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<DIV><FONT size=2>(My ginsu is just not big enough to cut through the
irony.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Tuesday, August 3, 2004 · Last updated 2:57 p.m.
PT<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Iraqis on tour banned from Memphis hall<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>THE ASSOCIATED PRESS<BR>MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Iraqis visiting on a
civil rights tour were barred from city hall after the city council chairman
said it was too dangerous to let them in.<BR>The seven Iraqi civic and community
leaders are in the midst of a three-week American tour, sponsored by the State
Department to learn more about the process of government. The trip also includes
stops in Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago.<BR>The Iraqis were scheduled to
meet with a city council member, but Joe Brown, the council chair, said he
feared the group was dangerous.<BR>"We don't know exactly what's going on. Who
knows about the delegation, and has the FBI been informed?" Brown said. "We must
secure and protect all the employees in that building."<BR>Elisabeth Silverman,
the group's host and head of the Memphis Council for International Visitors,
said Brown told her he would "evacuate the building and bring in the bomb
squads" if the group entered.<BR>"They are in charge of setting up processes in
their country. They have to educate themselves about how it works in this
country," Silverman said.<BR>Silverman did not immediately respond to a message
Tuesday seeking comment, and it was not clear whether the group had run into
trouble elsewhere on their tour.<BR>But the delegates seemed in good spirits
Monday, after they were able meet with Carol Chumney, the city council member,
elsewhere. Shahla Waliy, a 31-year-old native of Baghdad, said she was intrigued
by the city's civil rights history.<BR>"I heard there was a kind of
majority-minority conflict in Memphis, especially in history," she said. "We
have these smaller provinces, and we have majority-minority conflicts in these
places."</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>