Anti-Afgan War Politician Taken off US-Bound American Airlines Jet in Toronto
American Airlines Boeing 777 (photo: Neville Crabbe/CBC)
A Pakistani politician known for his anti-American involvement in the Afgan war as well as the US drone attacks in the region was taken off an American Airlines plane at Toronto Pearson Airport on Friday.
Imran Khan was due to attend a fundraiser in New York but missed his plane due to an interrogation.
‘After the questioning, Mr. Khan himself tweeted about what happened. In his tweet, he said: “I was taken off from plane and interrogated by U.S. Immigration in Canada on my views on drones. My stance is known. Drone attacks must stop.” In the process, he missed his flight and could not make it to the fund-raising lunch in New York in time.
The Toronto Sun quoted U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) as refusing to divulge information on the interrogation, citing privacy laws. One CBP spokesperson said: “Our dual mission is to facilitate travel in the United States while we secure our borders, our people, and our visitors from those that would do us harm like terrorists and terrorist weapons, criminals and contraband. Under U.S. immigration law, applicants for admission bear the burden of proof to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the United States. In order to demonstrate that they are admissible, the applicant must overcome all grounds of inadmissibility.”’
Some organisations in the U.S. and Canada had objected to Mr. Khan’s visit on the ground that he was pro-Taliban.
Category: Airnation
How does everyone else feel about this? I’m kind of supportive of ICE disallowing potentially antagonistic and subversive foreign nationals from entering the US.
Anyone disagree?
I have seen this man play Cricket ( a traditional game using ball and bat originating in England and spread like wildfire throughout the Empire ) and have met with him and I found him to be an honourable man with deeply held thoughts about his people at home in Pakistan.
What I find distasteful is US border officials using foreign territory ( Canada ) to enforce this kind of treatment upon a man that by right has a measure of diplomatic protection given his parliamentary status at home.
His homeland has been used as a battleground between another State and the US/UK forces and many ‘innocent’ lives are lost as a result. Not only that, it is a robot in the sky doing the killing with a serviceman possibly hundreds of miles away in safety doing the killing so it is understandable for him to go to the country responsible to plead the case for more restraint if not better skills training for the operators of these drones.
Of course, I also know that the alternative is to send jets off a carrier or a land base risking the pilot being shot down or worse, dropping a bomb or firing a missile in error. However, treating this man as a criminal is wrong and not a worthy act of a great nation as is the USA.
“I have have met with him and I found him to be an honourable man”
The same has been said of Stalin, Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro … Appearances are often deceiving.
“What I find distasteful is US border officials using foreign territory ( Canada ) to enforce this kind of treatment upon a man that by right has a measure of diplomatic protection given his parliamentary status at home”
The guy is a security risk, Jennifer. What will it take to awaken the bleeding hearts/human rights chorus in this country -another terror attack on American soil? Airliners crashing into the CN Tower leaving hundreds or thousands dead?
“treating this man as a criminal is wrong and not a worthy act of a great nation as is the USA”?
Nonsense. Given what is known of Mr Khan’s anti-American views and activities, his treatment was measured and reasonable
Is it the ex cricketer?
Yes, now the leader of a political party and quite likely to be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan.
See http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/28/detention-imran-khan-drones for a British viewpoint.
Interesting, Sounds like they had some intelligence on him that they felt warranted the interrogation. Thanks Canada for the help. I am sure there are 2 sides of this but I tend to side on taking the precaution since there has just been a terrorist attempt up in NY with the guy trying to blow up a building in NYC.
“…secure our borders, our people, and our visitors from those that would do us harm like terrorists and terrorist weapons, criminals and contraband. Under U.S. immigration law, applicants for admission bear the burden of proof to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the United States.”
So was he disrupting border security, committing terrorism, carrying illegal weapons or contraband, or what? They are just allowed to knock someone of their flight since that someone supports a controversial subject?
Shawn, like I said earlier; I support ICE’s actions. If they feel this passenger and his movements demanded a little further oversight, I’m comfortable with that. Were he to have been detained without having made some fairly anti-American statements in the past, I may be more skeptical. This is pretty tame compared to how this would have been handled in some other countries.
This guy was not disrupting the flight at all.All he was trying to do was get to a fundraiser. He was a security threat? Give me a break, the border protection just happens to interrogate him so that he misses his flight to his fundraiser just because he doesn’t support robots killing his people. I know some who are killed are really militants but there are some that are innocent people who are killed.