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