Haiti reporters hassled by Orlando airport director

[Newsjock]

Source: Orlando Sentinel

A Los Angeles Times reporter says Larry Dale, president of Orlando Sanford International Airport, "bullied" and threatened to handcuff her and a reporter for The Wall Street Journal as they passed through the airport on their way home from Haiti.

Tina Susman, who works for the Times, said she and Dionne Searcey of the Journal arrived at the airport Tuesday aboard a cargo plane with evacuees from Haiti, where they had been reporting on the aftermath of the earthquake.

Susman said a confrontation occurred after Dale and airport Vice President Diane Crews asked an airport police officer about the reporters, who were wearing media credentials around their necks. Susman said she and Searcey were chatting with a nun who had been teaching in Haiti while waiting to leave on a bus that was taking evacuees to Orlando International Airport.

... Susman, a national correspondent who was Baghdad bureau chief for two years and spent 11 years covering Africa, said Dale insinuated that she and Searcey could be stowaways or terrorists with fake credentials. She said he shouted at her to sit down and be quiet.

Read more: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-sanford-airport-reporters-detained-20100120,0,1884511.story

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From 2007: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2007-04-09/news/DALE09_1_larry-dale-airport-police-sanford-international-airport

... There's Larry Dale the public servant, strong-willed, no-nonsense, competent; a take-charge leader who expects the best from the people around him and, supporters say, deservedly gets it.

Then there's Larry Dale the bully, confrontational and intimidating. A gun-toting, hulking man whose super-sized ego, critics say, bends people to his will.

... But Dale's power and influence extend far beyond the end of the runway. Dale, who has a pilots license, personally flew George W. Bush around the area during the 2000 presidential campaign. He is one of the county's top Republican fundraisers.