Anti-racist activist of Indian descent removed from plane, interrogated by FBI
Vik Chaubey, an associate of mine for a number of years
in People Against Racist Terror (PART) divides his
time between LA (where his folks live) and NYS (where he
attends graduate school). He is of "East" Indian descent,
has worked with DRUM (a south Asian organization in NY)
as well as with PART and in the prison rights movement
here in southern California.
He was heading back to NY this week to return to graduate
school upstate and continue his graduate studies, when
he got pulled from his flight and was forced to undergo
several hours of interrogation -- at gunpoint -- by the
FBI, Long Beach cops, and security for JetBlue Airlines
which has inexpensive flights from the Long Beach airport
to the east coast. Here is his account of the outrageous
treatment he received before finally being released and
allowed to fly back to NY (on other airlines by a very
circuitous route).
From: "Vik Chaubey"
To: part2001@usa.net
Subject: February 5 incident
Dear Mike
It was good talking to you yesterday. Here is what happened
at the Long Beach Airport on February 5. I enter Long Beach
airport at 10:15 a.m. and I go through security. 10:40 I
enter JetBlue Airline and I sit in seat 3A and talk with
two passengers sitting next to me. One of the passengers is
a white female from Torrance (she went to school at UCLA
and Pepperdine). I tell her that I am studying Terrorism
and culture at a university in New York State. I discuss
with her my education at Cal State San Bernardino and Cal
State L.A. I discuss with her about New York and I even
tell her that I miss California food. She gets alarmed when
I have not fastened my seat belt (it is still around 11:00
a.m.) and she feels that I do not like seat belts. She
tells her friend who was sitting next to her that she is
going to the bathroom (which was a lie); she actually goes
and complains about me to JetBlue.
Long Beach airport police come and escort me out of seat
and out of the airplane. From this point I am detained
and they take me to a room where they interrogate
me. The interrogation begins with three Long Beach
airport police, One National Guard soldier carrying a
machinegun which was pointed at me for the two and half
hours I was interrogated. Every item in the three bags
I had was searched. I was told to sit down at one place
for the entire time. So I get asked at the beginning
of the interrogation about the 'statement' I made about
'terrorism' (which is that I was studying terrorism in grad
school). Items in my bags were asked about many times.
They asked a lot of questions about pictures I took of
New York City. A Jet Blue security representative asked
me about how I paid for the ticket.
Finally they bring in Long Beach police and the FBI into
the mix. They start to ask questions and questions get
more intense. It is clear to me that they think I am a
terrorist (they ask me questions about 9/11, papers I have
written about terrorism, have I been to Israel, Egypt,
Pakistan and India). They read my papers that I have
written about terrorism, books that I have on Terrorism
and Islam. They ask me several things about Islam. They
also ask me about calls I had made to cell phones. They
ask me about why I am an activist. The ask me about Noam
Chomsky and John Esposito.
Essentially their 'case' against me was statements I
had made to two passengers, their belief that I did not
answer some of their questions as well as I could have
(the word they used was 'evasive'), and the fact that I
had a 'prior warning' (I was walking around Long Beach
airport -- I live half the year in Long Beach -- and
I was given a warning; this took place around 2000).
A Long Beach cop said he recognized me from the July
4th sustainable energy demonstration. At the end of the
interrogation Jet Blue said I would never fly on their
airline and threatened me that I would never fly again on
any airline in the U.S. He told me I would have to take
Amtrak from NY to CA. The FBI warned me not to this again
'and the next time you are arrested.' They said that I
was lucky that I was not arrested this time.
The interrogation took place for two and half hours. My
civil rights were clearly violated and they showed a
reckless disregard for the rights of one passenger. 9/11
was clearly their excuse. I feel strongly that JetBlue
in particular was out of bounds and especially they way
they tried to intimidate me. These people came up with
nothing against me. Mike, I do give you permission to
publicize this. Good luck in the rally in Long Beach
tomorrow. Take care.
Vik
Original: Politically motivated airport harassment/paranoia escalates