Woman: I was profiled, strip-searched on 9/11; FBI says it treated her well

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Woman: I was profiled, strip-searched on 9/11; FBI says it treated her well
5:46 PM, Sep. 13, 2011
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


A woman who is Jewish and of Arab descent alleges that she along with two Indian-Americans were detained by armed officers on an airplane at Detroit Metro Airport on Sunday and then jailed and strip searched — an incident that civil rights leaders say was one of many cases of law enforcement targeting minorities on the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.

But federal officials say they were told that some on board were acting suspiciously and responded accordingly.

“They ... needed to make sure all my orifices were free and clear," Shoshana Hebshi, the jailed woman, wrote on a blog.

After landing in Detroit, the Ohio woman said she and the men were handcuffed, jailed, strip-searched, and interrogated because of their race. And she said an FBI agent told her there were "50 other similar incidents across the country that day," raising questions about whether law enforcement targeted certain groups because of their appearance on Sept. 11.


Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20110913/NEWS05/110913069/Woman-profiled-strip-searched-9-11-FBI-says-treated-her-well?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

[Auntie Bush]

1. I can't imagine the horror and embarrassment of being stripped searched!

No human should have to go through that anymore! Isn't that what those airport x-ray machines are now suppose to do? No need for anymore strip searching!

[rfranklin]

3. The there's the cavity search...

Bend over and spread 'em!

[Arctic Dave]

2. Have to make sure those brown know their place.

Any bets on the color of the skin of the other 49 incidents?

[Dawson Leery]

4. I could never wear the uniform.

Prostitution is more Honorable than taking orders blindly.

[JJW]

5. Yes, many of us saw the cavity searches coming

get use to it because things are going to get much worse very fast.

[midnight]

6. K&R In the name of safety so much intrusion moves into our

daily lives... Repeal the patriot act...

[pampango]

7. James Fallows: More on Flying While Half-Arab By James Fallows

In response to the previous item about the three "suspicious" non-white people who were handcuffed and hustled off a plane by heavily armed security forces, because their appearance aroused "suspicions" among still-unnamed crew members or other passengers on the plane, some responses.

1. From my friend David Golson, who is black:

>>Unless you go thru something like this you do not understand....

I have never been detained on a airplane, but I have been in many situations like this and after going over all the details the only thing you can think is that is has to have been my color.<<

2. From Ta-Nehisi Coates, who for the record is also black, a disspiriting but true assessment, on his site. The "security ratchet," which makes it hard for any politician ever to recommend any reduction in security-theater, applies with extra force to Democrats:

>>If Obama were to change TSA regulations today, and there were a terrorist attack, he would be finished, as would many Democrats. He would not be finished simply because of Republican fear-mongering. He would be finished because a large number of actual people, actual members of the electorate, are more afraid of the tangible--if unlikely--threat of dying in terrorist attack, than the intangible, but significantly more likely. threat of "permanent-fear thinking."<<

Someday, inevitably, there will be another terrorist-style attack involving air travel. We know that just as we know that someday there will be another schoolyard mass shooting, and that in the typical American day around 50 people will be murdered and around twice that many will be killed in car crashes, many by drunks.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/09/more-on-flying-while-half-arab/245059/

Although changing TSA regulations may be politically risky it is worth doing.

[MisterP]

8. well, OBVIOUSLY she just did this to bust the TSA union

and if Teabaggers are against cavity searches a Good Democrat must be for them
:sarcasm:

[Blue_Tires]

9. Honestly--The goddamned racist/coward who made the call needs to be put on the spot

While we rightly rage over the detainment, I'm tired of these "turn in your neighbor" types always slinking away, free to do the same thing on their next flight...

[truth2power]

10. Exactly what I was thinking. There are a lot of people out there who crave attention...

This is a free pass for anyone who has a hero complex.

Heaven help us!