DETROIT -- An Ohio woman said Tuesday that she endured nearly four hours in police custody that included being forced off an airplane in handcuffs, strip-searched and interrogated at Detroit's airport on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks – all, she believes, because of her Middle Eastern appearance.
Shoshana Hebshi, 35, told The Associated Press she was one of three people removed from a Denver-to-Detroit Frontier Airlines flight after landing Sunday afternoon. Authorities say fighter jets escorted the plane after its crew reported that two people were spending a long time in a bathroom – the two men sitting next to Hebshi in the 12th row.
Hebshi said she didn't notice how many times the men went to the bathroom. "I wasn't keeping track," she said.
"I really wasn't paying attention," said Hebshi, a freelance writer, editor and stay-at-home mother of twin six-year-old boys who lives in a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. "I was minding my own business – sleeping, reading, playing on my phone."
The FBI has said the three didn't know each other. One man felt ill and got up to use the restroom and another man in the same row also left his seat to go to the bathroom. The FBI said they never were inside together.
Hebshi has written extensively on her blog about the incident, saying she felt "violated, humiliated and sure that I was being taken from the plane simply because of my appearance."
Hebshi, who describes herself as half-Arabic, half-Jewish with a dark complexion, told the AP after they landed, she noticed police first surrounding, then storming the plane. She said she was surprised when they stopped at her row and ordered her and the men to get up.
Her Twitter posts from Sunday bear that out. At one point, she wrote: "A little concerned about this situation. Plane moved away from terminal surrounded by cops. Crew is mum. Passengers can't get up."
Later she wrote, "I see stairs coming our way...yay!" Her last post said, "Majorly armed cops coming aboard."
It's then that she says the officers ordered her and the men, whom she described as Indian, to get up.
She said she was patted down and taken by car to a holding cell. A uniformed female officer eventually came in and told Hebshi to take off her clothes.
After the strip search, another officer who identified herself as a Homeland Security agent led Hebshi to another room, Hebshi said. There, a man who identified himself as an FBI agent asked her a series of questions while a female agent took notes, Hebshi said.
Hebshi said that when she asked what was going on, the male agent told her someone on the plane reported that she and the men on her row were "conducting suspicious activity."
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said the three passengers were questioned but not arrested before the FBI determined there was no reason to suspect or hold them. She also said FBI agents who questioned the passengers were not involved in any strip searches.
"We received a report of suspicious activity on that particular plane," Berchtold said. "We did not arrest ... these passengers. ... We didn't direct anybody to arrest them."
Airport police are under the supervision of the Wayne County Airport Authority, which operates Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
In an email to the AP, agency spokesman Scott Wintner said airport police "responded appropriately by following protocol and treating everyone involved with respect and dignity. "
Hebshi said that finally, after being fingerprinted and allowed to call her husband, she was told she and the men were being released and that nothing suspicious was found on the plane. She said an official apologized and thanked her for understanding and cooperating.
Hebshi said she received another call of apology from an FBI agent Monday, before she wrote her blog post.
"I can understand they were just doing their job," she told the AP. "My beef is with these laws and regulations that are so hypersensitive. ... Even if you're an innocent bystander, you have no rights."
AP left email and phone messages seeking comment Tuesday night with Frontier.
The flight was one of two for which fighter jets were scrambled Sunday after crews reported suspicious activity on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said. In both cases, it involved bathroom use. In neither case did authorities find anything to substantiate the suspicions.
On American Airlines flight 34 from Los Angeles, three passengers who made repeated trips to the bathroom were cleared after the plane safely landed at New York's Kennedy Airport.
Also Sunday, a GoJet Airlines flight bound for Washington was still on the runway in St. Louis when the pilot returned the aircraft to the gate and requested all passengers be re-screened after crew found paper towels stuffed in a toilet, according to a United Airlines spokesman. GoJet is a regional carrier for United.
___ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...1_lnk3%7C95389
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
this one more way the US Gov makes everyone a terrorist until temporally proven innocent. I served in the US Army, I disagree with my government, this makes me a terrorist by there standards. I would not even walk in a airport nowadays the TSA and security are way out of hand, they use scare tactics & propaganda to demonize Muslims & "home grown terrorist" to further restrict the sheep and take there wealth.
sorry if this is a little out there for you but I got out of the service Aug 08 of 2001 I found it very strange they changed our training weeks before, this caused me to look at things after 9/11, and being of Middle Eastern decent it was scary for awhile as many of you now, I played Mexican a number of times when shady people asked. finding islam 10 years later has been a wonderful thing
You're not ranting I find it consoling others are angry too all the people they interview for TV purposes seem to like hands up theirs.. When I was traveling from Utah to New York I refused their naked machine and they brought two women to search me & I screamed at them 'so it's either rape or pornography' my sis who was traveling with thought we'd spend the night in jail instead of going home but I was so incensed and couldn't figure out why others were ok with being led like cattle for pervs to view their body ... Sick sick sick .. They rob people if everything including their God bestowed dignity in the name of some meaningless slogan .. I am writing this from my iPhone so sorry for the typos lol and other syntax and grammar issues
in that case I am bound to die young I go into full rage in less than 29 seconds
I use to rage but after years of getting stopped by the police on a regular basis, I smile and use there goofy system and word games against them, I walk away smiling and they stand there pouting LOL of course I have problems with conflict
I can't believe their absurdity.. God forbid you've some hygiene Standards or have IBD.. Ugh I swear I think concentration camps are next for us.. I was just reading about a GOP candidate whose audience thought it was ok to let coma patients without insurance die and he defended it under freedom of speech ... I no longer think these people are human they're some sort of rabid animals ...
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
my first thought after the towers fell was "oh great im going to a camp", like the Japanese-americans in WW2
When 9/11 first happened, I hated Muslims. I wanted them all to die right then. I wanted them all rounded up and herded into camps. I bought into the lie of 9/11 for a long time. I even considered trying to enlist in the army again (even though I had already failed one mental evaluation test) and figured they would take me since they were taking anyone and everyone for the so-called "war on terror".
Anyway, back on topic.. I saw a picture of this woman, and to me she looks more Italian than anything. I would not have taken her for Middle Eastern myself.
But then like most white people, I can't tell a Mexican from an Arab from an Israeli half the time anyway.
Sadly, to most of us white folks, all brown people look the same.
When I was in the states, most americans I met thought I was a mexican
This reminds me of something that happened to me once.
Years ago, in college, I worked at a now-defunct grocery store chain. There was an Indian guy who also worked there. We would have a lot of Mexicans come into the store and many of them did not speak English. At the time I was studying Spanish in school and knew a fair bit of the language and was able to communicate with the Mexican shoppers. Many times I was the only employee who could do so.
Anyway, one time this mexican dude came in looking to buy a few things. The Indian guy was also at work at this time. Well the Mexican saw the Indian guy and must have thought he was Mexican too, because he walked up to Indian dude and started speaking Spanish. Well the Indian guy did not speak any Spanish and wasn't answering the Mexican. I noticed this and walked over there and asked the Mexican what he was looking for in Spanish.
Mexican dude stops, looks at me, looks at Indian, and looks back at me. The look on his face was something I will never forget. It was like he had stepped into the Twilight Zone. All was not right in his world that day.
you should read this woman's blog..her father or grandfather is Saudi..how does that make her half Jewish though is yet to be determined unless he was from banu quryzah or something..strange world..
BTW Muslims come in all shapes sizes and colors in my family the colors run the gamut..especially if you have Turks in your ancestry .. I suspect most people have dealt with a Muslim they didn't suspect was one..
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
you should read this woman's blog..her father or grandfather is Saudi..how does that make her half Jewish though is yet to be determined unless he was from banu quryzah or something..strange world..
BTW Muslims come in all shapes sizes and colors in my family the colors run the gamut..especially if you have Turks in your ancestry .. I suspect most people have dealt with a Muslim they didn't suspect was one..
To me, there is a difference between an Israeli and a Jew. Israelis are born in Israel. Most Israelis happen to be Jewish., and many Israelis look like Arabs to me, with dark skin and brown eyes. If you put a Palestinian next to an Israeli, more than likely I'm not going to know which is which until you tell me who is who.
Most Jews are not Israelis. Most Jews (at least those in the US) are converts to Judaism. This is why most Jews in the US look like regular white dudes to me, because they are for all intents and purposes. They just happen to have converted to Judaism. Richard Dreyfuss is Jewish but he's not Israeli. Richard Dreyfuss looks like a regular white guy to me.
I have also seen fair-skinned Turks with blonde hair and blue eyes. It is a common misconception in the West that most Muslims are Arabs, when in fact the majority of Muslims are not Arabs. I know that Indonesia is in fact the largest Muslim country in the world. Most Indonesians look like any other Asians to me. I wouldn't know they were Muslim except for their dress.
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