User:Geo Swan/Review/Asif Iqbal (Rochester, NY)
 | This is not a Wikipedia article: It is an individual user's rough notes page, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable. |
See User:Geo Swan/Stale drafts#Scaffolding
Asif Iqbal is a management consultant, a legal resident of the United States, born in Pakistan. He is notable because he plans to sue the US government because he is regularly detained when he tries to fly, because he has the same name as a former Guantanamo detainee.[1][2][3] Iqbal first started to be detained while flying in February 2002.[4] His problems with the "no-fly-list" have triggered comment back in Pakistan.[5][6]
Iqbal is a legal resident of the United States since the early 1990s. He is a graduate of the University of Texas.[3][7]
In an article about widespread problems with the "no-fly-list" Jane Black, writing in Business Week, described the first occasion when he was blocked from flying.[8] He was detained, and questioned, and shortly after he missed his flight, airline and security officials established that he was who he said he was. They assured him that this would not happen again. However, when he arrived at the airport the next day, to finally complete his trip, he was detained again. Iqbal was eventually informed that he could expect to be detained, because his name matched that of another individual, each and every time he flew.
Iqbal wrote to his Congressional Representative, Louise Slaughter, stating[8]:
- "I completely understand the measures taken by airport security since the September 11 attacks. But isn't American airport-security technology more advanced than this current program?"
- "I expected so much more from the United States government and find myself very disappointed by it at this time."
Jessica Wehrman, writing in the Deseret Evening News, described Iqbal's unsuccessful attempts to appeal to the Transportation Security Administration to get his name removed from the list.[9] Iqbal described the embarrassment he feels when other passengers see him being detained, and how they continue to look upon him with mistrust if security officials are able to clear him in time to catch his flight.
Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, told Wehrman that Iqbal should have appealed to his organization's ombudsman.[9] Iqbal says he has repeatedly appealed to the organization's staff, and that one staff member suggested he should deal with his problem by officially changing his name.
Iqbal's work requires a lot of travel, and, even though the Guantanamo detainee has been released, his name remains on the no-fly list, and Iqbal the software consultant experiences frequent, highly unpleasant, unpredictable delays and missed flights.[10]
In August 2004 Iqbal sued CBS Evening News for airing a picture of him, identifying him as the Guantanamo captive.[11]
On 13 April 2005 Iqbal added the Associated Press to the lawsuit.[4] He claimed that the Associated Press used a photo of him, originally used to illustrate his mistaken identity problems, to illustrate articles about his namesake, the former Guantanamo captive. He claimed that the Associated Press had distributed his photo accompanying stories about his namesake in May, August and October of 2004.
References
[edit]- ^ "Due Process Vanishes in Thin Air". Wired. 2003-04-08. Retrieved 2006-10-13. mirror
- ^ "NYCLU Calls For Relief For New York Man In Mistaken Identity "No Fly" Dilemma". New York Civil Liberties Union. 2004-03-29. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
- ^ a b "Wrong Name, or Wrong System?". American Civil Liberties Union. 2003-06-06. Retrieved 2008-11-24. mirror
- ^ a b "Businessman Sues AP After He Ends Up on Terror Lists". Editor and Publisher. 2005-04-13. Retrieved 2008-11-23. mirror
- ^ "Confusion over identity". Dawn (newspaper). 2004-04-01. Retrieved 2008-09-28. mirror
- ^ "US 'no-fly' list to be challenged". Dawn (newspaper). 2004-04-07. Retrieved 2008-09-28. mirror
- ^ "Stories about the "No Fly" Lists". American Civil Liberties Union. 2003-06-06. Retrieved 2008-11-24. mirror
- ^ a b Jane Black (2003-04-15). "The System That Doesn't Safeguard Travel". Business Week. Retrieved 2008-11-22. mirror
- ^ a b Jessica Wehrman (2003-09-11). "For Muslims in U.S., nightmare continues". Deseret Evening News. Retrieved 2008-11-23. mirror1, mirror2
- ^ Pakistani American Repeatedly Detained: Mistaken identity confuses security authorities, Asian Week, April 9 2004
- ^ "Pittsford man will sue CBS for defamation". Daily Record, Rochester, NY. 2004-08-17. Retrieved 2008-11-25. mirror
External links
[edit]- "Profiled: for one New York businessman, sharing his name with a terrorist has been a yearlong nightmare". National Catholic Report. 2002-09-06. Retrieved 2008-11-22. mirror
- Julia Malone (2003-06-05). "Immigrants tell of harsh actions during anti-terror sweep". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
Asif Iqbal, a New Yorker who was born in Pakistan and who has the misfortune of sharing a name with a terrorist suspect, said he faces an ordeal every time he attempts to board an airplane because his name is on a 'no-fly' list.
mirror - Ralph R. Ortega (2002-05-21). "HE'S TOLD NAME JUST WON'T FLY". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2008-11-23. mirror
- "Glitches repeatedly delay innocent air travelers". USA Today. 2003-06-24. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
- "Big Brother's No-Fly List". No. 1210. Revolutionary Worker. 2003-08-17. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
- Mucahit Bilici (2012). Finding Mecca in America: How Islam Is Becoming an American Religion. University of Chicago Press. p. 130-131. ISBN 9780226922874.