Feds’ cross-purposes trap student
BY STEPHEN BUTTRY
Omaha World-Herald
Published Monday
December 6, 2004Banaz Ali’s studies in the United States - sponsored by the federal government - included a firsthand lesson in the federal government’s security system.
At 7 a.m. on Oct. 29, two FBI agents and two agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement knocked on the door of the dormitory apartment that Banaz Ali shares with three other students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
The agents led Ali away in handcuffs, interrogated her and placed her in a cell.
All because of faulty computer data.
We are starting to blame these types of situations on “faulty computer data”? This reminds me of Janet Jackson blaming her incident on a “wardrobe malfunction”. It sounds a little fishy to me.
Counts said the immigration agents used a string of argumentative terms to describe Ali: defiant, belligerent, hostile, sarcastic, antagonistic. She laughed derisively during the interrogation, he said. “Things would have gone much more quickly and much more smoothly if she had cooperated.”
Ali confirmed that she argued with agents, laughed and scolded one for being rude after he ignored her when she spoke.
She said they didn’t want to let her dress before leaving, but she insisted. They made her leave the bedroom door open a crack, she said. She said an agent stood behind her in the bathroom as she brushed her teeth.
The agents insisted on handcuffing her. “I asked, ‘Are you going to put chains on my legs, too?’”
Are we supposed to feel sorry for the government? This woman was taken away in handcuffs because of “faulty computer data”. God forbid she defends herself and causes an inconvenience to the agents. Way to go Rosa Parks, I mean Banaz Ali! Way to stand up to for your rights!
In the car, Ali, a petite woman, began to worry. She recalled thinking, “I’m going with four huge men and I don’t know where they came from and why they are taking me.”
She said her questions annoyed the agents. She asked whether she would miss the election the next Tuesday. Ali said an agent responded sarcastically, “What, are you going to vote?”
She said no, but UNO officials were going to take the PLUS students to the polls to observe the election. With Iraq’s first free elections scheduled for Jan. 30, Ali said, “It’s a very special experience to see that.”
She cares more about democracy and voting than most people that go to college and can actually vote.
Ali said she responded, “This is not my fault.”
She was right about that, all the agencies involved agree.
Agencies give differing accounts of who really was at fault.
Counts, of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, blamed the State Department for entering data improperly.
A State Department spokeswoman blamed “technical glitches” in the SEVIS system. MacDonald, who was in Omaha at the time checking up on PLUS students, also blamed SEVIS.
This sounds a lot like the Bush Administration. No one is willing to stand up and take responsibility.
Also, why did it take a month for us to hear about this? Is the press or the government trying to hide something? Where are the investigative journalists at the UNO Gateway when need them?
does anyone know when they finally let her out and howmany days she was in there without a lawyer or anything like that?
What did they initially accuse her of being guilty of? Some of those are too hardcore towards thier jobs. I was active duty air force for 8 years and rarely dealt with personalities like that. It’s disgusting!