"Muslim workers at Paris airport lose clearances"

Friday, October 20, 2006

Muslim airport workers lose clearances
By JAMEY KEATEN
The Associated Press 


PARIS - Authorities at Charles de Gaulle airport have stripped several dozen
employees, almost all of them Muslims, of their security badges in a
crackdown against terrorism, a government official said Friday.

Four baggage handlers who lost their clearance filed a joint discrimination
complaint this week, alleging they had been unfairly associated with
terrorism because they are Muslims, their lawyers said. Some had been in
their jobs for up to five years.

The baggage handlers and other employees have been barred from secure areas
at the airport since February, Jacques Lebrot, an official who oversees the
airport, told The Associated Press in an interview.

The cases were "linked to terrorism, of course," he said, adding that the
crackdown followed recommendations by France's anti-terrorism coordination
unit, UCLAT, as part of an 18-month investigation.

"You don't strip people of their badges for small matters," he said. The
crackdown was part of heightened security in France, after terror attacks in
Britain, Spain and the United States in recent years.

Lebrot, citing security reasons, declined to say whether the "several dozen"
people, he would not specify how many, who lost their badges had been
involved in specific plots.

"Mr. X or Y could have been suspected because corresponding facts ...
suggested he belonged to a sizable network," Lebrot said, without
elaborating. Others could have been stripped of the badges because they were
"impressionable and manipulated" by such networks, he said.

He declined to comment on the individual complaint filed by the four.

Lawyers and community groups said the baggage handlers, who worked for
subcontractors at the airport, were likely to lose their jobs because such
work depended on security clearances.

In letters from the regional government office, the employees were told that
they presented a "significant danger to airport security," or had shown
"personal behavior threatening airport security."

Lawyers for those who lost their badges said that under police questioning,
they were never told of the reasons they lost their badges, but repeatedly
were asked about their religion.

"The link among these people is that either they are Arab, or practice their
religion in a normal way," said Eric Moutet, a lawyer for the four employees
suing in administrative court. Authorities, he said, "are in essence asking
people to prove they are not terrorists."

Lebrot insisted the employees "know" why they lost their clearance, but
refused to discuss specific cases. He said all but two were Muslims but
sharply denied that any religious reason was involved.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************