[IP] International Passengers & Airports

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Or for that matter anyone attending a meeting in the  USA or a US  
school djf

Begin forwarded message:

From: Chris Beck <cbeck@pacanukeha.net>
Date: October 26, 2005 6:30:01 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: International Passengers & Airports


Hi Dave,

I don't know if you care to forward this, it isn't a technology issue  
as such,
but it does track the stupid-airport-tricks meme.  I don't recall  
seeing it on
IP at the time.  To me this seems in clear contradiction to Section 1  
of the
14th Amendment, but IANSCOTUS.

Cheers,
Chris

From CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/08/11/arar- 
lawsuit050811.html
Flyers passing through U.S. have few rights, Arar judge told

A senior lawyer for the U.S. government has told a judge hearing a  
lawsuit over
Maher Arar's deportation to Syria that foreign citizens passing  
through American
airports have almost no rights.

At most, Mary Mason told a hearing in Brooklyn, N.Y., passengers  
would have the
right not to be subjected to "gross physical abuse."

The policy has implications for Canadians who head for international
destinations via big American airports in New York, Chicago, Los  
Angeles and
other major centres.

Mason said the U.S. government is interpreting its powers in such a  
way that
passengers never intending to enter the U.S. connecting to  
international flights
at U.S. airports must prove they are no threat and could be allowed  
to enter the
country.

If passengers are deemed to be inadmissible, they have no  
constitutional rights
even if later taken to an American prison. Mason told Judge David  
Trager that's
because they are deemed to be still outside the U.S., from a legal  
point of view.

"Someone who's inadmissible is in the same category as the people  
that the CIA
snatches and grabs from other countries," said Barbara Olshansky, a  
lawyer for
the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which is suing a  
number of U.S.
officials on Arar's behalf.

"You are fair game for however executive branch wants to treat you."

Mason said the interpretation means travellers can be detained  
without charge,
denied the right to consult a lawyer, and even refused necessities  
such as food
and sleep.


--
Chris Beck  -  http://pacanukeha.blogspot.com
Opinions of bureaucrats do not create wrongs.


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