Geopolitics

US insult to Indian diplomats at airports
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By B Raman
Issue Net Edition | Date : 14 Dec , 2010

Even in the past, there had been instances of humiliating body searches of Indian diplomats and visiting dignitaries at US airports. The controversy over this has assumed serious dimensions following two recent incidents.

In the first incident reported on December 4,2010, Ms Meera Shankar, the Indian Ambassador to the US, was subjected to a hands-on (pat-down) body  search at an airport in Mississippi, even after her diplomatic status had been revealed. She  had been picked out of a security line at the Jackson-Evers International airport  reportedly because she was wearing a sari. She was taken to a separate room and searched.

This procedure was introduced after an incident on December 25, 2009, in which a Nigerian student trained by Al Qaeda in Yemen tried unsuccessfully to blow up a US plane over Detroit. He had concealed an improvised explosive device (IED) inside his underwear”¦

There was a similar incident  (date not clear, but reportedly two weeks ago) in which Hardeep Puri, the Indian Ambassador to the UN based in New York, was reportedly asked to remove his turban at an airport in Houston, Texas. When he refused to do so, he was detained in a “holding room” for about 30 minutes and was allowed to leave after a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official intervened. He reportedly declined to allow the security officials to subject him to a pat-down body research.

A pat-down search means patting the entire body from head to foot in order to see whether there is any concealed object attached to the body. The procedures provide for a pat-down of even genitals and breasts. Under new security procedures introduced earlier this year, airline passengers are required to undergo either a full body scan by an x-ray machine or a manual pat-down search. Anyone refusing to agree to one of them cannot board an aircraft.

This procedure was introduced after an incident on December 25, 2009, in which a Nigerian student trained by Al Qaeda in Yemen tried unsuccessfully to blow up a US plane over Detroit. He had concealed an improvised explosive device (IED) inside his underwear and taken advantage of the fact that at the Amsterdam airport where he boarded the plane there was no full body scanner at the departure gate through which he boarded. Nor was there a provision for a pat-down search.

The introduction of the new procedure in the US has come in for criticism from the travelling public in the US. According to the BBC, President Barack Obama has reportedly told the TSA: “You have to constantly refine and measure whether what we’re doing is the only way to assure the American people’s safety.” The BBC has also quoted Mrs.Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, as stating that  she would not submit to a security pat-down “if I could avoid it”. She added that everyone, “including our security experts, are looking for ways to diminish the impact on the travelling public” and that “striking the right balance is what this is about”.

The response  to the Indian protests has been typical “”with the State Department expressing its concern over the incident relating to Meera Shankar, but US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saying that  the pat-down search had been “appropriate”.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press spokesman, has said that the US airport security agency is “desperately” working to balance travellers’ privacy concerns with security needs.  Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole said in an interview to ABC television  that there would be no short-term changes, but added: “What I’m doing is going back and looking at, are there less invasive ways of doing the same type of screening?” These remarks by Obama,Mrs.Clinton and other officials were in response to the criticism from the US travelling public and not in response to the protests from the Government of India over the two incidents mentioned above.

The response  to the Indian protests has been typical —with the State Department expressing its concern over the incident relating to Meera Shankar, but US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saying that  the pat-down search had been “appropriate”.

These incidents draw attention once again to the differences that continue to prevail in the US between the State Department and the Homeland Security Department over courtesies to be extended to diplomats and visiting foreign dignitaries. While the State Department opposes such courtesies being sacrificed in the interest of security, the Homeland Security Department sticks to its position that the security of all passengers is paramount and that if a diplomat is to be subjected to the same procedures as others, so be it.

It remains to be seen whether there will be any improvement in the position in future as a result of the Indian protests. The conflict over diplomatic courtesies between Foreign Offices and the Security agencies is a global phenomenon. In Israel, there was a similar incident in 2007, when a senior British woman diplomat was subjected to body search by the Shin Bet security guards when she went to the Prime Minister’s office.

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

B Raman

Former, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai & Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat. He is the author of The Kaoboys of R&AW, A Terrorist State as a Frontline Ally,  INTELLIGENCE, PAST, PRESENT & FUTUREMumbai 26/11: A Day of Infamy and Terrorism: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

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