- ~~UPDATE~~
- What's Happening with the Bangor Airport
Incident
- By Nancy Oden
- November 10, 2001
-
- Postscript: I have since
gotten in touch with the Bangor Airport manager who assures me that it's
fine with them if they fly out of there, but that it ultimately isn't their
decision. I've also been told by American Airlines'head of security in
Texas that I am welcome to fly on their airline any time, and that they
will contact Priceline.com about both of them giving my money back. This
is all good, excepting that the military can arbitrarily, at any time,
revoke my right to travel for no good reason, as they did November 1 in
Bangor, Maine.
-
- So long as the military are in charge of civilian
affairs,
we are not free; we do not have our Bill of Rights protecting us because
they've abrogated it and declared themselves the Law.
-
- We are forming a national Bill of Rights Defense
Committee,
and invite all of you and/or groups you're affiliated with to help us form
such a coalition based on defense of our civil liberties. Please email
back saying you'll be part of this new coalition of groups and individuals,
and include your name and phone number. Then we can call a meeting to
decide what to do. We need a large, strong, united voice to tell the
military
government we now have (Bush, Sr., who used to be not only President but
before that head of the CIA, Dick Cheney, Daddy Bush's fellow oil man and
defense contractor, and the Pentagon brass) that we will not accept killing
democracy in order to save it.
-
- We do not want corporations, with their only interest
in next quarter's profits, running the world. We, the people, should be
making the decisions that affect our lives. Real Democracy. Nothing less
will do.
-
- ________________
-
-
-
- Original Story:
-
-
- Green Party USA Coordinator Detained At
Airport
- 11-4-1
-
- Green Party USA Coordinator Detained at Airport;
Prevented
by Armed Military Personnel from Flying to Political Meeting in Chicago
-
- Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party
USA coordinating committee member, Thursday at Bangor International Airport
in Bangor Maine, as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight
to Chicago.
-
- "An official told me that my name had been flagged
in the computer," a shaken Oden said. "I was targeted because
the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent civilians in
Afghanistan."
-
- Oden, a long-time organic farmer and peace activist in
northern Maine, was ordered away from the plane. Military personnel with
automatic weapons surrounded Oden and instructed all airlines to deny her
passage on any flight.
-
- "I was told that the airport was closed to me until
further notice and that my ticket would not be refunded," Oden said.
-
- Oden is scheduled to speak in Chicago Friday night on
a panel concerning pesticides as weapons of war. She had helped to
coordinate
the Green Party USA's antiwar efforts these past few months, and was to
report on these to The Greens national committee. "Not only did they
stop me at the airport but some mysterious party had called the hotel and
cancelled my reservation," Oden said.
-
- The Greens National Committee -- the governing body of
the Green Party USA -- is meeting in Chicago Nov. 2-4 to hammer out the
details of national campaigns against bio-chemical warfare, the spraying
of toxic pesticides, genetic engineering, and the Party's involvement in
the burgeoning peace movement.
-
- "I am shocked that US military prevented one of
our prominent Green Party members from attending the meeting in
Chicago,"
said Elizabeth Fattah, a GPUSA representative from Pennsylvania who drove
to Chicago. "I am outraged at the way the Bill of Rights is
beingtrampled
upon."
-
- Chicago Green activist Lionel Trepanier concluded,
"The
attack on the right of association of an opposition political party is
chilling. The harassment of peace activists is reprehensible."
-
-
- ____________________
-
- Comment
-
- From MLC
- cabbidge@javanet.com
- 11-8-1
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- I am a Maine Green who received regular emails from the
Green mailing list. Recently you posted an article titled "Green Party
USA Coordinator Detained At Airport." Apparently there was more to
that story than was first reported. I will forward to you all the relevant
emails that I have received on the Maine Green email list. Here is the
first update:
-
- From Nancy Allen
- nallen@acadia.net
- Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 15:22:30 -0500
-
- From long time Green Walt Sheasby..
-
- LEADER OF GREEN SPLINTER GROUP
FIBS ABOUT AIRPORT HASSLE
-
- In an official press release from its Chicago
headquarters,
the Greens/Green Party USA, a small splinter group that opposes recognition
of the Green Party of the United States as the electoral voice of the
movement
that ran Ralph Nader for President in 2000, declared that one of its
leaders
was stopped from boarding a flight after a check turned up her name was
on a computer list because the organization opposes the U.S. bombing of
Afhanistan. The release said:
-
- * Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party
USA coordinating committee member, Thursday at Bangor International Airport
in Bangor Maine, as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight
to Chicago.
-
- "An official told me that my name had been flagged
in the computer," a shaken Oden said. "I was targeted because
the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent civilians in
Afghanistan."*
-
- The press release was relayed around the nation as a
first signal of the reach of the new draconian Patriot Act. But it turns
out that Nancy Oden was apparently not barred because of a computer check,
but because she did not comply with standard screening for weapons. While
who said what is not clear, it appears that her name was not flagged by
a computer search of potential terrorists or their supporters, according
to a news report in the Bangor Daily News on Nov. 3.
-
- While the undue harassment of airline travelers is to
be condemned, it does not seem that this incident warrants fears of a major
violation of Constitutional guarantees of free speech, as it first
appeared.
The group that Nancy Oden leads is nevertheless using the incident to draw
attention and support to itself.
-
- One member of the group's National Council urged:
-
- *The first thing to do is to organize a committee,
include
spokesperson/ spokespersons. Contact civil liberties organizations
including
the National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU ... Ask organizaitons to sponsor
defense
committee- Seek prominent attorney who may need to have a license to
practice
in Maine- Send releases out every day. Has Ralph Nader been contacted?
What about Phil Donahue CONTACT TALK SHOWS. TRY TO GET POLITICIANS TO
SUPPORT,
Barbara Lee. Organizations in Maine who know Nancy and will back her up.*
-
- If the incident had taken place as Nancy Oden described
it, it would mean that other Green activists and leaders of other anti-war
groups would also be on computer lists and barred from flying, which
reportedly
has not been the case. The exaggeration of her victimization may only serve
to discredit opposition to the Bush Administration's attack on civil
liberties.
-
- It may also further isolate the Green Party USA, which
saw a majority of delegates at its July 20 National Convention leave to
form a new Green Alliance, which has its first convention in New Orleans
January 18-21.
-
- ___________________
-
-
- From: "Nancy Allen"
- <nallen@acadia.net
- To: <nallen@acadia.net
- Subject: from indymedia....gulp
- Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 15:45:58 -0500
-
- This is from indymedia.org...now she's "one of the
U.S. Green Party's top officials" ARGHHH!!!!!! ...nancy
-
- Military Bars Green Party Leader from Flying
(english)
by Anonymous
10:56am
- Sat Nov 3 '01
-
- "There was this National Guard guy there. He yells
over at me, so everyone can hear, 'Bring your bags over here.' You know
how they are when they're all puffed up with themselves. He said, 'Hurry
up,' so I slowed down some more.
-
- Link
-
- ___________________
-
-
- Military Bars Green Party Leader from
Flying
posted by declan on
- Saturday November 03, @12:36PM
-
- From the airports-are-now-a-no-speech-zone dept. As one
of the U.S. Green Party's top officials, Nancy Oden is used to controversy.
But Oden never expected to be hassled by National Guard troops at her
hometown
airport of Bangor, Maine on Thursday and barred from flying out of it.
She thinks it's because of a Green Party statement she co-authored that
ran in the local newspaper. The statement calls for universal health care,
limitations on free trade, and a stop to "U.S. military
incursions"
including the bombing of Afghanistan. (The Green Party has labeled the
U.S. military action an act of "state terrorism.") Oden's
unsuccessful
attempt to fly to Chicago for a Green Party national meeting follows a
Philadelphia man's unpleasant experience after reading the wrong book at
an airport, a California journalist's headaches for daring to take photos
inside an airport, and the arrest of another man in Germany for bringing
politically-unacceptable reading material to an airport.
-
- Link
-
- ___________________
-
- From Nancy Allen
- nallen@acadia.net
- Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 16:29:51 -0500
-
- Hi Greens,
-
- i don't believe that Nancy Oden was on any FBI list and
was being targeted because she's a Green. Dean says he flies every week
and he's never had any trouble. Others of us in national leadership would
have had trouble too.
-
- Anyone who knows Nancy, and believe me i know her well
(she was my boss) and know what an uncooperative person she can be, would
realize that Nancy most likely got a routine check, made a big fuss about
it and got kicked out of the airport. Now, GPUSA is making a big deal about
the incident and is going to milk the media for all they can get.
-
- Peace, Starlene Rankin Chicago, IL Illinois GP Media
Coordiantor member of the USGP Media Team
-
- ___________________
-
- From: "Nancy Allen"
- <nallen@acadia.net>
- Subject: oden
- Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 16:46:57 -0500
-
- The AP did not identify her as a member of the national
coordinating committee, but simply as a political activist....so that was
corrected in this version.....nancy
-
- Activist, Screeners Tussle at
Airport
- Sunday, November 4, 2001
- Associated Press
-
- ©Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights
reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
-
- BANGOR - Political activist
Nancy Oden missed her flight to Chicago for a Green Party USA meeting
because
she reportedly became uncooperative during security screening at the Bangor
International Airport.
-
- The Jonesboro woman says she was singled out for extra
scrutiny because of her activist past and public opposition to the current
war effort.
-
- ''I was treated (as) if I were guilty just because I'm
a dissident and I speak out,'' she said. ''They're looking at me like I'm
a terrorist and I'm just a peaceful person trying to go to a meeting in
Chicago.''
-
- Oden Scrapped Her Travel Plans
-
- Officials at the airport and American Eagle Airlines
have a different account of Oden's afternoon run-in with the added
security.
-
- ''She was uncooperative during the screening process,''
American Eagle spokesman Kurt Iverson said. ''Obviously if they can't
submit
to screening, (federal) regulations require that they not be allowed to
board the plane.''
-
- Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, security has been
tightened at airports. In Bangor, armed National Guardsmen monitor the
screening area and passenger lists are checked against an FBI terrorist
watch list.
-
- At one point during Oden's security screening, a National
Guardsman grabbed her by the arm and she jerked it away.
-
- While acknowledging that Oden was singled out for added
extensive screening, authorities said it was more likely related to the
manner in which she purchased her ticket than for her activist past.
-
- Without providing details, interim airport director
Rebecca
Hupp said that the FAA guidelines ''have more to do with the ticket than
the person.'' Oden bought her nonrefundable ticket online, she said.
-
-
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|