My nephew (28) flew from Ft.Lauderdale through Atlanta with ORD as the final destination. Upon boarding the plane, before take-off, he needed to go the bathroom. He went back to his seat. He was seated 3 across. The row on the other side was empty, so he moved over. They announced that everyone should be in their seats, so he moved back. After a few minutes 2 guards went on board and asked him to deplane. He was told that a passenger thought his behavior looked suspicious. It does not help that my nephew, an Israeli born offspring of an Israeli mother and American father (my brother) was given the name AMIR, which means prince in Hebrew. It is also an arabic name. He was not questioned extensively at that point, but given a plane ticket for a flight 2 hours later. He saw that there was a flight that left an hour sooner, and asked the ticket agent if he could get on this flight. Again, after being seated, he was asked to deplane. Again the behavior was considered suspiciou. At this point 7 police officers interrogated him, looked through his luggage extensively, and confronted him on his name - how would he have it. He explained. His parents live in Canada, and he also a Canadian citizen, but he travels on his American passport - an American by virtue of his father being American. They questioned why he had citizenship as a Canadian. They finally released him and allowed him to fly, with 2 marshalls on either side of him. His life was suspicious. So, a jew, grandchild of holocaust survivors, as American as you can get, became a suspicious character, I think because his name is AMIR. Profiling at it's best. He was glad that security is heightened, however he said, he was never patted down, and if, in fact, he was a hijacker could have had something in his shoe or back pocket. Perhaps they would have frisked him if after interrogating him they remained suspicious. They gave him no apology in the end. He was even wearing red, white and blue.
So be careful!

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DtG

This story even made the news over here, it seems that the amount of tension is so big that even someone that want another seat is being seen as "a threat".

I find it deeply saddening that he was picked up because of his colour, his name or his race, I sincerely hope that the world will learn that not everyone who looks or acts different is to be considered dangerous...

Unfortunately this won't be the last time an
innocent person is "profiled" and what really bothers me is there is nothing we can do about it. I'd almost rather drive, when possible, or stay home than go through the hassle. I hope Amir doesn't think his experience is representative of all travelers.

my sister sent an email saying that she was in India, trying to get back home...was told that the U.S. embassy there was closed, and guarded with soldiers with machine guns (dunno this was true or not)

born in Indonesia, holding a U.S. passport,
her name is FATIMA, but she is Chinese!

should i start worrying?

Could be the same scenario. Tell her to go to the bathroom before boarding the plane, and not to change seats. Except for my nephew's first name he is tall, blond and white. So, anyone with a name that doesn't sound American may be at risk. Yes, Fatima is an arabic name: we ALL have to be careful.

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DtG

This is pretty much what is termed Type 1 and Type II errors in quality control.

On the one hand, if the inspection/test is not tight enough, you may allow bad units to go through.

On the other hand,if the inspection/test is tighter, you may allow actual good units to be rejected.

You cannot be 100% accurate and effective. Obviously the pendulum at this time is going to tighter inspections from a probably too loose situation previously.

I supposed in the short run that kind of over-reaction is excusable, but if it continues for your nephew, I would be very concerned. Somewhere there is an article about the U.S. government urging people to call in and report any discrimination against them. But who do you call when the government is the one doing it?

It is a shame that your nephew and others of Middle Eastern decent are "suspicious". They are not, they are just being discriminated against legally. This a shame and needs to come to a stop immediately. "Middle Eastern looking" people are now getting a lot of flack for some security agents not doing their jobs. How many "McVeighs" in America ever got stopped in an airport?

It also exists at least in European Catholic Christianity (which some fundementalists would deny is christianity) as a name associated with one of the Virgin's latest miraculous appearance.

The point is that other languages or cultures that use a name won't matter to them - what matters is that it is ALSO an arabic name, not exclusively an arabic name. That is how narrow the "profiling" is.

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DtG

Indeed, we all expect a lot of people with names that appear to be Arabic to be profiled. What is vile and disturbing is the number of FTers who support it as an expeditious and efficient way of increasing security.

So if you use American name, and stay in your seat, you will not look suspicious, and therefore not be stopped.

Our non-security at it's best.

(It never ceased to amaze me that in the few times my pager or PC was hand inspected at an airport, I was asked to make the pager "beep" and turn the PC on and have a screen come on, both of which were "proof" to the security people that they were not a bomb. This of course assumes that a terrorist putting a bomb into the shape of a PC or beeper is too stupid to make them beep or have a screen come up.)

If security only catches the obvious, stupid criminals, it is no security. And in all the announcements, I haven't read where they fired the lot of them and hired smarter people for more money than minimum wage.

belle,

Given your sister's mix of passport, citizenship, place of birth, name, departure from India, etc. she probably will be questioned, especially by a US carrier.

But I certainly wouldn't worry about her.

What scares me is that any passenger can identify another passenger as "looking suspicious" and have security come get them. Seems to me some pax who had a beef with another pax in the terminal (ie; line cutting or something) could make up a story just to retaliate. There needs to be some sort of line drawn here as to this sort of behavior

And if we were worried about Ireland attacking us, every Meagan and Sean would be interrogated too. And I agree terenz, that some FT's (or anyone) thinks this is OK. This is a false sense of security as the energy will be used up with lots of dead end leads. I thought the same thing. Mean spirited people could express "suspiciousness" over someone they just don't like - based on a "look" they don't like - colored hair, ring in nose, long hair or shaved head, or three piece suit. Since these hijackers used their real names - comparing all names to a "list" of criminals would be fine. They certainly had this list for draft evaders during the Viet Nam was. My brother was on that list.

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DtG