AIRLINE SECURITY: Dishonest words on racial profiling muddy debate on airline security
(Washington diary Julian Borger)

It was Christmas Day, three months after the trauma of September 11, and a planeload of exhausted, slightly nervous passengers were going home at the last minute for the holidays, on American Airlines flight 363 from Baltimore Washington International airport to Dallas-Fort Worth. At the check-in desk, an Arab-American was asked a series of questions and, in the end, he was refused permission to board the plane and was left at the gate. This has happened many times on domestic flights in the United States since September 11th, but this time was different. The Arab-American, Walied Shater, was, in fact, a secret serviceman on his way to guard President George Bush at the "Western White House" in Crawford, Texas. This meant big trouble.

In a discussion about this incident on American TV, an expert used the two words "racial profiling" - one of the most controversial issues in contemporary America. The President said he would be furious if it turned out that Shater was a victim of this practise, in which citizens are selected for special attention because of their skin colour, name or religion. American Airlines said Shater had not been refused permission to board the flight because of his Arab-American identity. Instead, the troubled airline (which lost two planes on September 11) published critical accounts of his behaviour, describing him an angry and aggressive. He had filled in a form which gives permission for government security officers to carry guns on planes, but he had become so aggressive by then that airline officials thought it was best to leave him behind.

Shater has hired lawyers to demand an apology and to force a change in the airline´s security measures. The lawyers have gone on television to deny the claims that the presidential bodyguard had behaved unprofessionally. They say it was the pilot who was confrontational. They say that there had been no problem with the gun-carrying forms until the pilot became aware of the passenger´s Arab-American identity and a flight attendant found a book on Arab history among his possessions.

It is a fact that Arab-Americans and people with Muslim names have been subjected to much more attention than other passengers on flights since September 11. There have been many cases of people being left off planes because the flight crew and the passengers were worried about their Middle Eastern appearance. One pilot told me that one of the key items on the "new security" checklist is checking the passenger list for Islamic names. American Airline´s claim that Shater´s Arab-American identity had nothing to do with the pilot´s decision looks very dubious. It is hard to imagine the same situation happening to a blond secret serviceman possessing a book about the American civil war, but the airline insists it would have acted in an identical manner.

Vocabulary

refuse (v.)	odmítnout, nepovolit
board (n)
fill in (v.)	doplnit, sdělit
deny (v.)	popřít, zapřít (obvinění), odepřít
demand (v.)	požadovat, vyžadovat
pay (v.)	dávat pozor na co, věnovat pozornost čemu
fit (v.)	upevnit, přidělat
conform to (v.)
an apology (n)	omluva za co
a claim (n)	požadavek, vymáhání
a stereotype(n)	stereotyp
a profile (n)	profil,obrys, tvar
a form(n)	forma, podoba čeho
permission (n)	dovolení, souhlas, svolení
attention (n)	soustředit pozornost , dávat pozor
a plane (n)	letadlo