Feds Apologize for Woman's Strip Search

MrBrian

TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 28, 2006

(AP) The Department of Homeland Security has sent a letter apologizing to a Muslim woman who was detained at the Tampa airport and strip-searched at a county jail.

Safana Jawad is a Spanish citizen who was born in Iraq and flew to the US in April to visit her then-16-year-old-son.

But federal agents said Jawad was suspicious. They denied her entry and took her to jail, where she was strip-searched and held in a maximum security cell for two days

Jawad filed a complaint, and the agency apologized in a letter dated Dec. 8.

"On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, I offer you my sincere apology for having to undergo a strip search," wrote Timothy J. Keefer, acting chief counsel for the department's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Officials won't say why they found Jawad suspicious or whether they believe she was rightfully detained.

http://www.abcactionnews.com/stories/2006/12/061228tia.shtml

sponger

I still don't completely understand why that department even exists. Of all the lame-brain decisions GW has made, the creation of that department is up there with the invasion of Iraq. In fact, it's worse than the invasion of Iraq because we don't even get any oil out of it.

Even after 5-6 yrs of trying, I still have not been able to articulate my opinion of why I think Homeland Security is the absolute dumbest name a department could have. All I can say is that it inspires xenophobia and nationalism, and that it reflects Bush's tendency to compare national matters to life on a Texas ranch.