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发帖数: 29846 | 1 By Fred Lucas
November 1, 2011
(CNSNews.com) – While six-year-old girls and retired school teachers with
bladder cancer were subjected to intrusive pat-downs by Transportation
Security Administration officials at U.S. airports after Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab tried to detonate his underwear on a Northwest Airlines flight
on Christmas 2009, officials from Sudan--one of just four countries the
State Department lists as a state sponsor of terrorism--were “exempted from
enhanced screening” at airports, according to a State Department cable
obtained by CNSNews.com.
The cable indicates that Sudan, upset that its citizens traveling to the
United States would be subjected to increased scrutiny--as were those from
13 other countries--threatened to subject U.S. passengers traveling to Sudan
to the same stepped-up body pat-downs, bag checks and other security
measures.
“We will have to accord you the same treatment,” it quotes a Sudanese
official telling a U.S. diplomat in early 2010.
In response to the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound aircraft, the TSA on
Jan. 3, 2010 announced new security measures.
People headed for the U.S. holding passports issued by countries deemed to
harbor people who were terror risks, as well as anyone traveling to the U.S.
from or through those countries, were to face “enhanced screening” before
boarding their flights.
The countries listed were Sudan, Cuba, Iran and Syria – all designated
state sponsors of terror – as well as Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon,
Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.
According to the State Department cable dated Jan. 13, 2010, Robert
Whitehead, charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, had met with
a Sudanese foreign ministry official two days earlier. The Sudanese official
, whose name was redacted, expressed outrage that Sudan was included among
the 14 countries listed.
The cable said the Sudanese official “also expressed concern over whether
official delegations or government ministers would be subjected to the new
security procedures, given the upcoming trip to Washington for the
consultations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by GOS [Government
of Sudan] Finance Minister Awad Aljaz [REDACTED].”
“Asked whether Aljaz should be advised to cancel his trip, CDA [Whitehead]
responded that while government ministers were exempted from enhanced
screening under TSA guidelines, he could make no guarantee for treatment of
Aljaz by security personnel in transit countries,” the memo said.
The cable to the Secretary of State’s office was written by the political
officer at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Alexander Tatsis, and marked “
immediate.”
It is among several documents obtained by CNSNews.com through a Freedom of
Information Act request for information relating to Abdulmutallab's Detroit
bombing attempt.
The Transportation and Security Administration announced new security
measures in early January 2010, following the attempted bombing of a Detroit
-bound aircraft. (Logo: TSA)
Asked about the policy of exempting officials from state sponsors of terror
from enhanced screening at airports, TSA spokesman Kawika Riley said, “For
security reasons, the specific details of our security directives are not
public.”
“TSA uses multiple layers of security to reduce risk to aviation security
and the traveling public,” Riley said in a written statement. “Physical
screenings at the checkpoint are partnered with numerous other layers, such
as intelligence gathering and analysis, checking passenger manifests against
watch lists, federal air marshals and federal flight deck officers, and
other security measures both seen and unseen.”
A State Department spokesman did not respond to inquiries from CNSNews.com.
On Christmas Day 2009, Abdulmutallab, a 23 year-old Nigerian, tried to blow
up a passenger jet traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit. After he set alight
his explosive-laden underwear, passengers and security personnel were able
to stop him and put the fire out.
The TSA then announced the new security measures.
The State Department cable quotes the Sudanese foreign ministry official as
saying, “It’s not clear to us what these new procedures are.”
The official also “argued that Sudan should not have been singled out,
noting that GOS continues to cooperate closely with USG [U.S. government] on
counterterrorism issues,” it said.
The official warned Whitehead that Khartoum may impose the same enhanced
security measures on U.S. travelers to Sudan.
“We have been quite lenient in the past [toward Americans], but we will
have to accord you the same treatment,” the official was quoted as saying.
The TSA measures have been controversial at home.
News stories surfaced this year of a six-year-old girl and an eight-year-old
boy facing pat-downs and other enhanced screening tactics before boarding
flights.
In one reported incident, a retired school teacher and bladder cancer
survivor was humiliated in the Detroit Metropolitan Airport after a pat-down
burst his urostomy bag, leaving him covered in urine. |
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