November 24, 2010

Source: MAARS News

The Yemeni Canadian Community have slammed Air Canada over their discriminatory policies towards Yemeni citizens since the recent cargo plane bomb plot.

Visionary PR CEO Maria Al-Masani supplied MAARS News with evidence showing that Air Canada is discriminating against Yemeni citizens on a massive scale.

In the Air Canada security update memo titled ‘Heads Up In The Hub’ the company outlines that all customers born in Yemen, travelling with a Yemeni passport, resident in Yemen or travelling to or from the country should be “deemed as Selectees” on all flights departing from Toronto or any other Canadian city.

The security memo adds that boarding passes of such customers should be marked with SSSS-Y and that if the customer requires extra screening time their flight should not be delayed.

The Yemeni community in Canada is reportedly outraged by the ‘security changes’ enforced by Air Canada and has called on the company to take immediate action to stop such anti-Yemeni policies.

MAARS News has learnt that the Tony Merchant Foundation and the NCPCA (National Council for Protection of Canadians Abroad) have both been made aware of the case and are looking into what legal and other approaches can be taken in the case.

Yemeni citizens and some Arabs travelling through Pearson airport on their pilgrimage to Mecca are also being racially profiled for secondary checks and interviews by national security agents, the Canadian Arab Federation reported.

The discriminatory security crackdown comes as a result of British police recently reporting that a cargo bomb found on board a plane originating from Yemen last month was timed to explode while the plane was over the United States. The incident has led to air cargo rules that could significantly affect businesses.

Scotland Yard issued a statement last week saying a forensic examination of an explosive device taken off a plane in central England shows it would have detonated while in flight.

France’s interior minister stated that one of two mail bombs sent from Yemen was defused just 17 minutes before it was set to explode.

When investigators pulled the Chicago-bound packages off cargo planes in England and the United Arab Emirates, they found the bombs wired to cell phones. The communication cards had been removed and the phones could not receive calls, officials said, making it likely the terrorists intended the alarm or timer functions to detonate the bombs, U.S. officials have said.

Airport checks draw fire

By Tom Godfrey, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: November 15, 2010 8:08pm

Yemeni citizens and some Arabs travelling through Pearson airport on their pilgrimage to Mecca are being racially profiled for secondary checks and interviews by national security agents, says the Canadian Arab Federation.

Travellers with Yemeni passports are sent to an interview room where they are questioned by agents of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on their background and trip to Canada, Pearson officers confirmed.

Arab community members are concerned that thousands of Muslims returning home to Toronto this week from the Hajj, in Saudi Arabia, will be detained for questioning at Pearson. The Hajj ends on Tuesday.

Yemenis and Arabs who have gone through Yemen are subject to luggage and body searches by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), officers said. Some undergo full-body scanning and explosive detection screening.

“All Yemenis are being penalized because of the work of a few,” said federation president Khaled Mouammar. “This sort of profiling has been happening for a long time and it has to stop.”

Mouammar said Arabs are being targeted during the holiest time of their year. He said police should target terror suspects — not all Yemenis or Arabs.

The increased security stems from last month’s interception of two bombs hidden in toner cartridge printers being shipped from Yemen on cargo flights.

One bomb, which contained explosives and an electrical circuit linked to a cell phone, was set to explode over Canadian airspace.

Police suspect there may be other bombs out there, forcing Ottawa to ban all cargo shipments from Yemen.

Yemen is among a list of 14 countries deemed by the U.S. to be aiding terrorists. The others are: Nigeria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Cuba , Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

Scrutiny towards passengers from Yemen and Nigeria has been further intensified because alleged Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, flew from Yemen.

Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, who is alleged to have had explosives

in his underwear, was charged with trying to blow up an airliner with 300 people on board over Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009.