> Date: Saturday, November 03, 2001 10:42 AM Subject: Re: [Redbadbear] Green Leader's Harassment and "Detention" at Bangor Airport ...
LEADER OF GREEN SPLINTER GROUP FIBS ABOUT AIRPORT HASSLE
In an official press release from its Chicago headquarters, the Greens/Green Party USA, a small splinter group that opposes recognition of the Green Party of the United States as the electoral voice of the movement that ran Ralph Nader for President in 2000, declared that one of its leaders was stopped from boarding a flight after a check turned up her name was on a computer list because the organization opposes the U.S. bombing of Afhanistan. The release said: <Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party USA coordinating committee member, Thursday at Bangor International Airport in Bangor Maine, as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight to Chicago. "An official told me that my name had been flagged in the computer," a shaken Oden said. "I was targeted because the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan."> The press release was relayed around the nation as a first signal of the reach of the new draconian Patriot Act. But it turns out that Nancy Oden was apparently not barred because of a computer check, but because she did not comply with standard screening for weapons. While who said what is not clear, it appears that her name was not flagged by a computer search of potential terrorists or their supporters, according to a news report in the Bangor Daily News on Nov. 3.
While the undue harassment of airline travelers is to be condemned, it does not seem that this incident warrants fears of a major violation of Constitutional guarantees of free speech, as it first appeared. The group that Nancy Oden leads is nevertheless using the incident to draw attention and support to itself. One member of the group's National Council urged: <The first thing to do is to organize a committee, include spokesperson/ spokespersons. Contact civil liberties organizations including the National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU ... Ask organizaitons to sponsor defense committee- Seek prominent attorney who may need to have a license to practice in Maine- Send releases out every day. Has Ralph Nader been contacted? What about Phil Donahue CONTACT TALK SHOWS. TRY TO GET POLITICIANS TO SUPPORT, Barbara Lee. Organizations in Maine who know Nancy and will back her up.>
If the incident had taken place as Nancy Oden described it, it would mean that other Green activists and leaders of other anti-war groups would also be on computer lists and barred from flying, which reportedly has not been the case. The exaggeration of her victimization may only serve to discredit opposition to the Bush Administration's attack on civil liberties.
It may also further isolate the Green Party USA, which saw a majority of delegates at its July 20 National Convention leave to form a new Green Alliance, which has its first convention in New Orleans January 18-21.
>From the Bangor Daily News, Nov. 3, 2001:
http://www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.html?ID=44958
Green Party activist denied Chicago flight
BANGOR — Green Party activist Nancy Oden was grounded at Bangor
International Airport on Thursday after reportedly becoming uncooperative
when she was targeted for additional screening.
Oden, who said she believed she was singled out for extra scrutiny because
of her activist past and public opposition to the current war effort, was
on her way to Chicago to attend a Green Party USA meeting when airline
personnel told her that she had been selected to undergo added security
screening before boarding.
“I was treated if I were guilty just because I’m a dissident and I speak out,” Oden, a middle-aged woman who sits on the party’s national coordinating committee, said from her Jonesboro home after she had abandoned her travel plans. “They’re looking at me like I’m a terrorist and I’m just a peaceful person trying to go to a meeting in Chicago.” Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, security has been tightened at all the nation’s airports — including BIA, where armed National Guardsmen monitor the screening area and passenger lists are checked against the FBI’s terrorist watch list.
Officials at BIA and American Eagle Airlines have a much different account of Oden’s afternoon run-in with the added security. “She was uncooperative during the screening process,” said American Eagle spokesman Kurt Iverson, who added that Oden reportedly would not stand still when security staff tried to wave a metal-detecting wand over her. “Obviously if they can’t submit to screening, [Federal Aviation Administration] regulations require that they not be allowed to board the plane.”
Oden said that while she asked security staff not to touch her with the wand, she did allow them to complete their search of both her person and her baggage. Oden said that she did pull away from a National Guardsman when he grabbed her left arm and asked her if she “knew what happened on September 11,” she said.
While acknowledging that Oden was singled out for added extensive screening, authorities said it was more likely due to the manner in which she purchased her ticket than for her activist past. Under newly adopted FAA regulations, more passengers — either randomly or based on a computerized profile — are being targeted for more intense screening during the boarding process.
While industry officials were unwilling to release the criteria under which they would profile a passenger, they said the criteria did not include federally protected characteristics such as race, religion, age or sex. Without providing details, interim airport director Rebecca Hupp said that the FAA guidelines “have more to do with the ticket than the person.” For instance, one airline official said, a passenger who pays cash for a ticket the day of the flight would likely undergo added scrutiny. Oden bought her nonrefundable ticket online, she said.
While an FBI spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny the presence of any name on the terrorist watch list — another trigger for added security response — one law enforcement source said it was “extremely unlikely” Oden was on the list of potential terrorists because her name is unknown to the FBI.
After the incident, Oden was told she could not take her scheduled flight to Chicago, and that she could not travel on any other airline at the airport that day.
“If I had done something wrong, they should have arrested me instead of denying me my right to travel,” an upset Oden said Friday. “We’re losing more of our rights and people don’t realize it.”
Viva la Causa Verde! Walt Contreras Sheasby
----- Original Message ----- From: wsheasby at cs.com Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2001 2:19 PM Subject: RE: [SLDRTY-L]: [CaliforniaGreenParty] Ex-Green attacks Nancy Oden
The Nov. 3 article from the Bangor Daily News seems to establish that Nancy Oden was not targetted because of having been flagged in a computer search. If that were the case, it would have profound consequences, and the small incident at the Bangor airport would be a harbinger of an even worse stampede toward a police state than Bush and the Republicrats have urged.
The exaggeration of the hassle caused by Nancy Oden's apparent ire at being screened (something we all sympathize with) into a case of being apprehended by a computer plugged into the FBI's Most Wanted List of terrorists and their supporters is indefensible, and the GPUSA owes an apology to all anti-war groups. Crying "wolf!" in these difficult times is very irresponsible. As far as is known at this time, no U.S. anti-war or anti-globalization have been put on the list created by the FBI for the Patriot Act implementation.
A similar alarmist report to GPUSA's has been made recently that the "Anarchist Faction" has been targetted on the new list. Actually, this is a specific group in Greece which has been responsible for bombings and assasinations. They have nothing whatsover to do with the anti-capitalist globalization protests. The full and proper name of the group is "The Anarchist Faction for Subversion."
The Patriot Act must be repealed, and the left must unify in demanding this from our representatives in Congress. But exaggeration has never been of any help, and paranoia only serves the cause of the "terrorists" holed up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Together we can smoke them from their cave, and that means a united campaign for the Presidency in 2004 by the Green Party of the United States and its supporters. And in 2002 there must be hundreds of anti-war candidates running as Greens. This will be our best chance to turn around public opinion and make sure that it is the hawks of war who are targetted as Public Enemies.
Viva la Causa Verde! Walt Contreras Sheasby