Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Re: a couple of things
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 12:36:00 -0400
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 09:18:18 -0700 From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari () OLTECO com>Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 07:56:03 -0700 To: David Farber <dave () farber net> From: "Joseph C. Pistritto" <jcp () jcphome com> Subject: a couple of thingsFirst, I heard on a local station last night that a Yemeni diplomat and his party were detained at SFO for several hours yesterday (in handcuffs even) by local police when one of them showed a number of passports at checkin at the airport. The diplomat was Yemen's "honorary consul" in San Francisco. (I'm not sure if honory consular people in Yemen are actually real diplomats from the home country or not). He was interviewed on the air though. Interestingly, i cant find any reference to this on either of the local radio stations website that i heard similar stories on. (KSJO AM560 and KCBS AM740). But maybe it scrolled off. Apparently the local police held him and the group until the FBI could come down to the airport and verify his diplomatic identity and then let him go.It didn't scroll off...it's still there in the "LocalNews" headlines section:http://www.kcbs.com/pages/kcbs/news/news_story.nsp?story_id=23875243&I D=kcbs&scategory=ComputersYemeni Diplomat Calls SFO Incident Discrimination Source: kcbs Publication date: 2001-09-27 (KCBS) - The detaining of several Yemeni citizens at San Francisco International Airport a few days after the September 11th attacks has created an international stir. KCBS reporter George Harris says officials in Yemen are demanding an investigation. SFO police Sergeant Lawrence Ratti said a ticket agent became alarmed on September 17th, when a passenger bound for the Middle East was seen with several passports. "We had two calls for service, and that's how the officers got there," he said. "They weren't just picked out, because of any ethnicity or any reason like that." "The officers, when they responded, were confronted by six individuals. For officer safety reasons, they had to handcuff several of the individuals," he said. A member of the party was Yemen's honorary Counsel to San Francisco. Monsieur Ishmael was at the airport to say goodbye to a family returning to Yemen. Once the FBI arrived to verify his status as a diplomat, Ishmael was let go. The incident reached the U.S. State Department. Even the President of Yemen has heard about it. "I did send a letter to the Mayor's office. I sent a letter to the chief of police. I called the State Department," said Ishmael. "Of course the Yemen government knows about it. The foreign minister knows about it. Even the president himself knows about it." Ishmael said, "I believe this is discrimination." But Ratti said, "absolutely not." _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ You can't depend on your judgement when your imagination is out of focus. -- Mark Twain. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ OLTECO Ari Ollikainen P.O. BOX 20088 Networking Architecture and Technology Stanford, CA Ari () OLTECO com 94309-0088 415.517.3519
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- IP: Re: a couple of things David Farber (Sep 28)