- Jeff,
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- The following occurred to a friend of mine...
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- ATROCITIES IN AMERICAN AIRPORTS
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- If you, or someone from your family, have any plan
to visit the US in a near future, I strongly suggest you to continue
reading this text, where I describe the experiences I had in LA
International Airport, late Feb 24, 2002.
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- My name is Ricardo Abude E. Da Silva, I'm an
Electronic Engineer graduated in 1982 and today am managing our
family's businesses in the farming sector. My email is
ricabude@cpunet.com.br . Throughout my 42 years of age I've travelled
several times to the US, both on business and tourism. Late Feb 23 I
embarked in Rio heading to LA, in possession of my third Visa to the
US, issued in November 1999, and valid until November 2009.
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- I was aware of the increased airport security for US
trips, due to Sep 11 attacks, and in Rio International Airport one can
already notice the routine change, but I could have never imagined
what would happen next.
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- From now on I describe, step by step, the horrendous
and unimaginable nightmare that I went through :
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- Saturday Feb 23 21:50 hrs I depart from Rio with
Varig flight RG 8836, going to LA.
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- Sunday Feb 24 07:00 hrs I arrive in LA and proceed
towards passport control. The officer looks at my Passport for about
five minutes, and asks me to proceed towards an INS office known as
'Secondary One'. It is the first time something like that happens to
me, but I imagine I´m going to be interviewed for additional
information concerning my stay. 'Extra safety measures....' I
thought.
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- Sunday Feb 24 07:30 hrs A Second officer asks me to
collect all my luggage and accompany him inside Secondary One. "...the
interview is going to be in there." I thought again. All of a sudden,
I am brutally pushed inside a 2x2 yd cell, all my luggage, money,
documents and personnal belongings are confiscated, and they take away
my belt and shoe strings. As I protest against the unexpected
treatment, the two officers respond with loud screams and threats of
beating me and keeping me confined. I am violently pushed against the
wall, they frisk me from head to toe, and all my personnal belongings
are searched. Again I´m pushed against the wall, my picture is taken,
I'm fingerprinted and am finally thrown into a filthy, stinky,
unventilated hall, already crowded with people. I notice, by their
looks, that they've gone through the same 'ritual', and even though I
am still stunned by the long flight, the jet lag, and mainly by the
violent, outraging disrespect of civil and human rights, I face the
crude fact of life "there's no such thing as interviews - I'm a
prisoner."
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- Sunday Feb 24 09:00 hrs The scene resembles a Greek
tragedy, a 4x4 yd room, filthy chairs, a stinking black carpet, no
ventilation, huge 50" TV turned on all the time volume blasting.
Tired, hungry people, sick people, people throwing up....worried about
a friend, who was waiting for me outside the airport I ask for a phone
call.
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- - "Shut-up! No phone calls." - They answered.
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- Sunday Feb 24 10:00 hrs Arrested, hungry, thirsty,
no communication, and without the slightest ideia of what was going to
happen next, I noticed the continuos flow of tourists coming to our
cell and I face the degrading scandal the very same treatment is given
to women, teenagers, children even elderly people a truly barbarian
act ! Revolted, I witness two INS officers arguing over the priviledge
of frisking the prettiest ladies, without any concern of hiding their
sickening lust from their respective fathers, husbands or brothers,
doing their commentaries, invitations, and obscene declarations right
on their faces.
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- - "I've just frisked a disgusting latino....now it's
my turn to frisk this Italian fox !" stated an Officer to his
coleague, refering to the wife of an Italian tourist. The blunt
disrespect made my stomach churn in revolt....
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- Kicking, pushing, screaming, threathening, heavily
armed bullies displayed their brutallity, prejudice, and arrogance
upon the constant flow of tourists coming into our cell, getting more
and more crowded by the minute, holding an unbearable
stench....
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- Sunday Feb 24 14:00 hrs After seven hours of ordeal,
I'm finally taken to an almost surrealistic "interview" with Officer
Sanchez, and Officer Lee, both subordinate to Officer Green, from INS.
He "explains" to me that since all my papers and my Visa were in
perfect order, he would "kindly" give me two options :
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- - The first was to sign a document in which I
"requested" the withdrawal of my Visa, returning to Brazil in the
first available flight.
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- - If I refused to sign the hoax I'd be arrested for
an undetermined period and he'd start a compulsory deportation
process, sending me back to my Country thus.
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- A important detail on the "deal" - so long as I
refused to sign the document I'd not receive any food, or water. What
would you choose? Oh well, me, too.
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- Sunday Feb 24 16:00 hrs I am taken, with another
five "prisoners" to a different cell. We are all handcuffed, and
escorted by armed officers, we are made to stroll through the airport
lounge. The terrified tourists make way, frightened by the grotesque
scene. They take us all to a van, parked outside the terminal, and
transfer us to the other cell. The humiliation is suffocating
....
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- - Sunday Feb 24 17:00 hrs Apparently, they have
forgotten to make me sign a few forms at the Secondary One, so I'm
taken again for a couple of strolls ( going there and coming back ) in
the Airport Lounge. Those strolls remember are with cuffs and
'escorts.'
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- Sunday Feb 24 18:00 hrs Due to my unceasing
protests, they finally allow me to make a phone call. I contact a
Lawyer in LA, in the hope he´d get me out of that hell, but the
information I get from him is even more surprising, and
disheartening:
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- - "Ricardo, the INS grounds at the Airport are not
legally considered American soil, so I cannot invoke any civil right
to take you out of there..." he tells me. How about that ???
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- In other words, I realize I'm in a no-man's land, a
lawless place, arrested by arbitrary Nazis in the guise of INS
Officers, that, due to this legal technicality, have the power to do
whatever they please with you and what is worse with your family. I
start to dream of the moment of catching a plane back home to
Brazil.....however, before that, I'd still have to go through the
worst night of my life.....
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- Night of Sunday to Monday Feb 25 I start to dread
the moment in which tiredness is going to win the battle and make me
lie down on those filthy chairs. It´s very cold, but even so, the
prospect of using the slimy blankets is not at all attractive. Five
officers are in the night shift, and feeling bored, they pass time
kicking "disgusting Chinese", cursing "stupid niggers", threatening
"filthy latinos". Our uneducated officers are unable to articulate
three consecutive words without using the "F.." word, and we spend the
night immersed in this sea of racial prejudice, brutallity, violence,
arrogance and cowardice.
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- A curious note : our cell had two immense posters
hanging on the walls. Look at that one was a huge map of Brazil, and
the other was a picture of Ouro Preto, an historical city in Central
Brazil. Both seemed to convey a silent, but eloquent invitation
.....
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- Monday Feb 25 13:00 hrs After the worse 30 hours of
my life, two armed officers escort me to my plane ( Varig flight RG
8837 ) and deliver my passport to the stewardess. They set guard by
the plane door until take off. Just a last minute humiliation I
guess....
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- Tuesday Feb 26 07:30 hrs I arrive tired, but
immensely happy in Cumbica International Airport, in SP. I call my
girlfriend Sarah in Belo Horizonte. After her recovery from the
initial shock and the necessary explanations I invite her to celebrate
our unexpected meeting with a trip to Ouro Preto, of course!
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- I relate this unfortunate episode hoping to bring
these facts to light, to a wider number of people. Maybe those who,
like me, were planning an innocent trip to this country might think
twice before permitting their wifes, parents and children to be
subjected to this infamous tribe of uncivilized barbarians. Daily, in
every American Airport, hundreds of people from the four corners of
the world are falling into the claws of these arrogant, racist,
brutes, barbarian Nazis, and I think every single citizen of the globe
shall contribute in whichever way they can to end this grotesc stain
from the face of the free world.
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- The terrorists put down WTC twin towers, but they
will achieve a far greater victory if they succeed in bending down the
spirit, the values and ideals that guided America since it's very
birth as an independent Nation.
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- Having visited the US so many times, and knowing
with reasonable depth the history of this Country, I must say that the
attitudes and methods of the INS Officers do not reflect the way of
being and thinking of the majority of the American People, and surely
do not reflect the values and ideals I referred to above. However, the
overwhelming majority of the thousands of tourists that are going
daily through this sad experience in American Airports do not have
this perspective, and they are going back to their countries carrying
in their hearts the seeds of hatred, violence and intolerance that end
up germinating in tragedies such as Sep 11.
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- To Mr G. Bush one suggestion: in the attempt to
erradicate the World of terrorism and it's "Evil Axis", start at home
in the American Immigration and Naturalization Service INS.
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- A very important note: this narrative would not be
complete without doing justice to Victor, one of the INS officers. He
came into our cell Monday morning. Right when I lay my eyes on him I
noticed a different glow, quickly explained by his attitudes he'd take
care of one of us, feed and give water to another, he was always ready
to help, at least send a smile, say a friendly word.... He moved like
a star, shedding light into the darkness. I had the priviledge to talk
with him for a few minutes, when I had the chance to convey my
admiration, respect and gratitude for what he was doing for all those
people, brutally subjected to such a painful experience. Son of
Mexican Immigrants, educated in India, and possessing a spirituality
impossible to hide behind such shinning eyes, this man, who represents
so well the best of the East and the West told me simply "Ricardo, I
don't do much, all I can do is try to transmit to these people a
little compassion, a little love...."
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- May God always guard you and bless you Victor, as
you guard and bless so many.... A last suggestion to the US President:
consider promoting Victor to the post of Foreign Relations Minister,
what he deserves more than anyone. I'm certain that, in a very short
time, he'd reverse the already beaten up image of the US with the rest
of the world. His attitude reflect perfectly the spirit and the values
that have created America, and proves that one cannot possilbly combat
terrorism by becoming himself a terrorist one should employ that
ancient technique: turning the other cheek.
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- Finally, I want to say that I have already done the
following :
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- * Filed a formal complain at the American Embassy in
Brasilia.
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- * Filed a formal complain at the Brazilian Foreign
Affairs Ministry
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- * Send a copy of this text in Portuguese and in
English to the Internet, newspapers, magazines, websites, and Human
Rights International Institutions.
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- * I hereby authorize any individual or corporation
to divulge or reproduce this text partially or in its entirety, making
it a public domain, as I believe this case is.
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- May God bless us all.
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- Ricardo Abude E. da Silva
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