By Munir K. Nasser
Washington, DC
A major Arab-American organization called upon the Clinton Administration to end the practice of profiling Arab Americans at airports on suspicion of their involvement in "terrorist acts."
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) urged the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to promptly reconsider the profiling system following its latest report, which concluded on Tuesday the crash of TWA flight 800 off the coast of Long Island on July 17, 1996 was caused by the fuel tank explosion and not by a ‘terrorist act.’
NTSB officials ruled out any possibility of foul play being a factor in the tragedy, which killed 230 people on board. The officials summarized the investigators' findings in a public hearing to discuss the causes of the crash, and said they have yet to determine exactly what ignited the blast, but said an electrical short appears the most likely cause. Speculation about the cause of the crash has ranged from a spark in electrical wiring to turbulence caused by another aircraft to bombs and even a missile. The officials stressed, however, that bombs and missiles have been ruled out.
ADC President Hala Maksoud told Albawaba.com that the Clinton Administration owes the Arab American community an apology for suffering too long under this burden.
“We feel that, given the erroneous and mistaken circumstances in which this profiling system was instituted, our community is owed an apology from those who pointed the finger at us and began this four-year-old ordeal,” she said.
Maksoud called on the Clinton Administration to repeal the act of profiling Arabs because it was based on false premises. The NTSB report says there was absolutely no foul play, and the crash resulted from a mechanical error. “We were made to pay the price for four years as a community, and we are still paying a price. We are still been profiled at the airports,” she stressed.
She said following the crash of TWA 800, numerous commentators such as Steven Emerson claimed that the crash was the result of a terrorist attack and pointed the finger at the Arab-American community. A blue-ribbon panel on air travel safety chaired by Vice-President Al Gore recommended that a “profiling” system for screening air travelers be enforced.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) then mandated a profiling system, which must be used at all US airports and by all US airlines abroad. This profiling has resulted in the widespread singling out of Arab-American travelers solely based on their national origin and ethnicity.
According to Maksoud, hundreds of people suffered from this policy. “We have horrible stories told by members of the community. We had not only people individually taken out of line, frisked and searched in a demeaning way, but we have stories where at one point there were public announcements on the speakers asking all Arabic speaking people to step aside for search,” she explained.
Maksoud stressed that in spite of this massive profiling, the FAA has not been able to point to a single case where profiling has led to the apprehending of someone who posed a threat to airport or airplane safety. She said ADC has documented hundreds of cases in which Arab Americans and Arabs have been subjected to abusive, harassing and humiliating special security measures at airports, for which no explanation other than their ethnicity can be found.
She said that ADC is lobbying Congress to repeal those criteria that single Arabs out, adding that for the last four years, ADC has been working with US Attorney General Janet Reno and FAA officials to develop new criteria for profiling.
As a result of these contacts, the Federal Government has earmarked a million dollars to research programs in the Arab American community in coordination with ADC. This week the first program is starting in Detroit where community leaders are working with the FAA to determine criteria that will not make Arabs a target.
Maksoud believes that profiling is applied only to Arabs and not to other ethnic groups “because in the popular culture we are considered ‘the terrorists par excellence’,” she said. She insisted that, like all other forms of racial and ethnic profiling, airport profiling of Arab travelers must come to an end – Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
