-Caveat Lector-
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 11:51:10 -0000
From: Misty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: SNET: Life In the U.S. Police State
-> SNETNEWS Mailing List
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "M. L. Hawkins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
November 12, 2001
My Day At the Airport
http://www.counterpunch.org/oden5.html
By Nancy Oden
On Thursday, November 1, 2001, I left my farmhouse on the North Coast of
Maine, where I'm an organic grower, and headed for the Bangor
International Airport in Bangor, Maine. I was dressed conservatively in a
long, brown skirt with a matching jacket and turtleneck sweater, no
jewelry, no buttons or other political indications attached, looking very
like other women my age in this part of the world.
I am a relatively well known environmental, social, and political activist
who has run for public office. It should be noted that, while I've been an
activist for over thirty years, I've never been arrested, nor has there
been anything in my life that would signal I meant harm to anyone. Also,
this was the third time this year I had traveled out of (or attempted to,
in this case) Bangor Airport on American Airlines using an e-ticket
purchased from Priceline.com bought weeks before with my own credit card.
They had no reason for profiling and singling me out. It had to have been
because of my political views which, of course, is not a good reason (see
U.S. Constitution's first Ten Amendments, otherwise known as the Bill of
Rights).
I was headed for Chicago for a Green Party USA National Coordinating
Committee meeting, where I was to speak the next night on biochemical
warfare and pesticides as weapons of war. I was also scheduled to
interview job applicants, present several proposals and financial
reports, and so on. I am a lead person on the National Coordinating
Committee of the Green Party USA (the original Green Party, although
there is now another which took a very similar name).
I arrived at the Bangor Airport the now-requisite two hours ahead of the
flight and walked in to the airport to the sight of a couple of dozen
National Guard troops carrying machine guns in their hands wandering
around the lobby. I walked down to the American Airlines ticket counter,
where there were no other passengers, and told the airlines ticket agent
my name. I was holding out my picture ID and the printed itinerary they
told us to bring, but he barely glanced at them. I remember thinking,
"Does he have a picture of me under that counter? Why didn't he look at my
ID?"
No one checked my ID at any time. They all knew what I looked like and, it
became clear, my antiwar stance. I am not that well known that they would
have known me on sight. Why were they briefed about me before I arrived at
the airport? What were they told? Was it the FBI or some other agency?
Which one?
The ticket agent spent an inordinate amount of time on his computer, then
finally produced a boarding pass with a large "S" written on it. I asked
him what that meant, and he said I had been picked to have my bags
searched. Well, one expects that now, so I said, "Oh, that's okay." But I
had a feeling there was more.
Since there was no one else around, I turned back to him and looked him in
the eye - he seemed a decent guy - and asked him, "My being picked wasn't
random, was it?" He hesitated a moment, but then said, "No, your name was
already flagged in the computer and you would have been searched in any
case." Well, still possibly coincidence.
Then to the x-ray for my bags and me. I said to the two women sitting by
the machine that scans the bags. sort of apologetically, "I've been picked
to have my bags searched. I know this might sound silly, but since you
handle all these people's bags and belongings--with the Anthrax scare and
all--I'd like it if whoever searches through my clothes and things wash
their hands first." They looked at me with hate and loathing and one said,
"We don't want YOUR germs, either." (Turns out they wear rubber gloves.)
"Whoa," I thought, "either I'm back in kindergarten or these normally
quite civil women have some reason for being hostile." I had the distinct
feeling they had been told awful things about me - I want to know what
they were told about this profiled individual coming to their airport.
Neither my bags nor I set off any beeps in the machinery so we walked
right through to the boarding area. Here I sat down with the other
passengers. There was one National Guard soldier in the boarding area; he
was a short man with a black eye wearing camo gear and carrying a machine
gun.
Soon after I sat down, the National Guardsman looked at the dozen or so
passengers, his eyes stopping at me and he yelled, "Bring those bags over
here!" Since he didn't call my name, how did he know which person was me,
since I did not look appreciably different from the others? When I didn't
move fast enough, he yelled again, "Hurry up! Move! Bring those bags up
here!" This did not make me move faster. By now people were beginning to
stare at me as if I might possibly be someone bent on doing something
wrong.
I set my two smallish bags on the table where two women were waiting to
search my bags. As one of them had trouble with a zipper on my older bag,
I said, "Oh, that zipper is not right, here, let me open it for you,"
and I reached over the table to undo the zipper. Immediately, the soldier
yelled out, "Get your hands away from there!" By now the other passengers
were getting nervous, of course.
He was standing at the end of the table with the women on one side looking
in my bags and me standing on the other side of the table. I turned to
face him, which put my back towards everyone else, and he grabbed my left
arm and began loudly spouting pro-war nonsense into my face. "Don't you
understand we have to get them before they get us?
Don't you understand what happened September 11?" and so on. I immediately
pulled my arm away from him and said, "Do not touch me. You cannot do
that," and stepped back a foot or so, saying that I didn't want to hear
his views on why he thought we should kill starving, helpless people in
Afghanistan.
He grabbed for me again. I stepped back further stating emphatically, "Do
Not Touch Me," and further emphasizing that I did not want to listen to
his views on the war. He was about to leave his position and come after me
again, but I saw the senior security man who is usually there shake his
head "No" at the soldier, who then backed off, but he was angry that I
would not submit to his holding me while he forced his views on me. I
turned and there just a couple of inches away was the man with the
metal-detecting wand. I stepped back a foot or two so he wasn't right up
against me, and he did the wand thing. I was the only one whose bags were
searched. For a woman of a certain age such as myself to stand there with
arms outstretched while a man skimmed my body with a device was very
embarrassing and demeaning.
I asked him not to touch me with the wand, as I didn't know what it was,
but, of course, he had to touch my shoulder with it. I ignored this, just
wanting to get out of there. While he was doing the wand thing, I heard
the soldier, who was behind me, say, "Don't let her on the plane." I
thought he was talking to himself.
Then they were done with the searching, and I walked the three feet to the
boarding gate. The American Airlines agent said, "You can't get on the
plane." I asked why. He replied, "Because he [indicating the soldier] says
you didn't cooperate with the search." I said, "But you were standing here
the whole time. Didn't you see him grab my arm and talk loudly into my
face?" He said he couldn't see that because my back was to people, only
saw me back off.
I then told the American Airlines agent that I needed to get to Chicago
and stated what I had to do there. The American Airlines agent then said,
rather softly, probably so the guardsman soldier couldn't hear, "We'll put
you on the four o'clock plane; that's the last one out today that you can
go through Boston and still get to Chicago tonight." I replied, "Fine,
let's just do this. I don't care if I'm late so long as I get there."
Unfortunately, the Guardsman overheard, and he wasn't done with me.
Clearly, this non-subservient female had to be punished for not being
sufficiently obsequious. He saw me picking up my bags to go out into the
lobby and wait for the 4 o'clock plane, and yelled (that seemed to be his
only means of communication), "Come With Me!" I asked, "Why? Where are we
going?" He replied, louder, "Come With Me!"
A few people to whom I've told this insist the government/military is
trying to "criminalize" me and other political activists who don't have
criminal records. This is what's done to people of color. When they're
harassed and/or beaten by police, they eventually, of course, do something
to protect themselves and then get arrested for hitting an officer or
whatever. If they then get convicted of a felony, they've go to prison and
probably a few years of parole when one's rights are mostly non-existent,
and draconian restrictions are put upon one's activities.
Convicted felons lose a lot of rights in this country: their travel is
henceforth limited, in some states they can't vote, own a gun, and various
other limitations.
Under the circumstances, and because I had a few hours until four o'clock
anyway, it seemed best to go with the guardsman. The circumstances being
that each individual soldier/national guardsman seems to be The Law unto
themselves. Each of them makes it up as they go along, punishing people
who don't hop to. Military law is not democracy.
He took me to the entrance area, apart from anyone else. Then he ordered,
loudly, "Sit Down!" I gave him a look and then sat. The soldier found the
airport policeman and told him to stay with me. Upon reflection, I
probably wasn't free to leave, but I thought I was waiting for the next
plane so just stayed there.
The Airport policeman was a pleasant local man and we talked about what
had just happened as well as people we knew, etc. Within minutes I looked
up to see 5-6 National Guardsmen in their camo gear all carrying machine
guns marching in a sort of formation towards me. I was sitting down
quietly talking with the policeman. The situation looked like a bad movie.
It occurred to me that this is how people get "disappeared," which has
happened to over 1,200 Americans so far since September 11. We used to
hear about this only in repressive military regimes in other places
(usually bolstered by our tax dollars). I'm sure they were ready to arrest
me for allegedly "not cooperating with a security search," with which I
had, indeed, cooperated.
All of a sudden the ludicrousness of the situation struck me. There I am,
sitting down with my bags, a woman clearly not a physical threat, and this
phalanx of soldiers in formation descends upon me ready to arrest me for
something I did not do. I gave a little laugh and said to the lead man,
"What, all this, just for me?" Then, I asked, "What's this really about?
What's going on here?"
He replied, "We understand you didn't cooperate with a security search." I
said, "That's ridiculous. They searched my bags and they did the wand
search. The only problem was your man here [I indicated the short guy with
the black eye] grabbing my arm and spouting pro-war views loudly in my
face." The lead soldier (I don't know his rank) said, astonishingly, "He
told me only hit your arm."
I looked at the lead soldier wide-eyed with a few unbidden (certainly
unwanted when I'm trying to look fierce) tears in my eyes, and asked,
"Even if that's all he had done, would that be okay?" I think he then
realized the guardsman had been way out of line and said, "Wait here."
They left, and the policeman stayed with me. I don't really think I was
free to go, although I had not been arrested.
I found out later they had gone upstairs and told the Bangor Airport
manager to tell all airlines in the Airport not to allow me to fly out of
Bangor that day, and possibly more than just that one day. Since the
military are in charge of our airports and they can override civilians in
charge, this was made to happen.
I was to be punished for the crime of questioning their authority,
especially for the guardsman to hold my arm and force me to listen to his
brain-washed rantings. Every airline in the Bangor Airport was given my
name and told that I did not cooperate with a security search. Not
cooperating with a security search at an airport is a federal crime. If,
indeed, I had not cooperated, they would have arrested me right then and
there. But I had been searched so they couldn't say that. However, now I
have to wonder if every airline in the world doesn't have me in their
computer as a person who didn't cooperate with the security search, which
means they can deny me passage in their airplanes. We will find out as
time goes on.
They told the policeman this news and had him tell me that I wouldn't be
allowed to fly out of Bangor that day. So I said I had to go American
Airlines and get my money back. The policeman came with me. The same AA
clerk was at the counter. He stepped outside the counter to converse with
the policeman and me. He confirmed that they had been told not to allow me
to fly out of Bangor that day. I asked him about the next day and he said
he didn't know. This is not a small matter for me since the Bangor Airport
is 100 miles from where I live.
The AA clerk then suggested I drive to Boston (5-1/2 hour drive) and fly
out of there. There were several problems with that, I told him. First,
my old car barely made it the 100 miles to the Bangor Airport and might
not make it to Boston or back again. Then there were the parking fees in
Boston as well as the fact that I might not be allowed to fly out of there
or might not be able to get a seat once I got there. Also, if they would
not honor my now-expired ticket, I'd have to pay full fare, which I
couldn't afford. Not a serious option.
I then asked the American Airlines clerk for my money back so I might
consider some alternative means of transport. He said he couldn't refund
my money. I asked him why and he said, "It's a non-refundable ticket."
This was so ridiculous that all three of us laughed a little. All the
airlines issue tickets on other tickets all the time. So I asked him again
and he said he couldn't refund the ticket, indicating it wasn't his
decision, which I understood, and told him I'd take it up with the airline
later.
Then the policeman, half apologetically, told me I'd been banned from the
Airport for that day, and that he had to escort me out. I told him I
understood that he was under the military's rule, and that I would call it
his walking me to the door, rather than escorting me out of the Airport.
We walked to the exit. I thanked him for being kind and considerate, which
he had been, and left with the sinking feeling that something bad is
happening to our country. And this is how it begins.
Postscript:
I have since gotten in touch with the Bangor Airport manager who assures
me that it's fine with them if they fly out of there, but that it
ultimately isn't their decision. I've also been told by American Airlines'
head of security in Texas that I am welcome to fly on their airline any
time, and that they will contact Priceline.com about both of them giving
my money back. This is all good, excepting that the military can
arbitrarily, at any time, revoke my right to travel for no good reason, as
they did November 1 in Bangor, Maine. So long as the military are in
charge of civilian affairs, we are not free; we do not have our Bill of
Rights protecting us because they've abrogated it and declared themselves
the Law.
We are forming a national Bill of Rights Defense Committee, and invite all
of you and/or groups you're affiliated with to help us form such a
coalition based on defense of our civil liberties. Please email back
saying you'll be part of this new coalition of groups and individuals, and
include your name and phone number. Then we can call a meeting to decide
what to do. We need a large, strong, united voice to tell the military
government we now have (Bush, Sr., who used to be not only President but
before that head of the CIA, Dick Cheney, Daddy Bush's fellow oil man and
defense contractor, and the Pentagon brass) that we will not accept
killing democracy in order to save it.
We do not want corporations, with their only interest in next quarter's
profits, running the world. We, the people, should be making the decisions
that affect our lives. Real Democracy. Nothing less will do. CP Nancy Oden
is an organic farmer and Green Party organizer. She lives in Jonesboro,
Maine. She can be contacted at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--- End forwarded message ---
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
