Muslim couple's trip to California, Nevada turns into nightmare

[cali]

This is an AWFUL story. It has me steaming.

German national Majed Shehadeh and his wife, Joanne Mulligan, decided that when they visited their daughter in California for the holidays, they would fly through McCarran International Airport.

The Muslim couple wanted to avoid Los Angeles International Airport because two years ago, federal authorities detained them for 4 1/2 hours.

Mulligan arrived from Germany first, on Dec. 17, and the U.S.-born traveler cleared customs swiftly. She went on to her daughter's Bakersfield, Calif., home, then returned to Henderson to visit her aunt, Louise Langlois, before heading to the airport to pick up Shehadeh last Thursday .

The Lufthansa charter aircraft her husband was flying on landed shortly after 2 p.m. But her husband of 30 years wasn't to be found.

She waited and waited. She asked an official with Condor, the charter company. Eventually, the official told her Shehadeh, who is of Syrian descent, had been detained.

She said that as she waited for her husband she flashed on events of two years earlier, when the two had flown over together for daughter Majida Shehadeh's wedding. Now the occasion was her anniversary, and her admission to the California State Bar.

Snip

http://www.lasvegasun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2007/jan/03/566645148.html

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Holy crap!

Read the whole thing, people, and spread this around!

[cali]

2. Thanks for adding that

I meant to put a strong rec that people read the whole thing in my OP. I'm so outraged by this I feel like I'm sputtering.

[iconoclastic cat]

15. Can you post this at dKos?

If you can't, let me know and I will.

[cali]

18. Go for it. I'd be most glad. n/t

[iconoclastic cat]

20. Done

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/3/143243/9084

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Good question at the end:

"If he was a bad guy, why did they let him go? If he was a good guy, why didn't they let him join his family?"

[pitohui]

10. well i think the answer is fairly obvious

they must think they have reason to believe he's a bad guy but they don't have sufficient evidence to charge him and bring him to trial -- in that case, they have no option but to deport the person since they can't charge him with any crime nor would it be fair to hold him indefinitely without charging him

what i wonder about is how often they have the wrong person or how often their information is just plain bad

fbi back in the 50s and 60s had lots of wrong info on file about all kinds of people, no reason to think that investigators have suddenly become omniscient in the last 40 years or so

this article is told from the family's POV so we don't know the whole story but to me it sounds very much like people could be detained and deported and never have done anything wrong except have a name similar to another name on "da list"

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Or, as happened in several cases in Portland a few years ago,

the immigration officers were just looking for any excuse to detain and deport people. There were some real horror stories (people being deported for "refusing to answer questions," when they didn't speak English, and no interpreters were brought in, that sort of thing) until the head of the local immigration office was replaced.

[cui bono]

21. personally I don't believe they had any reason to believe that he's a bad guy

except for the fear and hatred that our evil pResident has instilled in so many people about Muslims.

We really need to find a way to educate people about the Muslim religion and its followers.

[geardaddy]

43. That's what I was thinking. n/t

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. We are becoming little monsters aren't we

[Lurking Dem]

5. Hell

He was probably on the damn list because of the LAST time they detained him without cause.

I think we should have a month where John Smith is put on the list and see how people like it.

[geardaddy]

47. Hee hee!

I love it!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. I'm ever so glad that Homeland Security is protecting us from aging German tourists.

And, that they're doing it in such a humane and just way. I feel so much safer.

"Land of the free(?) and home of the brave(?).

[libodem]

7. This IS an outrage!

It makes me so mad I have tears of frustration in my eyes. I can't stand for anyone to be locked-up without knowing why. I grieve for my missing America. My heart aches for the people in this story. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure of it.

[Nimrod2005]

11. Ditto, what a nightmare...............nt

[ThomCat]

8. They should be able to sue for that kind of treatment.

x(

Denied necessary medication for almost 2 days, detained and locked up for no reason, denied communication with his family, no access to an attorney, returned to German for no reason...

Events like this make me sick to my stomach. And this is OUR government doing this. :(

[pitohui]

12. we're talking about vegas pd as far as the conditions of the detention

he was placed in no. las vegas jail, good luck trying to bring a lawsuit against vegas pd

it is not "our" gov't, that part of it is local/county gov't

the whole thing is shitty, but i doubt he will be able to sue esp. if he ever plans to visit vegas again -- which he would have to do i think in order to sue

[ThomCat]

17. Did you read the article?

He was detained by Customs and Imigration. It doesn't say anything about the Los Vegas PD. Imigration has their own detention centers.

That makes this our government.

[cui bono]

23. Even if it were state govt, which it wasn't, do you really believe that the fed govt

doesn't influence local hysteria? Oh, it is our govt, no doubt about it, and they know exactly the fear and prejudice they are instilling in people against Muslims.

Not to mention the fact that the no fly lists are a f-ing joke. Did you ever see that 60 Minutes piece about that? It is unbelievable how incompetent this admin is.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Another direct result of the 'bush administration'. There was a time, not long ago, when

America acted with some common sense and valued fairness. No longer, the chimp and his crew have created a police state and turned Americans in to fearful nellies who are encouraged to hate anyone who isn't white and rich. I am so disgusted with this mess I find it hard to recall that just 6 years ago, people didn't act this way.

[helderheid]

13. HOLY SHIT.

[knitter4democracy]

14. WTF?! What a messed up system!

It's better to have a guy bleeding in a room of 25 other guys than to give him his meds? It's better to deport him than to actually do anything to keep anyone safe? It's better not to let his wife actually see him when she's right there at the facility? I would be furious!! I hope they fight this hard, and I hope they will publicize the heck out of this.

[Rosemary2205]

25. Publicity is a problem

Even the few Americans who will give a sneeze about this likely will never know about it because broadcast networks will likely never see fit to even mention it. They certainly haven't cared about reporting these kinds of abuses up to now. -- and from what I understand most Americans get their national news from the broadcast networks nightly 1/2 hr show.

[baldguy]

19. Lawsuit.

Homeland Security needs to have a few multi-million dollar judgments against them.

[Divernan]

39. Don't forget we taxpayers will be paying those multi-million$$$ judgments!

What we need is mega-Congressional oversight hearings resulting in public humiliation and embarassment of whichever political appointees/hacks wrote and implemented these asinine policies, followed closely by strict legislation replacing these adminstrative policies. Starting back with Ronnie Regan, presidents quit trying to get controversial laws passed and simply had the cabinet level heads of federal agencies "legislate" through intra agency regulations. Easy for them to do with rubber stamp Congresses and courts. Think of these regs as mini signing statements.

[DFLer4edu]

22. This is nothing new

What amazes me is how few people know it is going on and how even fewer care.

[1monster]

24. Shocking? Yes. Surprising? No. Remeber that just a week or so

ago, a U.S. Congressman was spewing venom because a duly elected Congressman, who happens to be of the Muslim religion, decided to us a Koran in his PRIVATE swearing in ceremony.

For all those who say that he who mentions the Nazis first loses: Ask the few survivors of the Holocaust left what the first steps were that led to it becoming illegal to be Jewish in Germany. Ask what the first steps were that made it illegal to be of Jewish descent in Germany and Europe.

Ask them how many understood at the beginning that it would lead to Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzek, and Majdanek and the "final solution."

The time to stop the kind of progression for Muslims that killed six million Jews is before it goes any further.

[cali]

26. Yep. Godwin's law applies to your comment.

Sorry, there really isn't a comparison, hideous as this is. It's been over 5 years since 9/11 and the U.S. has not instituted any laws discriminating against Muslims. Yes, this shit is ugly. No it's not comparable. Hell, it's not even comparable to what we did to Japanese Americans during WWII. You don't help anything with hysterical claims. People just stop listening.

[1monster]

27. No comparison? I'm not comparing to the end result, but the beginning

of the sanctions that made it acceptable to the German people. Only in today's case, it is not just the people of one country that are being conditioned. It is the people of the world.

We already have had Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, plus renditions of people from our own and other countries, and secret CIA prisons all over the world.

Maybe you should step back a bit and take a larger view.

Just because it is not happening in your view doesn't mean it is not happening.

Someone posted on DU yesterday and again today the FBI's report of witnessing torture and other crimes against the "detainees." We saw photos of some of what went on at Abu Ghraib. And I'm sure a lot more is going on than we are being told.

If the comparison is over the top, no real harm is done. However, if the comparison is valid and no one does anything to stop it, the harm is incalculable.

[LynnTheDem]

29. We won't wake up to the comparison UNTIL we have a body count that

matches or exceeds Hitler.

But I kinda think it's a bit bloody late by then.

[cali]

33. A comment that reflects

a pitiful knowledge of history.

[freefall]

38. Actually, it is your comment which reflects a pitiful knowledge of history

cali. LynntheDem and 1monster are right to make these comparisons. Coming from the original poster some of your subsequent comments are surprising. You appear to be deluding yourself about the significance of the actions you posted about. They clearly compare as similar to the actions of police states throughout history especially in their early stages. We need to be aware of, publicize and nip this behavior by government in the bud before we too find ourselves living in a police state. I for one am afraid of what we are becoming.

:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

Peace,

freefall

[LynnTheDem]

28. One day the world will ask, "How could Americans not have known?

How could Americans have let it happen?"

[BlueStorm]

30. So many Americans don't realize the shit that is going on now...

There are some that are so blind to what is going on around them. I keep telling my mom about Abu Gharib and Gitmo and the things that our president has done in the name of Democracy. She keeps telling me "Well, it isn't like what happened in Vietnam." and tells me about a photographer friend who had some gruesome photos of the war. When I mention the detainee abuses she just waves it off as "everybody does that, we're not perfect."

It's almost like she doesn't understand the scope of the issues going on as she claims to be.

Blue

[LynnTheDem]

31. We have such long yardsticks, too...

How many have the US gov disappeared/killed? A thousand? Well 911 killed 3000!

Ten thousand? Well we lost 52,000 in 'Nam!

One hundred thousand? Well we lost millions in WWII!

One million? Well Hitler killed...

And a news item from today; "We've killed fewer Afghan civilians than the Taleban have."

Oh well, that's all right then.

We can always find higher bodycounts to justify our own. And we see this as us being "better".

Oy.

[freefall]

37. I'll bet a lot of the world is already asking that question. n/t

[rpannier]

32. I'm glad he's alright physically

It's amazing how out all of this continues to spiral out of control and how they always get away with it in the name of National Security.
I guess one day we'll all wake up and hear how we've always been at war with Oceana and how war is peace.

[malaise]

34. This is fugging madness

Democracy my ass

[magellan]

35. This is NOT America

And god damn it I've had enough of reading about this sort of inhumane treatment of innocent people by Americans based on nothing but IGNORANT FEAR. I won't rest until this crap stops and those behind it are removed from power!!

[DRoseDARs]

36. Mulligan called Senators Reid and Feinstein as well as Rep. Berkley. Did any of them help?

Any of them?

[LibDemAlways]

40. Mr. Shehadeh's treatment was

extreme, unacceptable, and in violation of principles of basic decency not to mention the Constitution. Unfortunately, the government has used 9/11 as an excuse to foster the kind of environment in which detaining a person in such a manner is considered no big deal and perhaps even necessary by the average American.

A trip through airport security watching the sheep blindly accepting being felt up by strangers and tossing little hotel bottles of shampoo because anyone - a 90 year old Alzheimers patient hunched over in her wheelchair, a five-year-old clutching a stuffed Mickey Mouse, a college student returning home - is considered terrorist material. All bullshit.

The Bill of Rights is being used as toilet paper by the thugs in power and the average American is compliantly and unquestioningly refilling the roll.

[LuckyX]

41. Just got back from Mexico

To fly into the US they hardly look at your luggage. But when you get inside the US it's being checked 5 times and basically humilated in the process. "Get in line America" or else is what this is all about.

[LibDemAlways]

50. Welcome to DU.

I came pretty close to being arrested a couple of years ago when I protested some moron TSA goon playing with my bra straps after I pointed out the reason the metal detector went off was hardware in my ankle from an old injury. Instead of wanding the ankle, the "Homeland Security" Nazis pulled me out of line and publically played with my private parts while I watched an elderly woman nearby having her shoes yanked off and being hoisted out of her wheelchair. It's all bullshit and I called it as I saw it. If I ever have to go through airport "security" again, I swear I'm bringing a roll of toilet paper with a copy of the Constitution attached for these assholes to use while on their breaks.

[MountainLaurel]

51. I had the same thoughts this week

Flying home to visit my folks -- That we're being conditioned to think of waiting in line like lambs to the slaughter.

[wicket]

42. Effing infuriating!!!!

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[grace0418]

48. I would say UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE but it is unfortunately all too

believable under the BushCo regime. And yes, as others have said, excellent question posed at the end... if he was a bad guy, why did they let him go? If he was a good guy, why did they essentially deport him? Fucking assholes.

[mnhtnbb]

49. This is the tip of the iceberg until Bush is gone.