US embassy cable - 03SANAA2890

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