HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER'S INCIDENT AT FRANKFURT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANAA 002890 SIPDIS DEPT PASS HOMELAND SECURITY E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/09/2013 TAGS: PREL PHUM YM HUMAN RIGHTS SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER'S INCIDENT AT FRANKFURT AIRPORT REF: SANAA 2848 Classified By: Ambassador Edmund J. Hull for Reasons 1.5 (b,d) ¶1. (U) Please see action request in paragraph 5. ¶2. (C) Ambassador and Pol/Econ Deputy called on Minister of Human Rights Amat al-Alim al-Suswa December 9 to ascertain what happened at Frankfurt Airport that caused her to turn back and cancel her trip to Washington for the National Democratic Institute (NDI)-sponsored Win With Women event and other official meetings (reftel). ¶3. (C) The Minister flew Yemenia Airlines from Sanaa to Frankfurt, enroute to Dulles. While checking in at the United counter in Frankfurt to obtain her boarding pass, the Minister said that the computer beeped and the person behind the counter told her she had been picked by the computer for a security search. The Minister described the person as a "security employee" of United Airlines. The employee was "polite" and said she would have to undergo a search of all luggage and questioning. When the Minister asked why she had been picked and explained she was traveling on an official basis at the invitation of NDI as a ROYG Minister, the employee said that the computer had picked her and that it had also picked a "Turkish Muslim" whom the Minister later discovered was a United Nations employee. The airline employee also told the Minister that the computer chose persons from certain countries to be searched. The Minister, affronted and upset by the procedure, asked for her passport and tickets back and said she would not go on the flight if this was how she was treated. She then discovered that the Yemenia flight returning to Sanaa would be leaving shortly, and she was able to take the flight back to Sanaa. ¶4. (C) Unlike some reports Post heard from Washington interlocutors, at no time was she told she would have to undergo a "body search." The Minister said when she told fellow ROYG Ministers and others about her incident upon return, they told her they had endured similar experiences, particularly on American airlines. ¶5. (C) Comment: It seems to us that there is a significant difference between intensive security checks required at random to which all are subject versus intensive checks required for Yemen and other Islamic countries. Post will seek to ascertain from United Airlines their reasons for requesting the check, but would welcome any clarification Department can obtain. End comment. HULL