http://education.guardian.co.uk/high...529297,00.html

"Zaki Badawi, head of the Muslim College in London, flew to New York on Wednesday to give a high profile lecture at the city's Chautauqua Institution. He was denied entry at JFK airport, detained for six hours and then forced to return home. It makes him the latest in a line of high profile European Muslims to be refused entry to the US."

Note that this and other stories I've seen all point out that "he was given an honorary knighthood, and in 2003 was a guest of the Queen at a state banquet for the US president, George Bush." Mr. & Mrs. Tony Blair were also present at that banquet.

A thread on this subject was started here yesterday. It didn't gain enough interest for any replies.
We'll keep this one open as long as the discussion revolves around DHS policy and not the usual political/religious debate on Muslims.
Thanks for your cooperation.

________________________

Cholula
Travel Safety/Security Forum Moderator

The British press is reporting that he received an apology from the US Embassy in London and was being promised a visa for future use.

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1648142005

Apparently the first official guest of the new US Ambassador to the UK.

More on "The Border Mentality"

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/edi...der_mentality/

Yet another example of no accountability from the DHS/TSA. How is it possible that the US Embassy in London cannot determine why he was refused entry? This is government matter so there must be reams of paperwork generated to refuse a person entry into the USA.

Somebody should be fired.

ICE/BCP personnel, even at the near entry-level, can cause quite a bit of inconvenience and then some. "Border mentality" at its worst can be significantly worse than what he experienced (and a paper trail might not always exist to document any and all incidents/events).

For an example of "border mentality" at work: Most any "apparent" "illegal immigrant" coming across the US-Mexico border into the US that is of Arab or South Asian origin routinely triggers an FBI+ response soon after detention. A person who doesn't fit certain racist profiling characteristics gets more routine treatment -- no joy either. However, hundreds of Mexicans and Central Americans (amongst others) that were confused by ICE/BCP for "A-rabs" ("invading from the South") have gotten an FBI+ "grilling"; some have even shared a good laugh at the expense of some ICE/BCP employees who thought Spanish and Arabic were not readily distinguishable languages.

I doubt there's much of a paper trail, just a single form filled out by this "junior official". He/she probably got no more than a mild rebuke, maybe even an implicit attaboy. No way anybody is going to get fired, no way the DHS is going to admit to a mistake or apologise.

Sadly, this is just another example of the lack of accountability and abuse of authority in the Name of Security�.

So a high-profile person gets turned away for no reason and gets an apology and invitation to return. What do the low-profile people who get turned away for no reason get?