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secrets inexplicable no-fly lists are one of the many weapons that the U.S. government used to punish American Muslims alternative

In early November, I wrote about the history Saadiq maddeningly long, 43 years, African-American Muslim - despite never having been charged with any crime - has been in a list of the secret flight ban and therefore banned from flying to the United States to visit his sick mother. When I met earlier in November in Doha, Qatar, where he lived for several years with his wife and two children while teaching English, was in the middle of its month futile battle only what who was on the list, let alone how it could be deleted.

Two weeks after the article was published, Long - without explanation - was finally removed from the list of fly and flew from Doha to Oklahoma City to visit his mother and other family members. It took several flights to travel 20 hours, all without incident. Oklahoma was the last ten weeks, visiting family in the United States for the first time more than a decade.

Long

But now - without knowing it - has again been placed secret apparently for some state security bureaucrat unknown in the national list of flight ban. On the night of Wednesday to The Associated Press first reported, it was Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City to fly to Qatar. To ensure that there were no problems, his lawyer sent a letter to FBI prematurely stating that Long would go home at that time (see embedded chart below).

But without explanation, Long was denied a boarding pass at the airport by a member of Delta Airlines. Three local police then arrived, followed by a U.S. Transportation Security Administration agent, "Long said he could not fly, but gave no specific reason."

Long

lawyer, Adam Soltani Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was with him at the airport and repeatedly asked why the officers what happened and should contact the . There was no answer, but said he had contacted the FBI. However, the FBI and Delta declined to comment on the AP, while the TSA said spokesman David Castelveter only this:

"I think this person was denied boarding by the airline because he was on a no-fly list. TSA does not confirm whether a person is or is not fly in the list, and this list is maintained by the FBI. "

CAIR Long and his lawyers have so far not said why he was banned from flying again.

The personal cost to this injustice is obvious and important. Long work that must return to Doha, who has been absent for more than two months, and your family need this income for their livelihood. "I was very disappointed when he could not board the flight on Wednesday," Long said through his lawyer. "My family feels crushed in Qatar that I will not return home as planned."

The feeling of humiliation and anger should not be difficult to understand. Imagine being an American citizen, was denied the right to return home - first in their own country, and then back to his family - a government that has never been charged with any crime nor have indicated that engaged in wrongdoing of any kind. Imagine that you go to the airport and local and federal agents came to avoid flying, treated like a criminal - a terrorist - no specific allegations. "I do not understand how the government can deprive me of the right to travel without even telling me," he said in November. "If the U.S. government wanted to ask questions or stop or continue, I might have been a minute., But no charges, no fees, nothing."

But what is particularly outrageous is that, if they had evidence that Long has done nothing wrong, you could easily have stopped at any time during the last ten week while he was in the United States. The reality is that they could stop at any time during the past decade, he has lived in three countries with the United States very loyal and autocracies: Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. But he has never been arrested, never charged with anything - only denied the fundamental right to travel.

That's what CAIR Gadeir Abbas told me about it Thursday:

"It is not as if the FBI believed to be a threat actually Saadiq If this is the case -. And I had actual proof. - The FBI has shut down As you know, I let fly a few months ago. turns out, however, the only reason to do so because it is, according to the FBI, a little more indefensible to prevent an American citizen to go home than to continue to fly abroad.

"And because we told the FBI were prematurely when Saadiq fly, simply perform a criminal, who had stuck an air marshal with him. Could be subjected him and his luggage. Of greater control But the FBI does not do these things because No Fly list is not used to protect aircraft

How can you say otherwise? Even leaving aside that zipped in and around the United States less than three months without incident, the idea of ??representing a threat for this flight is patently ridiculous given their prior knowledge and it flew multiple precautions they can take if they really cared.

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