Suit over Pa. stop for Arabic flashcards tossed

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Suit over Pa. stop for Arabic flashcards tossed
By RON TODT, Associated Press | December 25, 2013 | Updated: December 25, 2013 3:10pm

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former college student who was detained for several hours at an airport after he was found carrying Arabic language flashcards had his bid to sue federal agents rejected by a federal appeals court.

Nicholas George sought to sue three Transportation Security Administration agents and two FBI agents over the August 2009 stop at Philadelphia International Airport, saying they violated his free speech rights and conducted an improper search and arrest based on the flashcards and a book critical of American policy in the Middle East.

A district judge rejected the agents' assertion of immunity, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling in a decision issued Tuesday.

George was returning from his home in a Philadelphia suburb to Pomona College in California, where he was studying Arabic, when TSA agents saw the words "bomb" and "terrorist" among his flashcards and called police. George was detained for nearly five hours, two of them in handcuffs in a city police station at the airport.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Suit-over-Pa-stop-for-Arabic-flashcards-tossed-5092490.php

[jtuck004]

1. I find it extraordinary, the way we treat people. The lack of respect, basic common courtesy

and common sense.

A college student, studying physics, with flashcards that help him learn the language of a people, most of whom are innocent and just want to live their lives, and yet whose very existence is wrapped in the specter of terrorism, bombs, explosives, bullets, and death because of the actions of a few, has some flashcards and among them are those words, in Arabic, that he presumably hears, probably frequently. He also has a book, "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions” by Clyde Prestowitz—a book that former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Joseph Nye described as a "conservative 's sober warning of the dangers of unilateralism and the temptations of empire."

No guns, no knives, no evil potions.

So he is detained and interrogate by the feds for 2 1/2 hrs, then handed over to locals for more of the same, (or vice versa).

They may have just given him the motivation to be far more sympathetic to people they might legitimately need to fear than he was when they started.

Ridiculous.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[MisterP]

3. at least The Nation hasn't dragged him through the mud (yet)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9643225

[reACTIONary]

4. Ironically, The dirth of Ariabic speakers...

...in the United States is recognized as an impediment to our intelligence efforts and there is a lot of talk about encouraging Arabic studies. Some encouragement!

[yuiyoshida]

5. Wow.. ITS stuff like this that makes me glad I was never around

When they were rounding people up to go to the internment camps during World War II.

[Globulus]

6. That's just wrong on every level.

Try this on for size, TSA, CIA, FBI, NSA, or whatever other agencies we don't know about...

LEARN ARABIC: http://www.arabion.net/learnarabic.html

It's actually a really cool site, but remember that Arabic is written from right to left. It takes a little getting used to.