Callous Greet for Pakistanis at US Airport?
Pakistan Times Special Report

High hopes were being envisioned when Pakistan’s National Flag carrier, the Airline set in motion its flights from Karachi to Houston in May—last. Besides the convenience of a one-stop flight, some Pakistanis saw; ‘it as a promising sign of yet another bridge between Houston and South Asia.’

But passengers arriving from Pakistan have not been getting a warm welcome at Bush Intercontinental Airport, according to Ghulam Bombaywala, a well-known area businessman who heads the Pakistan Association of Greater Houston. In some cases, people getting off the Karachi flight have been met by a wall of about 20 uniformed officers and a police dog or two right at the jetway, Bombaywala said.

"The first thing these passengers see is a sign that says 'Welcome to Houston,' " Bombaywala said. "The next thing they see is an officer with a German shepherd."

Two elderly women passengers fainted at the sight of the dogs, he said.

Targets

Bombaywala says he believes the Customs and Border Protection officers at the airport are targeting the twice-weekly flights from Pakistan for particularly aggressive treatment.

Pakistani passengers are much more likely than other passengers to be pulled aside for intensive questioning from immigration officials, he said. In some cases, passengers have been questioned for hours or even days, without being allowed access to relatives.

He says he has started advising Pakistanis to fly through New York and then come to Houston on a domestic flight. South Asians have had much less of a problem going through immigration in New York, he said.

A representative of the Pakistan International Airlines would not comment on the issue.

Judy Turner's Viewpoint

Judy Turner, a local Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, said she did not believe there was any effort to target the Pakistan flights. Turner did confirm that there were dogs in the international arrival area of the airport, and that these dogs might at times even board arriving flights. But the dogs are there to sniff for drugs and bombs.

"They aren't trained to be aggressive toward people," Turner said. Besides, most of the dogs at the airport are mixed breeds and not German shepherds, she said.

None of this would be immediately obvious to an immigrant from Pakistan, according to Bombaywala.

"People in Pakistan don't keep dogs as pets," he said. "They're terrified of dogs."

This is not the first complaint about immigration at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Last year, representatives of Congress, Continental Airlines and the local diplomatic corps complained about the long lines for arriving international passengers. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, promised to resolve the problem by hiring more officials locally.

Bombaywala said he recently met with representatives of Customs and Border Protection to ask about the latest problem with the flights from Pakistan. The officials were noncommittal, he said. He has also sent a letter to local congressional representatives.

A Longtime US Citizen

Though he is a longtime U.S. citizen and the owner of several local restaurants, Bombawala says he has been taken aside for extensive questioning at the airport just this year. Immigration officials ask arriving Pakistanis if they are Muslim, what mosque they attend and how many times they pray every day, he said.

"Sometimes they ask the same question 10 times," he said.

Immigration officials at the airport appear to be in a tough position. Many Americans would be outraged if officials did not carefully screen arriving passengers from Muslim countries. Then again, Americans won't make any friends in the Islamic world by assuming all Muslims are enemies.

"There has to be a way to provide closer scrutiny without hurting business travelers or families," said Congressman Gene Green, D-Houston, a frequent critic of the immigration system at the airport. Green said he was concerned by the issues raised by Bombaywala, and awaits an answer from the government.

Logic by US

Airports in the United States are on alert for Pakistanis with "rope burns, unusual bruises or scars" that could have been received at terrorist camps run by extremists.

Inspectors at six of the nation's busiest airports, including Washington Dulles International, are on alert for travellers of Pakistani descent, including U.S. citizens of Pakistani origin, as officials fear that potential terrorists are trying to sneak into the US, reports The Washington Times.

An internal bulletin of the Department of Homeland Security has warned the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection [CBP] inspectors that potential terrorists who trained at camps in Pakistan might seek to return to the US between now and the November Presidential elections to carry out new attacks.

Law enforcement authorities have confirmed that the bulletin directs "increased scrutiny" of passengers at Dulles, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Newark's Liberty Inernational Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County International Airport, O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and Los Angeles International Airport.

A Homeland Security official played down the alert, saying it was a "regular" memo to inspectors at six airports and the 22nd such memo this year.

But he conceded the Pakistani link, saying: "It basically told them to be on the lookout for passengers that may have had certain activities or lack thereof when travelling to and from Pakistan." This, he said, is a regular occurrence, and there is no specific threat associated with it.

The June-17 Bulletin

"At the same time," he said, "we asked inspectors to look at certain activities of travellers coming into the U.S." The June-17 bulletin directs Federal inspectors to focus on foreign travellers, naturalised U.S. citizens or legal Permanent Residents (Green Card-holders) of Pakistani descent "who exhibit evidence of suspicious travel, including short trips to Pakistan not related to family or business." The suspicious travellers are to be directed by primary inspectors at the six airports to secondary inspections, where more detailed checks are made.

The bulletin noted that persons who trained at terrorist camps may exhibit certain features the inspectors might be able to readily identify, including rope burns on the arms and legs from rappelling training (moving down steep; inclines as in mountaineering with double ropes), unusual bruises from obstacle courses, and wounds or scars that might have occurred during firearm or explosives training.

Concerns of US Intelligence

U.S. intelligence officials are concerned, according to the bulletin, that persons trained in Pakistani camps could be intent on "committing illegal activities in the US." Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security announced this week a dozen commercial airline pilots and crew members from foreign countries were banned from flying into the US after background checks showed suspected ties to terrorists or other criminal activity.

Homeland Security officials scrutinized 450,000 crew members who have flown into the U.S. since March and found nine pilots with suspected terrorist ties, two crew members carrying fake passports and a third with an arrest record for assaulting a police officer.

The officials said the countries of origin of the flight crew members could not be released because of legal concerns. Government officials also inspected 2.7 million truckers licensed to carry hazardous material and flagged 29 drivers with suspected links to terrorist opertions.●