The image of the US abroad since the Iraq invasion has tarnished somewhat. Instead of the free, open and welcoming nation, America is now viewed as suspicious, aggressive and heavy handed – especially by Muslims and even some non-Muslims, who may look like Muslims in the eyes of the Homeland Security officials at the airports. That would include many Indians, Latinos and particularly the bearded and turbaned Sikhs. However, the official US State Department policy advocates a kinder and gentler approach than is practiced in reality.
"The U.S. is a free and open society. We welcome citizens from around the world who genuinely want to visit, study, and do business here. We are dedicated to protecting their safety and keeping our doors open to them. … Our goal is to make the visa process not only thorough, but also respectful and efficient."
Remember Karen Hughes – Bush’s TLC Czarina designated to win the hearts and minds of the Islamic world? Another page of the same web site states that Karen Hughes, the Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, charged with repairing the United States’ rock-bottom relations with much of the world, recommends implementation of the following strategy :
• "Offer people … a positive vision of hope and opportunity that is rooted in America’s belief in freedom, justice, opportunity and respect for all.
• "Isolate and marginalize the violent extremists … Undermine their efforts to portray the West as in conflict with Islam by empowering mainstream voices and demonstrating respect for Muslim cultures and contributions.
•"Foster a sense of common interests and values between Americans and people of different countries, cultures and faiths throughout the world."
Obviously, some didn’t get the memo. Recently, State Department officials revoked the visas of several Iranian scientists and engineers and their accompanying spouses and children. The scientist were en route to Santa Clara, Calif., for a reunion with former classmates and professors, were detained at U.S. airports in Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco and deported. The irony is that these are exactly the type of people whose support we need to bring about democratic changes in the Islamic world. The intellectuals and the academics of any country are likely to be among the most progressive elements who can be instrumental in bringing about the social changes we would dearly like to see in mullah driven theocracies like Iran. However that dream keeps getting postponed by this kind of brilliant moves by our own ignorant security mullahs, surely dictated by the reckless and vindictive Bush foreign policy which is determined to embitter the very same societies whose hearts and minds we endeavor to win.
"As many as a dozen prominent Iranian professionals, arriving with valid U.S. visas in the Bay Area to attend an international gathering this weekend, are being detained at the San Francisco International Airport, refused entry by immigration officials and facing deportation…. Some are condemning [the deportation] as a political response to recent tensions between the United States and Iran.
Laura Tischler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs declined to comment on the case of detained and deported Iranians, citing confidentiality. Visas, she said, "can be revoked at anytime, when there are indications of possibility of ineligibility for admission” into the United States.
Max Panahandeh, principal at Berkeley Applied Science and Engineering, said he spent three frustrating hours at San Francisoc airport Thursday afternoon, waiting for his friend, Majid Kobravi, an electrical engineer from Tehran. Kobravi was scheduled to arrive with half dozen others who were attending the reunion. Panahandeh’s friend reached an immigration official who allowed someone from Majid’s group to speak with them briefly. Then he delivered the news: their visas had been revoked and they were detained in "jail-like conditions.”
All those detained or deported are citizens of Iran — engineers, chemists, physicists and scientists, university professors and business owners — who received visas months ago from U.S. consulates in Tehran and Dubai. They were to attend a gathering of graduates of Sharif University of Technology, a well-known science and engineering institution founded 40 years ago in Tehran.
After a rigorous security clearance, 120 Iranians were issued visas to attend the conference. Hojabri wrote the invitation letters that the alumni submitted to the consulates in Tehran and Dubai.
Everything seemed in order for attendees arriving from Tehran until Monday, when Hojabri heard reports of someone being detained overnight and then deported from the Los Angeles International Airport. After that, similar reports began coming in from Chicago, then New York. On Thursday night, after learning that as many as a dozen more were being detained at San Franisco airport, officials of the organization responded. They tried to see the detainees but we refused, said Nancy Hormachea, a Bay Area immigration attorney who represents the alumni association.
"These are intellectuals, prominent people from Iran who have a positive impression of the United States,” Hormachea said. “They’ve never ever been so humiliated and insulted.”
Accidental Blogger 