chicago tribune staffer recounts hellish trip to nyc

[tami]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp..._display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001434869

'Tribune' Staffer Recounts Hellish Trip to NYC

By E&P Staff

Published: November 06, 2005 12:15 AM ET

NEW YORK "In this day and age, it's hard for me to travel anywhere," wrote Ahmad A. Ahmad, 22, a Chicago Tribune editorial assistant, in an article for the newspaper on Sunday. He explained that he is Middle Eastern "and I speak with an accent. I've been living in the U.S. for 12 years."

Then he described a recent trip from hell.

Ahmad had decided to take a train from Chicago to visit his sister in New York City, because he was sick of getting closely questioned eight out of every 10 times he travels by air. After a train derailed up ahead, he and other passengers were stranded in upstate New York.

Waiting for a bus, he talked to a middle-aged white man, then called his mother, talking to her in Arabic. He noticed the white man whispering something in his girlfriend's ear. The story continues as follows.

*

Once on the bus, the man stepped inside the bathroom. He was there for quite a while. Before long, his girlfriend joined him inside.

This was all a bit odd.

I heard sirens approaching, and the bus suddenly came to a stop on the side of the highway. Police cars came -- so many I couldn't even begin to count them. The man and his girlfriend ran down the aisle, past me, and off the bus.

We all stepped out to see what happened.

There was the stranger, pointing to me, "He is going to blow up the Amtrak!"

The man told police he understood Arabic and had overheard my conversation. He thought I was talking to some terrorist cell when I was chatting with my mother.

The police put me in the back of their vehicle. Dogs were sniffing around, and officers from the state Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Unit were interviewing my fellow bus passengers.

My cell phone was low on battery and had turned off, but they would not turn it back on. For all they knew, it could have been a bomb. I was shocked, confused, speechless.

The authorities questioned me for nearly three hours at an Albany police station. They asked me where I was from, whether I was a United States citizen, who I knew in New York City, who I worked for, and why I was traveling alone.

I answered every question in a calm and collected demeanor.

The officers were, for the most part, courteous and understanding of my situation.

One officer, Investigator James L. Rogers of the New York State Police, would later call me twice to make sure I made it to New York City with no hassles. Once the police realized the man couldn't actually speak Arabic, they knew the allegations were baseless, and that he was a wacko, hell-bent on deporting every Muslim back to the Middle East.

Just when I was leaving, I saw that man again.

He cursed at me and called me a terrorist. "Come and fight me!" he yelled. "You're lying out of your teeth! You know you want to blow up the Amtrak!"

I know people say Americans are living in a new America, after what happened on that Tuesday morning four years ago.

For the majority of Muslims, who are peaceful, law-abiding citizens, we, too, are living in a new America.

This is our reality.

 

Sad. On another note though, when i flew into Newark NJ, a couple of months after 9/11, i was stopped and searched 7 times to and from. Its the new world we live in sadly.

 

[yobarman]

Terrible time to be a Muslin

It's assholes like this that girl Americans a bad name. Sadly there's a lot of them. Makes me sick to my stomach.

 

[olds]

Oh well.

 

[TallBill]

at least the authorities handled it it a calm matter.. it sucks that it happened though.

 

[myusername]

pisser that the accuser can't be prosecuted.

 

[EvilYoda]

Ouch...at least he had a way to voice his story and have it heard/read. People that make completely unsubstanciated accusations like that guy and his g/f should have to appear before a court or something...I know, wouldn't work...but they shouldn't be able to get away with "well he spoke Arabic on a cell phone = terrorist".

 

[iamwiz82]

Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Originally posted by: myusername
pisser that the accuser can't be prosecuted.

Agreed. Asshat to the ninth degree.

 

[DorkBoy]

Who cares, I don't

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

yes yes everyone should speak English at all times. after all we know that anyone that speaks Arabic is a terrorist!

 

[Vic]

Just another nutjob Arab-hater. This story doesn't tell us we live in a "new America," it just tells us that the usual nutjobs still exist. I've said it here before, I'll say it again. A single specific isolated instance does not provide enough evidence with which to make a general theory. The actions of one nutjob Arab-hater does not prove that all of America feels the same way.
Hopefully, the nutjob can be charged with falsifying a police report or similar.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

yes yes everyone should speak English at all times. after all we know that anyone that speaks Arabic is a terrorist!

That is how people think, as this proves, as does the fact that he got targetted 8 out of 10 times to be searched. How do you plan on stopping people from typecasting others?

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

yes yes everyone should speak English at all times. after all we know that anyone that speaks Arabic is a terrorist!

not everyone who speaks Arabic is a terrorist obviously, but most terrorists speak Arabic (or something that sounds like Arabic to those who don't know). I honestly feel bad for people of the same race/look as Bin Laden and his people. It has to be tough for them in America, but at the same time people have to realize that Americans are trying to protect themselves too.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

yes yes everyone should speak English at all times. after all we know that anyone that speaks Arabic is a terrorist!

That is how people think, as this proves, as does the fact that he got targetted 8 out of 10 times to be searched. How do you plan on stopping people from typecasting others?

Bigotry should not be tolerated with accomodation.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

yes yes everyone should speak English at all times. after all we know that anyone that speaks Arabic is a terrorist!

That is how people think, as this proves, as does the fact that he got targetted 8 out of 10 times to be searched. How do you plan on stopping people from typecasting others?

Bigotry should not be tolerated with accomodation.

I completely agree, but that will never happen. I am merely saying if I were of arab decent I would protect myself against stupid people. You really have to, unfortunately.

 

[tami]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

actually, yiddish, which is a combination of german and hebrew, is frequently spoken in some of the most ultra-orthodox jewish communities in the US.

i learned a bit of it in college. my grandparents speak it as well. i can pick up some german here and there through conversations from what i've learned. they are amazingly similar languages.

 

[Baked]

LOL @ the guy's name. Ahmad Ahmad. Poor guys should've painted his face white and dyed his hair blond.

 

[tami]

Originally posted by: Baked
LOL @ the guy's name. Ahmad Ahmad. Poor guys should've painted his face white and dyed his hair blond.

i know a guy named joseph joseph.

 

[BMdoobieW]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

I haven't stopped taking photos of trains and subways since 9/11. It's my hobby. It was my hobby before 9/11. I'm not going to allow the terrorists to kill my hobby. Sure I get stopped by the police once in a while, and sure it sucks and it's wrong, but I will prevail.

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: tami

Originally posted by: Baked
LOL @ the guy's name. Ahmad Ahmad. Poor guys should've painted his face white and dyed his hair blond.

i know a guy named joseph joseph.

*Remembers the episode of Friends w/ the doctor named Bobby Bobby and LOLs.*

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

while i really feel for the guy in this story, he should not have been speaking Arabic into his cellphone. yes it is sad that we live in the world that we do, but you have to have common sense if you expect not to be harrassed.

 

[Gunther]

There are a few people saying he shouldn't have been speaking Arabic, but what if his mom only understood Arabic?

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Common sense would tell me not to speak German while in a post WW2 Jewish nieghborhood, it would also tell me not to speak arabic while on a phone on public transportation post 9/11. Yes it sucks, but that's the world in which we live.

Very well said.

However most people don't have common sense. Like this reporter.

 

[Kerouactivist]

This is insane..... It has to be stopped....

I guess "this is America" doesn't apply any more, or on second thought I guess it has just taken on knew meaning.......