http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100211/ts_alt_afp/usattacksrightsarabic

Student detained over Arabic flashcards, lawsuit says

Quote :

"WASHINGTON (AFP) – Federal agents handcuffed, detained and "abusively" interrogated a US student at Philadelphia International Airport because he was carrying Arabic flashcards, a lawsuit claimed Wednesday. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against FBI agents, police and others on behalf of Nicholas George, saying the 22-year-old was held for nearly five hours at the airport in August and missed his flight back to school in California as a result. The complaint also linked his arrest at an airport screening checkpoint to a book critical of US foreign policy that he was carrying -- "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions," by Clyde Prestowitz. US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners detained George and he was "abusively interrogated" by a TSA supervisor, who asked him about his views on the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to the complaint filed in the US District Court in Philadelphia. George was asked whether he knew "who did 9/11," what language Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden spoke and why the English-Arabic flashcards were "suspicious." He was then handcuffed and left in a locked cell for two hours before two FBI agents interrogated him for half an hour, the ACLU said, adding that their client was never informed of his rights or told why he was being held. George, a senior physics and Middle Eastern studies major at Pomona College, was questioned about his travels to Muslim and Arabic-speaking countries, including Jordan where he spent a semester studying abroad, and who he met there. "As someone who travels by plane, I want TSA agents to do their job to keep flights safe," he said in a statement. "But I don't understand how locking me up and harassing me just because I was carrying the flashcards made anybody safer." The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for alleged violations of George's constitutional rights to free speech and to be free from unreasonable seizure. George has studied Arabic since his first year at university "in order to be able to read and understand what was being reported and debated in contemporary Middle Eastern newspapers, television programs and other publications or media," the lawsuit explained. The flashcards he had with him, which have an English word on one side and its Arabic equivalent on the other, are widespread. "Nick George was handcuffed, locked in a cell for hours and questioned about 9/11 simply because he has chosen to study Arabic, a language that is spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world," said Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "This sort of harassment of innocent travelers is a waste of time and a violation of the Constitution.""

Yup, if you know Arabic, you must personally know OBL!

Lock those motherfuckers up.

The latest weapon of Muslim Jihadists and their sympathizers:

Quote :

"The flashcards he had with him, which have an English word on one side and its Arabic equivalent on the other, are widespread."

They will cut you with the cards, bitch!


[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 11:23 AM. Reason : ]

2/12/2010 11:00:12 AM

Disband the TSA

2/12/2010 11:05:57 AM

Quote :

"George was asked whether he knew "who did 9/11," what language Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden spoke and why the English-Arabic flashcards were "suspicious.""

Were they interrogating him to see if he watches CNN or what?

Also, what % of the monetary gains does this kid actually get and what % is 'willfully donated' to the ACLU?

[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 11:17 AM. Reason : .]

2/12/2010 11:16:05 AM

I'm glad the ACLU is there for stuff like this

^Just doing a quick google search, I came across this:

Quote :

"If the ACLU wins a case argued by one if its attorneys, it can sue for recovery of attorneys' fees. Government officials, agencies and institutions are often immune to this sort of recovery, but not always (it depends on the applicable laws and the nature of the civil rights violation)."

2/12/2010 11:25:40 AM

This was exactly what Osama Bin Laden was intending in his terrorist attacks. Activities like this discredit the legitimacy and credibility of our system and works right into hands of those who wish america ill.

2/12/2010 12:05:52 PM

TSA - The shittiest government agency since the DEA.

2/13/2010 12:28:48 AM

or BATFE

2/13/2010 10:08:42 AM

How odd. I've definitely taken my Arabic textbooks on a plane before with no issues. Horrible that this happened though.

2/13/2010 10:20:53 AM

OBL won. We would have given the soviets massive shit for stuff like this back in the day

2/13/2010 12:36:46 PM

better safe than sorry, I always say.

2/13/2010 2:56:04 PM

^^

2/13/2010 4:53:23 PM

^^Fat good that does us, considering we're no safer than before 9/11 but we're exponentially sorrier.

2/14/2010 11:17:02 AM

message_topic.aspx?topic=586691

2/16/2010 1:55:28 AM

Quote :

"Disband the TSA"

That will make it more effective.

Quote :

"considering we're no safer than before 9/11 but we're exponentially sorrier."

In what way are we sorrier?

2/16/2010 9:49:57 AM

^ we're sorry in that half the country goes into conniptions at the mere thought of allowing, for example, a highly guarded, completely detained prisoner just to set foot on American soil.

2/16/2010 10:01:29 AM

Are you suggesting that there was a time in US history when the public wasn't totally irrational about politics?

2/16/2010 10:12:57 AM

Quote :

"AMERICA's Transportation Security Administration is not a particularly popular institution. Airport security is a thankless job, so that's no surprise. But the TSA doesn't make its own job any easier when its employees do stupid things that any reasonable person could predict will turn into public relations nightmares. The latest example of a TSA employee's poor judgement is the story of Ryan Thomas, age four. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Daniel Rubin first drew attention to Ryan's story: Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces? Unfortunately, it's no joke. This happened to Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, who was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan. Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday. Making people with metal leg braces remove them and walk through metal detectors on their own power is breathtakingly stupid and insensitive. And it isn't even TSA policy. Instead, the boy should have been taken to "a private screening area where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials," a TSA spokeswoman told Mr Rubin. That sounds a bit unnecessary, as well, but at least it's not dangerous and humiliating. "

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2010/02/more_tsa_stupidity

Awesome.

2/21/2010 11:15:24 PM

^ I watched something similar happen the first time I went to Saipan. A Japanese couple was going through TSA with their disabled son. No one in the party spoke English. The TSA started getting uppity with the couple because they wouldn't remove his medical machine. I didn't understand why they didn't just move him into the private screening area.

2/22/2010 1:55:37 AM

see: /message_topic.aspx?topic=583332&page=1#13709301

2/22/2010 9:36:07 PM

nice

3/3/2010 11:12:55 PM

I flew out to Salt Lake City last week with a bunch of luggage (went on a ski trip). I had completely forgotten that in one of my carry on duffel bags I had a Leatherman tool. A tool that happened to have a 3 1/2 inch blade on it.

When did I realize I'd accidentally left this tool in my duffel bag? In Park City, Utah when I was unpacking my things.

Good job noticing that one TSA!

It's good to be a white male I guess

3/4/2010 10:37:24 AM

Fuck the idiots at the TSA

Gotta love people who would never be respected by anybody if not for laws, lol

3/4/2010 10:51:39 AM

^^ I am pretty sure you can have a knife in teh baggage that you check at the gate. I carried my knife to NYC, I did almost leave it in my carry-on bag the day i left, but in my checked baggage it did not have a problem.

3/4/2010 6:30:44 PM

^umm...

Quote :

"I had completely forgotten that in one of my carry on duffel bags I had a Leatherman tool"

3/5/2010 8:24:19 AM