IP: Re: a couple of things

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> 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 things
> > >
> > > First, 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=Computers
>
> Yemeni 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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