Friday, March 12, 2010
Sen. Abbas Khan Afridi, head of the Pakistani parliamentary delegation
Six members of the legislature from Pakistan, invited to visit the United States by the State Deparatment, left the country early because they refused to go through additional screening at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC.
The delegation was planning to catch a domestic flight to New Orleans as part of their tour, but became insulted when two of them were pulled aside from other passengers and asked to undergo a full-body scan. Pakistan is one of 14 Muslim countries on a special government list requiring visitors to go through extra security screening before traveling by air throughout the U.S.
State Department officials reportedly told the Pakistani politicians that the U.S. was not a “VIP culture.” In Pakistan, lawmakers are exempted from procedures required of most citizens.
One of the politicians, Akhunzada Chitan, told a television program back home: “Going through a body scan makes you naked, and in making you naked, they make the whole country naked.”
-Noell Brinkerhoff
Upset by U.S. Security, Pakistanis Return as Heroes (by Jane Perlez, New York Times)
Fata Lawmakers Refuse Body Scanning in US, Fly Home (Dawn Media Group)
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