LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
December 27, 2001, Thursday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section B; Page 5; Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 302 words
HEADLINE: A NATION CHALLENGED: AIRPORT SECURITY;
Guard for Bush Isn't Allowed Aboard Flight
BYLINE:
By The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Dec. 26
BODY:
An Arab-American member of President Bush's security detail was denied passage
on an American Airlines flight from Baltimore to Dallas Tuesday evening after
the flight's pilot questioned the validity of the agent's credentials, a
spokesman for the Secret Service said tonight.
The agent, who was armed, was originally scheduled to accompany the president
aboard Air Force One to Crawford, Tex. He was was on a commercial flight
because of a change in Mr. Bush's schedule.
After a mechanical problem prompted the agent's original flight, American
Flight 1191, to be canceled, the agent boarded American Flight 363 shortly
before 5 p.m., scheduled to depart Baltimore Washington International Airport
at 5:15 p.m.
Once seated, he was confronted by airline security personnel, the Secret
Service said, and was asked to exit the plane and submit to additional security
checks.
After a delay of an hour and 15 minutes, during which the agent was questioned
by the flight's pilot, airline officials and airport police, the agent was
ordered removed from the flight even though he had offered to have the Secret
Service confirm his identity.
Brian Marr, the Secret Service spokesman, confirmed the account of the incident
this evening but declined further comment. Phone calls to the airline tonight
went unanswered.
A complaint filed today to the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations, an advocacy
group in Washington that tracks cases of racial profiling, called the incident
evidence that profiling of Arab- and Muslim-Americans at the nation's airports
had increased since Sept. 11.
"They didn't see an American, they didn't see a law enforcement professional," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the group.
"All they saw was a racial and ethnic profile that they didn't want on their
flight."
http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: December 27, 2001