Student Detained at Airport Over Possession of Arabic Flashcards

by: Grace Huang, t r u t h o u t | Report

 Student Detained at Airport Over Possession of Arabic Flashcards
(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: lonelysandwich, ~Essence of a Dream~)

An American college student was detained for over five hours at a Philadelphia airport because he was carrying a set of English-Arabic flashcards, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Nicholas George, the 22-year-old senior attending Pomona College, said he was on his way back to school in August 2009 when he was stopped at an airport security screening point and told to empty his pockets by Transportation Security Authority (TSA) agents. He was carrying a set of English-Arabic flashcards that he used in his studies, which had English on one side and Arabic on the other.

According to the lawsuit, the agent asked George questions, including how he felt about 9/11, if he knew who did it and if he knew what language he spoke. After he answered, the agent held up the flashcards and asked, "Do you see why these cards are suspicious?"

Afterwards, a local Philadelphia police officer arrived, handcuffed George and walked him through a terminal to an airport jail cell. He was kept there for a total of four hours, with two spent in handcuffs and two without. Officers continued to examine his possessions, especially the flashcards and a student ID from when he studied abroad in Jordan.

According to the lawsuit, George was then interrogated by two FBI agents, one of whom asked George if he knew why he was being held. When he replied that he did not, the agent called him a "f---ing [sic] idiot." They then continued to ask questions such as whether he was Islamic or a member of any "pro-Islamic groups" on campus.

After half an hour, the agents eventually said to George, "Our job is more of an art than a science. The police call us to evaluate whether there is a real threat. You are not a real threat." They then said he was free to leave. The lawsuit also said that George never received an apology from anyone involved.

After he returned to the terminal, the airline told him that he would have to wait until the next day to fly out.

During the interrogations, George said, he tried to answer all questions fully without giving the agents attitude, thinking they would "just pass it by" because he had nothing seditious or dangerous on him. "I'm absolutely certain that I never raised my voice," he said. "I never got smart with them."

"Nick doesn't object and we don't object to the fact that he was searched closely, that his belongings were scrutinized," said Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, to CNN. "But once that's done, there's absolutely no justification for handcuffing him and locking him in a cell for several hours."

The lawsuit said that George was "never informed of why he was handcuffed, detained, or arrested," nor ever informed of his rights.

"Arresting and restraining passengers who pose no threat to flight safety and are not breaking any law not only violates people's rights, but ... may actually make us less safe, by diverting vital resources and attention away from true security threats," said Wizner.

According to CNN, a government official speaking on background said that George was detained for "anomalous behavior," after which local law enforcement was called in.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court by the ACLU on behalf of George, charged that the three TSA agents, two Philadelphia law enforcement members and the two FBI agents violated George's Fourth and First Amendment rights, or freedom from unreasonable seizure and right to free speech.

"Nick George was handcuffed, locked in a cell for hours and questioned about 9/11 simply because he has chosen to study Arabic, a language that is spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world," said Wizner. "This sort of harassment of innocent travelers is a waste of time and a violation of the Constitution."

Security technologist Bruce Schneier said in a Philly.com article that the incident was "just stupid" and that it should have taken the TSA "15 seconds" to determine that George was not a threat. However, the problem lies in how agents don't face a penalty for making a wrong call.

"If I detain someone and he's not a terrorist, nothing happens to me," Schneier said. "I'm probably praised. If I let him go and he is, my career is over. The TSA incentive is to overreact. Terrorism can't do this to us. I think only we can do this to ourselves."

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Grace Huang is an intern at Truthout.


Comments

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I have met kind, wonderful,

I have met kind, wonderful, intelligent TSA agents during my trips, and I have also met many psychopaths in search of someone, anyone, to bully. The former make me feel safe because I trust that they will actually be able to tell the difference between someone who means to hurt people, and someone who is flying for other reasons. The psychopathic TSA agents scare the living daylights out of me however, and they are the reason I dread flying; not only because I dread the undeserved abuse, but also because I do not trust them to be able to tell the difference between a harmless person and a terrorist.



What's that bell? It's

What's that bell?
It's nothing, mam, please step to the side.
Why?
Please step to the side immediately.
Why?
Please remove your shirt?
Why?
Please remove your bra?
Why?
Mam, what is that tattoo?
Huh?
What is that tattoo on your left breast,
is it an Arabic inscription?
No, it's a parrot!



Your federal government in

Your federal government in action-protecting YOU from "terrorism". Official US paranoia at its best. Arabic language skills might actually help in understanding terrorism. If the feds had half a brain, they'd get this.



Give the guy a job with

Give the guy a job with Homeland Security or the military. they've been short arabic language translators for years.



Yeah, speaking arabic is a

Yeah, speaking arabic is a crime - a crime that shows how stupid so many of our security people are. Ever wonder how terrorists are created? Crap like this - loss of respect and a genuine anger for being mistreated and abused.

What was this, if not abuse? What was the cause of this action? Unbelievable. It is like BWB - driving while black. Same kind of intolerance.

Hope he wins his court case and those INDIVIDUALS



Well that's one way to get

Well that's one way to get your college education paid for!



Don't think America couldn't

Don't think America couldn't become a police state. Just a little bit at a time, all for our own good. Uncontrolled government power is more of a threat to our freedoms than any external enemy.



We just don't get it.

We just don't get it. Incidents like this are treated by most "Americans" like they're supposedly isolated incidents when they are rampant, and getting worse all over the country, as well as all over the world for that matter.

"We" believe we've supposedly got to give up liberty for security. But now we live in a "national security" control state like Nazi Germany where everyone is presumed guilty until proven innocent, the exact opposite of our Constitutional rights.

And when Americans who have their eyes open and realize what's really going on say something like I've just said, they are labeled as supposedly "exaggerating", "paranoid", "crazy", "insane", etc.; and those who label them thus, refuse to believe that things are getting worse and worse though they are.

This is exactly the kind of ways that most of the German people thought as Nazism was rising to power; and, once in power, as they were gaining more and more power, and were eradicating more and more freedoms and civil liberties. Then, very soon, they were taking people away and exterminating them for simply criticizing the regime and the eradication of their liberties and freedoms.

Remember, there were at least four million other German citizens, besides the Jews, who were not Jewish, and who were shipped to the concentration camps and murdered for doing nothing but exercising human and civil rights. When history has repeated itself again and again, you believe that it supposedly can't happen in "America"? Think again. For this history is repeating, right now, in the United States!

The powers-that-be want exactly this kind of belief and denial. In fact, they are depending upon it in order to gain more and more, and worse and worse, inroads into eradicating our freedoms and liberties, and in order to get rid of all those who refuse to live in such denial and false beliefs, who realize what is really going on, who are standing up against for the sake of EVERYONE, and who are doing so for the sake of everyone's liberties and freedoms.

Just as designed, engineered and indoctrinated into us, we are in grave danger and most of us refuse to believe it. And, also just as the powers-that-be designed, most of "us" refuse to believe that IT IS THE DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL OF US TO STAND UP AGAINST ALL OF THIS; because, if most of us don't do so, just as the eradicators of freedom and liberty design, we very soon won't have any True Liberty(ies) and Freedom(s).

Most of the German people refused to believe the warnings of people like myself, to their own peril and the mass-murder of over ten million innocent people. And what is happening right now in the U.S. is how it started in Germany. The powers-that-be lied and said that the people had to give up liberty(ies) for freedom. They lied and said that there were "communists" and "terrorists", etc., around every corner. They lied and said that in order to be "protected", millions of completely innocent people who were falsely represented to be "threats to national security" had to be rounded up, taken away, and their lives destroyed.

Please completely wake up, People, and fulfill your responsibility(ies) and duty(ies) to stand up against all of this madness, or you will end up complicit, as most of the German people were, in the destruction of freedom, and worse, as the atrocities against human rights and civil liberties happen more and more in the U.S. itself, and get worse and worse, and unimaginable horrors manifest themselves more and more as well! It has already begun, and it is already beginning to happen.

PLEASE DON'T LET THIS AWFUL HISTORY, AND WORSE, REPEAT ITSELF! WAKE UP AND PUT A STOP TO IT BEFORE IT'S VERY SOON TOO LATE!

We the People DO have the power and the ability, en masse, to stop it. Please do it!



Support the ACLU with a

Support the ACLU with a membership and a donation. Just a suggestion for the ranter above.



amerikan becomes more of a

amerikan becomes more of a fascist police state every day !



S. Wolf Britain , nice

S. Wolf Britain , nice comment; but now go to the article at www.philly.com and read how many people actually applaud TSA; their view is basically that when Nick George said that 9/11 was complicated event, he should had been arrested for that alone. As one commenter sais, "I wouldn't want this guy in the seat next to mine on the plane".

There was an amazing video recently, shot by hidden camera, when the reporter was asking passersby to sign petition to repeal 1st amendment. Of course, the vast majority has signed; some of them have signed after having read it and apparently understood. The most very affirmatively nodded to the guys comments that it's time to stop those criticizing the government, that he was making while handling over the petition and pen.

The truth is, the number of Americans who actually appreciate the liberty and need the liberty is very small, and getting smaller every day. Let's face the truth. Try to discuss it not at the forum known to and visited by dedicated libertarians, but at your own work. Good luck finding one person in ten who will not side with the TSA.

I once posted at work the video "Busted", about how to protect your rights when stopped by the police. The reaction was very universal outrage - not at the police using their usual tricks to make up a crime, but at me and the very idea that someone would even contemplate anything but full cooperation with the police.

As sad as it is, these amendments are outdated in today's America, with today's population. Maybe that will change and the history will make another round of the spiral, but with today's trends, I won't be surprised if they indeed get repealed in the near future.



It's actually good that this

It's actually good that this happened to the student.

Maybe that's how he will learn that obedience to the thugs does not really buy anything. Only makes the thugs even more eager to attack you.

Maybe next time when he is asked what he thinks about 9/11, or anything else for that matter, he will say "it's not your f@@@ business what I think" - rather then trying to guess what answer is right in thug's mind.

Maybe next time when he is handcuffed, he will ask what for.

Maybe next time when he is interrogated without a shadow of probable cause, he will actually badmouth them, at least in response to their badmouthing and humiliating him without hesitation. Maybe next time he will feel something other than the desire to comply in the highest possible degree.

Maybe.



Speaking of ACLU... and

Speaking of ACLU... and supporting and donating to them... I would love to hear about one single lawsuit out of many that they have filed, that they ever won; and not settled with the offenders' admitting no wrongdoing, but actually won and thus created a precedent.

I recall, for example, they sued for Bush's "free speech zones". You'd think, there hardly could be more clearly anti-constitutional and obvious matter. Anybody heard about any result? or any other case where ACLU has actually achieved something?

Once I hear about one such case, I will surely consider "membership and a donation".



I am a member of the ACLU,

I am a member of the ACLU, and have been for several years, but, when I recently heard that they supported corporate personhood (can you believe that!?), I wished that I hadn't renewed my membership just a couple of weeks before. So I am probably not going to renew my membership the beginning of next year, unless they completely repudiate that stance and redeem themselves by totally standing up against it, including in courts of law all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Let's face it, most people are going mad, including civil rights attorneys and organizations. The restraining power of the Holy Spirit of God, that kept some semblance of sanity prevailing for awhile, is now being withdrawn and the whole country and world are going insane on an express train to hell on earth. Again, we ain't seen anything yet.



Actually 9-11 is a

Actually 9-11 is a complicated event. It is people turning it into a simple event that strikes fear in my heart. That is the path to endless aggression. Our reptilian brains are quite simple- aggression is met with more aggression.

The way to end this war is not with guns, planes, CIA hit squads and the like but with what these cards represent--- education and exchange.

Only when more Americans try to understand the Arab world can we begin to build bridges between these two cultures.

I would hope that more people would carry Arabic flashcards in their pockets and be prepared to say that 9-11 was a complicated event.



Duplicity , Treason and

Duplicity , Treason and Murder
AmeriKa , land of the free and home of the brave
Past tense
Soon to be engraved on the Statue of Liberty :
ABANDON EVERY HOPE , YE WHO ENTER HERE
Liberty and Justice for All -- I think not
It has become quite obvious over the years that our so called Justice Department is biased and corrupt to the core. Justice is swift when applied to the politically incorrect or to those who fell out of favor . But on the other hand there are certain groups that we favor and no matter what they do , spying on the U.S. for a foreign entity , grand theft and even MASS MURDER , it is white washed and they are released. The 2 pro Israeli spies Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman both worked for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee a.k.a. AIPAC were caught red handed and eventually released. Grand Theft ...Wall Street played fast and loose with investors life savings in order to enrich themselves. Instead of being arrested and put on trial , they were awarded with trillions of taxpayer dollars so that they could continue to give themselves hundreds of millions in bonuses. As far as MURDER is concerned , it occurred on June 8 , 1967 , 34 U.S. Sailors were murdered and 172 were gravely wounded in broad daylight and the murderers got away scott free , it was whitewashed by our government. Check out :
WWW.USSLIBERTY.ORG



For a site concerned with

For a site concerned with the truth you certainly left a lot of this story out.

For one thing, there was his student ID from Jordan. Then there was his passport with stamps from Sudan, Indonesia, Egypt, etc. His flashcards also had "bomb", "explosive", etc on them. He was also carrying stereo speakers in his carry-on.

Individually those things mean very little, but collectively they're going to raise some questions when someone is trying to board a plane.

So while this guy probably isn't a terrorist, and while TSA and the police might have been jerks, it seems foolish to use this kid as an example of how America is becoming a police state. I'm sure there are plenty of available examples if you're looking to make that kind of argument, but police *questioning* people who raise suspicions- justifiably in this case, I think- is completely reasonable. Police don't have to be 100%, without a doubt positive that someone is a terrorist before they question someone, and it would be incredibly foolish if they did.



You just don't get it,

You just don't get it, "CatH" and your ilk. The point is that we're more and more surrounded by "police" who presume all of us guilty until proven innocent (the complete opposite of the Constitutional REQUIREMENT, RIGHT AND DUTY); that are supposedly better than all of us who are not police and/or other employees of the government; and who's safety is supposedly more important than the safety, liberty and freedom(s) of The People, even though they are in the minority and we are in the vast majority, at least so far.

THAT is a very clear definition of what a police state is, and is very clear proof that we are being completely overrun by a police state, a "national security state" like the former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, fascist Spain, and the present China, where no one is truly free; everyone is controlled; and where very soon, if it isn't already occurring, innocent civilians will be "disappeared" and executed based on nothing but "presumption of guilt" and/or doing nothing but exercising their DUTY(IES) and right(s) of free speech to criticize the government and seek to be a check and balance on their abuse(s) of power, authority and discretion.

If the U.S. government can perpetrate it abroad, they can perpetrate it here in the U.S.; and, since they ARE doing it abroad, they WILL BE doing it very soon right here at home! Wake completely up and smell the fascism; and totally face that it is manifesting itself more and more right here in the U.S., in what used to be the freest country on earth! Stop rationalizing, defending and excusing their abuse(s) of discretion, authority and power! Call ALL evil by its right name(s)! Speak out and stand up against the flood of the evil fascist police state that is very fast taking over our country and world, and let's join en masse in stopping it or we're all fracked!



"police *questioning* people

"police *questioning* people who raise suspicions- justifiably in this case, I think- is completely reasonable."

If we replace this hypocritical *questioning* by de-facto *arresting*, then this is indeed the complete definition of the police state.