Venezuelan official detained at JFK

They should have just thrown the guy in jail & called it a day, do I smell "set-up"

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Venezuelan official detained at JFK
By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 21 minutes ago
Venezuela's foreign minister said he was illegally detained for 90 minutes by officials at a New York airport and accused them of treating him abusively by trying to frisk and handcuff him.

U.S. officials called Saturday's incident regrettable and said they had apologized to Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Maduro called that insufficient and said Venezuela would seek a legal challenge through the U.N. to what he called a "flagrant violation of international law" and his diplomatic immunity.

"We were detained for an hour and a half, threatened by police with being beaten," Maduro told reporters at Venezuela's mission to the U.N. "We hold the U.S. government responsible."

A U.N. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Maduro's trip was delayed because he had showed up late without a ticket, prompting extra screening.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke denied that Maduro was mistreated at John F. Kennedy International Airport when he was selected for an added security check.

"He began to articulate his frustration with secondary screening right after he went through," a metal detector, Knocke said. "Port Authority officials confronted him when the situation became a ruckus."

Maduro said when one official ordered him to go to another room for a strip-search, he refused. He told CNN en Espanol that the official pushed him and yelled at him.

He told reporters the situation only worsened when he explained he was the Venezuelan foreign minister and showed his diplomatic passport.

Maduro said authorities at one point ordered him and other officials to spread their arms and legs and be frisked, but he said they forcefully refused. He said officers also threatened to handcuff him.

"We responded with the dignity of Venezuelan revolutionaries ... with strength," Maduro told reporters at Venezuela's mission to the U.N. "It's a Nazi government, a racist government."

If this is how U.S. authorities treat a foreign minister, he said, "what won't they do to Arab people for wearing a turban?"

He said his passport and ticket were seized and eventually returned, but the incident prevented him from flying home Saturday.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said it was a "regrettable incident" for which "the U.S. government has apologized."

The two countries' relations — strained for several years — took a particularly confrontational turn this week, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, speaking at the annual U.N. General Assembly, called President Bush "the devil." U.S. officials often call Chavez a threat to democracy.

Maduro told reporters that the treatment of him and other Venezuelan officials seemed in part to be an "attempt to provoke us."

He said about an hour and 20 minutes into his detention, he received a call from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, who apologized and said State Department officials were on their way to resolve the matter.

Five minutes later, State Department officials arrived and ordered Maduro and the others to spread their arms and legs to be frisked by police, he said.

Maduro said Venezuela has lodged a protest with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and that the incident should be investigated so that those responsible are punished. He said those who detained him did not make any particular accusations.

Earlier Saturday, Chavez said on Venezuelan television that U.S. officials had detained Maduro after linking him to a failed coup that Chavez led in 1992.

"They have held him accusing him of participating in terrorist acts," Chavez said in Venezuela. "He didn't even participate in that patriotic rebellion."

Chavez also said Bush may be seeking to kill him for calling him "the devil" at the U.N.

Venezuela is among the top five suppliers of crude to the U.S., but relations soured in 2002 after the Bush administration swiftly recognized leaders who briefly ousted Chavez in a coup.

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So he showed up late and tried to get through the checkpoint without a ticket. When he got a ticket (which made him a selectee because it was one way) he caused a disturbance at the secondary screening. PAPD was called because he was interfering with screening (chargeable by arrest and/or a civil penalty).

Not all foreign dignitaries are exempt from screening on a commercial flight, congress members aren't either. If he is exempt then his government's escort should have taken appropriate action. They also need to make notification to the State Department so there isn't a problem which I doubt was done.

Why wasn't he on a charter or his government's plane?

This is such a set up I hope people don't fall for it. I am surprised he didn't fall on the floor complaining of an injury.

I rest my case. The UN needs to move out of the US and we need to keep idiots like this out!!!

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New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Hot-air Hugo rips feds for holding aide
BY PAUL H.B. SHIN and JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Sunday, September 24th, 2006

Continuing his recent tirade against the United States, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday accused American officials of illegally detaining his foreign minister at Kennedy Airport.
Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro was stopped for more than an hour and stripped of his travel documents, Chavez told Venezuelan state television. "This is a provocation from Mr. Devil," said Chavez, repeating his controversial nickname for President Bush. He then charged U.S. officials alleged that Maduro had participated in a failed 1992 coup led by Chavez.

"They have held him accusing him of participating in terrorist acts here," said Chavez, before calling for Bush to resign. "He didn't even participate in that patriotic rebellion."

Maduro, who did not leave New York yesterday, called on UN Secretary General Kofi .Annan to condemn his seizure. "We denounce the U.S. government for violating international law," Maduro said.

Transportation Security Agency officials disputed Maduro's version of events, saying that its personnel at JFK were just following procedures. "He had not been individually selected based on his nationality or identity as foreign minister of Venezuela," said TSA spokesman Norm Brewer. "He never identified himself as a foreign minister prior to screening."

A law enforcement source said Maduro was taken aside for additional screening by American Airlines because he bought his ticket with cash just 30 minutes before takeoff, behavior that often prompts a closer look.

"If he simply said who he was, he could've had a State Department escort and only gone through the standard X-ray," said the source.

Instead of submitting to the screening, a confrontational Maduro then left the airport with the Venezuelan ambassador, Brewer said. "Contrary to the foreign minister's statements, he was never detained or isolated," said Brewer.

A day earlier, Chavez had accused the NYPD of cutting the power during his speech at Harlem's Mount Olivet Baptist Church to disrupt live transmission to his home country. The NYPD denied that. "The New York Police Department did not in any way interfere," Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.

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You got to love the Post headlines

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LOCO LATINO SAYS PAL STRIPPED AT JFK

By PHILIP MESSING

September 24, 2006 -- Fire and brimstone spewing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez charged yesterday that his foreign minister was detained for more than an hour by officials at JFK Airport - and even strip searched - before finally being permitted to fly home.

Chavez said U.S. officials cited Nicolas Maduro's alleged links to a failed 1992 coup in Venezuela as a reason to hold him.

"This is a provocation," Chavez said yesterday. "By whom? By Mr. Devil." At the United Nations last week, Chavez called President Bush a devil.

Maduro told CNN Español that he had to take off his clothes.

"They were violating diplomatic conventions," he told the Venezuelan TV station - adding he was told that a code on his ticket identified him as "almost a terrorist."

A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration said Maduro was never strip searched.

"He was never touched, never held and never detained," said Ellen Howe of the TSA.

A law-enforcement source said Maduro said, was acting like an "irate customer."

Despite the TSA denial, a State Department spokesman said: "The United States government apologized to Foreign Minister Maduro and the Venezuelan government."

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One of the key weapons in a dictator's arsenal to keep control of his country is the fabrication of national security threats. Hitler did it. Kim Jong-Il does it. And this past week, from the time he arrived to the time he left, Hugo Chavez did it from right here in New York.

This incident was actually the second time this week the Chavez regime accused the Bush administration of retaliation for his infamous speech at the UN. On Thursday, Chavez said the NYPD, under Bush's orders, cut the power on his satellite transmitter and roughed up some technical staff during his speech at a church in Harlem. :roll: