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Home Front: WoT
Imams removed From Flight in November Say They Will Sue
2007-03-13
Filed under WoT because these six were provocateurs, and they know it.
MINNEAPOLIS -- Six Islamic leaders who were removed from a U-S Airways flight say they'll sue the airline for discrimination. The Council on American-Islamic Relations says it will provide details on the lawsuit tomorrow at a Washington news conference.

Six imams returning to Phoenix from a religious conference in November were taken off a plane in Minneapolis, handcuffed, and questioned. They had prayed in the airport before the flight, and after they boarded, a passenger who considered them suspicious passed a note to a flight attendant.
Of course the AP doesn't bother to tell us exactly what the imams were doing that was so suspicious.
When the men returned to the airport the next day, the airline refunded their fares and refused to sell them new tickets.

A U-S Airways spokeswoman did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press, but the airline has said prayer was never the issue.
Posted by:Steve White

#18  The attorney representing the Flying Imans is the president of the NY chapter of CAIR.

He is (or was) also an appointee of the mayor (some civil rights commission or something)
Posted by: mhw   2007-03-13 21:04  

#17  I'm sorry those six Muzzy bastards didn't get an old-fashioned Rodney King-style ass whipping in the airport followed by a swift trial and five years in PTITA prison. When they got out and were deported to KSA on Saudi Airlines, at least the magic rock and piece of steel would fit better.
Posted by: Mac   2007-03-13 17:56  

#16  The imams know it'll cost US Air more money to fight than to simply cave into a financial settlement.

I'm sure the settlement would include a gag order. AP would spin that straight to hell for sure. I wonder if the negative/non-positive publicity resulting from a settlement would be better or worse than spending a few extra bucks for crushing these @$$holes. They could even ask people to ride for an extra $5 to help defray the costs of a lawsuit. It would be interesting to see how many "votes" they got!
Posted by: gorb   2007-03-13 17:08  

#15  The discovery process on this lawsuit would be fabulous;

Love to see how Keith Ellison comes down on this. The Minneapolis Star Tribune; a leftist piece of swill that otherwise serves as a agiprop pad for raising taxes, respecting Islam, etc. found that over 90% of respondents thought the Imans were in the wrong.

CAIR got burned bad when they tried to use the court system to fight a low traffic blogger who implies they had terrorist connections.

Posted by: mhw   2007-03-13 15:23  

#14  Guess they should've shoved a rock and a piece of metal up their wazoos and chilled out...
Posted by: tu3031   2007-03-13 15:02  

#13  This needs an airing on Cort TV. Poor oppressed muslims. Flying Imams: more terror links
The Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT) is well known. The mosque has "an extensive history of terror links," according to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, who testified about terrorist financing before the Senate Banking Committee in July 2005.

The Washington Post described these links in a 2002 article. "Tucson was one of the first points of contact in the United States for the jihadist group that evolved into al Qaeda," the Post reported. And the ICT? It held "basically the first cell of al Qaeda in the United States; that is where it all started," said Rita Katz, a terrorism expert quoted by the Post.

ICT members have included high-profile terrorists. Wael Hamza Jelaidan, the mosque's leader in the mid-1980s, was identified by the U.S. government as a " 'co-founder' of al Qaeda and its logistics chief," the Post reported.

Another former member, Wadi Hage, served as Osama bin Laden's personal secretary after leaving Arizona, the Post said, attributing it to government sources. Hage established a bin Laden support network in Arizona and "this network is still in place," Emerson wrote in his book "Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.," citing a 2002 Senate Intelligence Committee Report. In 2001, Hage was convicted of plotting the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The best-known terrorist with apparent (according to the Post and Emerson) connections to the ICT is Hani Hanjour, who piloted the plane that flew into the Pentagon on 9/11. Hanjour took aviation lessons in Tucson in the late 1990s.

More at link.
Posted by: ed   2007-03-13 10:57  

#12  Gee, first I've heard of a "right to board airliners", dudes...
Posted by: mojo   2007-03-13 10:43  

#11  I dictated a letter to US Air first thing this morning. It's going out in today's mail. If anyone wants to give US Air a word of support
(by that I mean: plead with US Air not to settle with the extortionists)you can drop them a note at:

US Air
Attn: Customer Relations
4000 East Sky Harbor Blvd.
Phoenix, AZ 85034

The imams know it'll cost US Air more money to fight than to simply cave into a financial settlement. I think what the US air employees did by removing the imams was prudent and reasonable. I think a jury would agree. I trust US Air will back up their employees and tell the imams this is going to trial by jury. I'm betting CAIR will fold.
Posted by: Mark Z   2007-03-13 10:37  

#10  I'm all for giving them free air fare.

In the back of a C-130.

Departure point 33,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.

Rinse and repeat as necessary.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-03-13 10:15  

#9  I have the perfect venue for this farce.
Posted by: doc   2007-03-13 09:06  

#8  Oh, look. It's that thing called "full disclosure".
Let's just hope USAir doesn't cave and settle.
Posted by: tu3031   2007-03-13 09:03  

#7  Discovery works both ways. Start deposing everyone in the MosKKKs about their links to "charity" groups.
Posted by: Jackal   2007-03-13 08:16  

#6  Ooooohh.... Sharks with blood in the water!
Posted by: Bobby   2007-03-13 06:46  

#5  If this goes to trial there will be a lawyer blood bath. I sure hope the passengers sue too.
Posted by: Icerigger   2007-03-13 06:41  

#4  Oh goody. Everyone will get to tell their stories. And AP will get to bias them as they see fit!
Posted by: gorb   2007-03-13 06:28  

#3  "Sympathy meter reading 'off-scale low,' sir."
Posted by: Mike   2007-03-13 06:25  

#2  Here's hoping you're correct, AH9418, as opposed to - settled out-of-court with a gag order.
Posted by: Bobby   2007-03-13 06:16  

#1   In November they were saying they would sue, so why is this news today? If US Airways handles this well, they will likely increase their business from infidels who would like to fly in peace rather than in pieces. The US Airways lawyers must ensure they get every possible bit of incriminating evidence into the public eye, not excluding getting subpoenas for the imam's medical and psychiatric histories.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-03-13 01:59  

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