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FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><A
href="http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/4108036.htm">http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/4108036.htm</A><BR><BR></FONT><FONT
lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana color=#000000
size=2>Posted on Thu, Sep. 19, 2002 <BR><BR></FONT><FONT
lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana color=#000000
size=4><B>Profiling charged on 'nightmare' flight</B></FONT><FONT lang=0
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana color=#000000
size=2><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana
color=#666666 size=2><B>A doctor on Delta Flight 442 was detained by U.S.
marshals.<BR></B></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"
face=Verdana color=#000000 size=2><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana color=#666666 size=0><B>By THOMAS
GINSBERG</B></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana
color=#000000 size=2><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"
face=Verdana color=#666666 size=0><B>Philadelphia Inquirer</B></FONT><FONT
lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana color=#000000
size=2><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"
face=Verdana color=#000000 size=2><BR>The incident on Delta Flight 442 was scary
enough last month: U.S. marshals seized an unruly passenger, then one aimed a
pistol at other passengers for a half hour and shouted at them to stay
seated.<BR><BR>The event, however, didn't end there. Unknown to most passengers
on the Atlanta-to-Philadelphia flight, the marshals upon landing also seized an
Indian passenger from first class and silently whisked him away in
handcuffs.<BR><BR>Far from being a terror suspect, the second detainee turned
out to be a former U.S. Army major and military doctor from Lake Worth, Fla.,
where he has had a family practice for two decades. Both detainees later were
released without charge, and the physician's angry account of his ordeal offers
a glimpse at the dark side of America's war on terrorism.<BR><BR>Yesterday,
suggesting that the line between security and civil-rights violations is
blurring, the physician, Bob Rajcoomar, filed notice in U.S. District Court that
he may sue the U.S. government for illegal detention and emotional distress. His
wife had been left to wander the Philadelphia airport for three hours during his
detention, never told of his whereabouts.<BR><BR>"This is blatant racial
profiling," Rajcoomar, a naturalized citizen since 1985, said by telephone from
Florida. "They think they can pick up anybody, willy-nilly... . It's not in
keeping with traditions of the United States."<BR><BR>David Steigman, a
spokesmen for the newly created U.S. Transportation Safety Administration, which
oversees the air marshals, gave few details about the detentions or the
marshals' actions and declined to discuss the potential lawsuit. Atlanta-based
Delta did not comment on the legal action.<BR><BR>Rajcoomar, "to the best of our
knowledge, had been observing too closely. When the aircraft landed, the airline
declined to press charges" against either man, Steigman said.<BR><BR>Stefan
Presser, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania,
which filed the lawsuit notice, called the detention a civil-rights violation
that should "send a wake-up call to Americans before it's too late... . In our
haste to protect ourselves, we are literally turning on each other."<BR><BR>The
dramatic hours on Aug. 31 aboard Delta Flight 442 started when a passenger from
Philadelphia - described as waiflike and disturbed - caused alarm when he began
looking at other passengers' luggage.<BR><BR>Two U.S. air marshals rushed back
from their first-class seats to investigate. The marshals were later identified
by police as Shawn B. McCullers and Samuel Mumma, assigned to the regional
Transportation Safety Administration office in Atlantic City, which declined to
discuss the case.<BR><BR>"Air marshals issued a series of warnings to passengers
to stay in their seats. The unruly gentleman didn't stay in his seat, so they
took action to restrain him," Steigman said.<BR><BR>Rajcoomar, sitting in window
seat 1-D, reading a book and sipping a beer, said he knew nothing until the
marshals showed up and began pushing the unruly man into seat 1-C, adjacent to
his.<BR><BR>Alarmed, Rajcoomar said he stood up and asked to be moved. A flight
attendant told him to take one of the first-class seats vacated by the
marshals.<BR><BR>"One [marshal] sat on the guy in the first seat; he was
groaning, and the more he groaned, the more they twisted the handcuffs,"
Rajcoomar said.<BR><BR>Then, in coach class, a woman rose to switch seats with
her child, who was sitting in an aisle seat, according to Rajcoomar's wife,
Dorothy, who was sitting in coach class because the couple could not get seats
together.<BR><BR>"That's when they started hollering," Dorothy Rajcoomar said of
the marshals. One of them rushed to the divider between the first-class and
coach sections and leveled his pistol at the coach-class passengers.<BR><BR>"He
took control as if he was a terrorist himself," said Bob Rajcoomar, who was then
sitting in a first-class aisle seat directly in front of the marshal. "He says,
'Nobody move, nobody look down the aisle, nobody take pictures or you will go to
jail, nobody do anything.' He basically hijacked everybody."<BR><BR>One
passenger, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge James Lineberger, said marshals
"were yelling at passengers to keep their heads and hands out of the aisle... .
I couldn't believe they would do such a thing."<BR><BR>Bob Rajcoomar said he,
like every other passenger, was watching the marshal but never spoke to
him.<BR><BR>About 30 minutes later, the plane landed and Philadelphia police
officers came aboard to help take away the unruly man. Thinking the incident was
over, passengers began standing up, Rajcoomar said.<BR><BR>"Then out of nowhere,
hell broke loose," Rajcoomar said. "One of these marshals came down to me and
said, 'Head down, hands over your head!' They pushed my head down, told me to
bend down... . I just couldn't believe it. I was speechless, in
shock."<BR><BR>Unseen by his wife 30 rows back, Rajcoomar was whisked off the
plane, taken to an airport police station, and locked in a cell he called so
filthy "I wouldn't even put my dog in it."<BR><BR>During detention, Rajcoomar
said, he was never asked anything except his name, address and Social Security
number. He asked why he was being held.<BR><BR>"One of the marshals said
something like, 'We didn't like the way you looked,' " Rajcoomar recalled. "They
also said something like, 'We didn't like the way you looked at us.'
"<BR><BR>Finally, after about three hours, Rajcoomar was released without
explanation.<BR><BR>"It was like a nightmare," Rajcoomar said. "The marshals
were completely out of control... . If they had pulled the trigger, we'd all be
dead. I don't feel safe knowing they're there, not with this kind of
behavior."<BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana
color=#000000
size=2>------------------------------------------------------------------------</FONT><FONT
lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana color=#000000
size=2><I><BR>Contact Thomas Ginsberg at 215-854-4177 or </FONT><FONT lang=0
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana color=#0253b7
size=2>tginsberg@phillynews.com</FONT><FONT lang=0
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana color=#000000 size=2>.
</I></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Verdana
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