Venezuelan official detained at JFK

[Wanderer]

Revenge anyone?

By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 14 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Venezuela's foreign minister said he was illegally detained for 90 minutes by officials at a New York airport and accused them of treating him abusively by trying to frisk and handcuff him.

U.S. officials called Saturday's incident regrettable and said they had apologized to Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Maduro called that insufficient and said Venezuela would seek a legal challenge through the U.N. to what he called a "flagrant violation of international law" and his diplomatic immunity.

"We were detained for an hour and a half, threatened by police with being beaten," Maduro told reporters at Venezuela's mission to the U.N. "We hold the U.S. government responsible."

A U.N. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Maduro's trip was delayed because he had showed up late without a ticket, prompting extra screening.

Department of
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke denied that Maduro was mistreated at John F. Kennedy International Airport when he was selected for an added security check.

"He began to articulate his frustration with secondary screening right after he went through," a metal detector, Knocke said. "Port Authority officials confronted him when the situation became a ruckus."

Maduro said when one official ordered him to go to another room for a strip-search, he refused. He told CNN en Espanol that the official pushed him and yelled at him.

He told reporters the situation only worsened when he explained he was the Venezuelan foreign minister and showed his diplomatic passport.

Maduro said authorities at one point ordered him and other officials to spread their arms and legs and be frisked, but he said they forcefully refused. He said officers also threatened to handcuff him.

"We responded with the dignity of Venezuelan revolutionaries ... with strength," Maduro told reporters at Venezuela's mission to the U.N. "It's a Nazi government, a racist government."

If this is how U.S. authorities treat a foreign minister, he said, "what won't they do to Arab people for wearing a turban?"

He said his passport and ticket were seized and eventually returned, but the incident prevented him from flying home Saturday.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said it was a "regrettable incident" for which "the U.S. government has apologized."

The two countries' relations — strained for several years — took a particularly confrontational turn this week, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, speaking at the annual U.N. General Assembly, called
President Bush "the devil." U.S. officials often call Chavez a threat to democracy.

Maduro told reporters that the treatment of him and other Venezuelan officials seemed in part to be an "attempt to provoke us."

He said about an hour and 20 minutes into his detention, he received a call from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, who apologized and said State Department officials were on their way to resolve the matter.

Five minutes later, State Department officials arrived and ordered Maduro and the others to spread their arms and legs to be frisked by police, he said.

Maduro said Venezuela has lodged a protest with U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, and that the incident should be investigated so that those responsible are punished. He said those who detained him did not make any particular accusations.

Earlier Saturday, Chavez said on Venezuelan television that U.S. officials had detained Maduro after linking him to a failed coup that Chavez led in 1992.

"They have held him accusing him of participating in terrorist acts," Chavez said in Venezuela. "He didn't even participate in that patriotic rebellion."

Chavez also said Bush may be seeking to kill him for calling him "the devil" at the U.N.

Venezuela is among the top five suppliers of crude to the U.S., but relations soured in 2002 after the Bush administration swiftly recognized leaders who briefly ousted Chavez in a coup.

___

AP U.N. Correspondent Edith M. Lederer and Natalie Obiko Pearson, in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

[Chris OFarrell]

Observe people! These highly trained, calm and sensible people are the front line of defense against terrorist attacks, the product of countless BILLIONS (with a fucking B) of dollars of funding and training....

Revenge? No, get off the whole Venezuela tangent already. Diplomats even today are just no-no's for this kind of treatment, things can go wrong so fast it aint funny.

Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity

[K. A. Pital]

Just what the fuck did they intend to achieve by that? That's Idiocy with a capital "I".

[Stormbringer]

Just what the fuck did they intend to achieve by that? That's Idiocy with a capital "I".

That assumes there was any plan to this at all. It sounds like a typical airport foul likes of which have been happening for years. Combine underpaid employees with a by-the-book mentality and a crushing lack of initiative and it's not hard to see how these things happen.

I remember one of my state senators was heading to Washington for it and he wasn't allowed to board because they wouldn't let him take his fake leg. It set off the metal detectors so they stopped him. They knew darn well what it was and why it was setting off the detectors. But they were slaves to procedure and weren't willing to show any initiative.

[Broomstick]

From what I've read and heard, he was treated no differently than an American citizen in the same circumstances would have been. And I'm serious about that, no toungue-in-cheek involved.

Which makes me very happy I don't need to fly the airlines.

[D.Turtle]

"It's a Nazi government, a racist government."

Ouch.

The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.

Maybe this convention also has to be "clarified" by the Bush administration.
After all, you can't let something as important as this be "vague" and "misleading".

He told reporters the situation only worsened when he explained he was the Venezuelan foreign minister and showed his diplomatic passport.

If true, those officials should be punished (lose their job).

He said about an hour and 20 minutes into his detention, he received a call from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, who apologized and said State Department officials were on their way to resolve the matter.
Five minutes later, State Department officials arrived and ordered Maduro and the others to spread their arms and legs to be frisked by police, he said.

This is utterly damning if true. What better way is there to express your disdain for international law and treaties that the US has signed.

[D.Turtle]

Sorry, messed up the tags in the first post. Could a mod kindly delete that post?
Thanks.

"It's a Nazi government, a racist government."

Ouch.

The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.

Maybe this convention also has to be "clarified" by the Bush administration.
After all, you can't let something as important as this be "vague" and "misleading".

He told reporters the situation only worsened when he explained he was the Venezuelan foreign minister and showed his diplomatic passport.

If true, those officials should be punished (lose their job).

He said about an hour and 20 minutes into his detention, he received a call from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, who apologized and said State Department officials were on their way to resolve the matter.
Five minutes later, State Department officials arrived and ordered Maduro and the others to spread their arms and legs to be frisked by police, he said.

This is utterly damning if true. What better way is there to express your disdain for international law and treaties that the US has signed.

[Stormbringer]

The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.

Maybe this convention also has to be "clarified" by the Bush administration.

Doesn't that rather assume that these guys deliberately screwed with a diplomat instead of being underpaid, undertrained rent-a-cop types? Don't chalk up to malice what can easily be explained by incompetence.

If you want to blame Bush for something, blame them for treating airport security personell like a bunch of dim-witted menials at a McJob. I doubt that anyone of these people were setting out to provoke an international incident. They're just not trained properly and any little thing out happening tends to send people in for stuff like this. It's happened literally uncounted times to American citizens flying. The only difference is that on this occasion they happened to do it to a diplomat instead; it would be a non-news event if it weren't for the pompous wind-bag running Venezula.

If true, those officials should be punished (lose their job).

No what they need to is to be treated like the law enforcement professionals they're supposed to be.

This is utterly damning if true. What better way is there to express your disdain for international law and treaties that the US has signed.

Given that this is the account of a man who's country is best know lately for their president making a big stink about Bush being the Devil. I dare say that he may be stretching the truth or even lying. I doubt the State Department of all people are really going to go in deliberately making it worse.

[Cao Cao]

This sort of reminds me of a cartoon I saw some years back about paranoid airport security frisking an old lady while a guy dressed as a stereotypical terrorist complete with grenade belt and AK-47 walked past them.

[Joe]

Hopefully he'll punish us by never coming back.

[aerius]

This is what happens when your airport security is run by ex-burger flippers.

[Glocksman]

This sort of reminds me of a cartoon I saw some years back about paranoid airport security frisking an old lady while a guy dressed as a stereotypical terrorist complete with grenade belt and AK-47 walked past them.

There was just such a scene in the movie Airplane, with a bunch of heavily armed men striding through a metal detector that was silent until a little old lady walked through it.
It 'ding'ed and about 5 cops slammed her to the wall.

Given that this is the account of a man who's country is best know lately for their president making a big stink about Bush being the Devil. I dare say that he may be stretching the truth or even lying. I doubt the State Department of all people are really going to go in deliberately making it worse.

Indeed.
The standard bitch that the right has about the State Department is that Foggy Bottom will go out of its way to accomodate such people.

If GWB planned such an event, instead of this Venezuelan guy, they should have detained the Iranian leader Ahmadinejad for 444 days.

[D.Turtle]

Please note, that I always said "If true."

Some additional information from cnn.com:

Venezuelan official briefly detained at New York airport
POSTED: 4:18 a.m. EDT, September 24, 2006

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department apologized Saturday for the brief detention of Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro by airport security in New York, but a senior White House official said Maduro brought it on himself.

Maduro was detained and released at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport after a run-in with security personnel, the foreign minister said.

"The State Department regrets this incident. The United States government apologized to Foreign Minister Maduro and the Venezuelan government," said State Department spokesman Gonzo Gallegos.

Maduro told CNN en Español that as he reached out to pick up an item that had been screened at a security checkpoint, security personnel told him he was prohibited from doing so.

Maduro identified himself as a Venezuela government official, but they nonetheless took him to a room for a more thorough screening, he said. Maduro claims he was kept in the room for 90 minutes.

When a State Department representative showed up, the official asked Maduro to spread his arms and legs for a search, but he refused, Maduro said, adding that the actions violated his international and diplomatic rights.

"We were detained illegally by the U.S. government," Maduro later told reporters. "They are responsible for this." (Watch Maduro call his detention illegal -- :20)

He called the U.S. government "racist" and "Nazi" and said the United States does not appreciate Latin American countries. He has filed a complaint with the United Nations, he said.

A senior White House official said airport officials did not know who Maduro was. The Venezuelan government never made arrangements through State Department Diplomatic Security, which is customary when a high-ranking foreign official is traveling, the official said.

Maduro, his wife and child arrived at the airport 30 minutes before their flight to Caracas via Miami, Florida, and paid for their tickets in cash, raising red flags with airport security, the official said.

Maduro was screened and asked to go through a second security check, and a disagreement ensued when the foreign minister refused and began making calls on his cell phone, the official said.

Only after his cell phone, travel documents and passport were confiscated did Maduro explain that he is a diplomat, the official said.

After the disagreement was resolved, Maduro was given permission to board his plane but opted instead to stay in New York, the White House official said.

"We apologize for it, but at the same time the Venezuelan mission working out of New York knows better," the official said. "There are procedures and processes to request airport courtesies for dignitaries. You don't come to the airport and buy a ticket with cash a half hour before the flight."

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon called Maduro to personally apologize for the incident, the official said.

The annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly began Tuesday in New York.

At that meeting, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lambasted U.S. President Bush during a speech, calling him "the devil."

The speech was condemned by U.S. officials, including some of Bush's normally most outspoken critics. (Full story)

Informed of the incident, Chavez said on Venezuelan state television, "This is a provocation from Mr. Devil."

Maduro said the incident was retaliation for Chavez's speech. However, the White House official said there was no connection.

So, going by this, he provoked the incident.

Which would make what I said before invalid.

[D.Turtle]

Sorry, forgot the link:

Venezuelan official briefly detained at New York airport

[Stormbringer]

So, going by this, he provoked the incident.

I don't know that he provoked it so much as he reacted very badly to an honest mistake. It doesn't sound like there was an intent to get into the situation so much as there was bad behaviour about it.

Afterwards though it sounds like he and his boss did the best they could to make political capital out of it.

Which would make what I said before invalid.

You started accusing Bush and the screeners of malicious intent right off the bat. I think at the very least you should be a bit more careful about getting all the facts before making accusations and saying people should be fired.

[Lonestar]

Just what the fuck did they intend to achieve by that? That's Idiocy with a capital "I".

Revenge. Venezuela expelled American Defense Attache personnel some months back for "spying" on Venezuela. Of course, gathering information on the hosts nations military is in the profile of every fucking defense attache in every embassy of the world, so it isn't like it's a big honking secret. Venezuela wants to be an asshole? We can too.

[Lonestar]

Well, don't I look like the ass.

Or it could have been a honest fuckup.

[D.Turtle]

You started accusing Bush and the screeners of malicious intent right off the bat. I think at the very least you should be a bit more careful about getting all the facts before making accusations and saying people should be fired.

You are correct: I jumped to conclusions.

Usually I try to be careful before jumping to conclusions, but in this case I was too hasty - sorry about that. I'll try to be more careful in the future.

Unfortunately, with all of the stuff that I see members of the Bush administration (and some their supporters) doing - I wouldn't put doing something like this on purpose beyond the administration and some of their supporters.

In my eyes, the Bush administration (and many of their supporters) have lost almost any claim of moral superiority.