Did you know that SO from the Middle East

[Jenn! 918]

Are you serious......Why? that is horrible.............

ugh can you imagine the disappointment?! getting your house all ready, buying food, mani/pedi, etc, etc, etccccccc and then he gets rejected. oy!

Goldenheart had this very thing happen to her. She knows the heartache of what you just described. Her fiance was trying to come on a k-1 and was turned back at the POE in Atlanta.

Meriem

I'm thinking we shouldn't open up this can of worms again.

In short, the issue was that goldenheart's fiance referred to her as his wife at POE. Make sure your SO does not make this mistake. (ETA: if you are K1, that is)

Edited February 15, 2007 by jenn3539

[sereia 0]

oh how horrible! thanks for the advice, jenn. and sorry to hear that happened, goldenheart.

[m&n 0]

In the POE's in the US, however, they only go through the trouble to make sure that everyone's safe & interrogate someone only if they look a certain way........

That's the thing. i watched them let people breeze on by me, but I had to stay at both airports and explain why I keep going to Jordan. That was their exact line of questioning too, and most of the questions were about my husband and not about me. Who's FLYING? ME? OR HIM?! Uugh.

you may be flying... but the bigger fear is you being supplied with illegal things to take with you. anyone who goes to a neighboring country (esp more than once) gets this in israel, no matter your race or religion. better safe than sorry.

omg that reminds me when i went to israel...i went to egypt after, then back to israel to fly home to the us. you can't believe how much i was grilled. they kept asking about things i bought, gifts, who packed my bags, etc. did you tell anyone you were going to israel.... after a while even i started to get nervous and wonder if someone slipped something in my bags! hehe

i happily let them grill me and take apart all my luggage in front of everyone. they didn't treat everyone else the same.....but i wasn't angry. i'm happy they go through so much trouble to make sure everyone is safe!

goldenheart- that must be rough.........I'm sorry to hear that............there must be an appeals process or something though

Are you serious......Why? that is horrible.............

ugh can you imagine the disappointment?! getting your house all ready, buying food, mani/pedi, etc, etc, etccccccc and then he gets rejected. oy!

Goldenheart had this very thing happen to her. She knows the heartache of what you just described. Her fiance was trying to come on a k-1 and was turned back at the POE in Atlanta.

Meriem

I'm thinking we shouldn't open up this can of worms again.

In short, the issue was that goldenheart's fiance referred to her as his wife at POE. Make sure your SO does not make this mistake. (ETA: if you are K1, that is)

[Meriem_DZ 37]

Hachemi also called me his wife even though we were not married yet. He wrote it in emails and when we chatted. When that happed to GH, he immediatly stopped. I know it is not any consolation, but she has helped a lot of couples by sharing her story.

Meriem

[Nasturtium 500]

you may be flying... but the bigger fear is you being supplied with illegal things to take with you. anyone who goes to a neighboring country (esp more than once) gets this in israel, no matter your race or religion. better safe than sorry.

That's also fine, except asking me a lot of questions about where he works and what is anthropology, and then discussing his class schedule and never once bothering to check a single thing is what was irking me. Also asking about my sex life, what positions do I like, what is his favorite, how many times do we orgasm on average? I'm sorry, is this pertinent to national safety?? Apaprantly it is. Asking a lot of questions and then checking it against somehting is one thing. Just holding you and asking you a lot of stuff but never verifying anything is another. There is sense, and carefulness, and investigation. Then there is just hassling people. Whether or not my husband uses a condom and I am on the pill is not going to change whether there is or is not a breech in security.

[sereia 0]

i can't believe they asked you that................................ disgusting.

like i said, our airlines and TSA need to go through the same training El Al does. We'd all be better off.

[Nasturtium 500]

In the POE's in the US, however, they only go through the trouble to make sure that everyone's safe & interrogate someone only if they look a certain way........

Or if when they swipe your passport something comes up I'm short, blonde, green-eyed, and young. I had a pony tail and a western accent. The darker-skinned people went by me But I held the line in Detroit Unless my grey, knee-length pea-coat from Banana Republic and jeans look inherently evil. Maybe they do? )

[Nasturtium 500]

i can't believe they asked you that................................ disgusting.

like i said, our airlines and TSA need to go through the same training El Al does. We'd all be better off.

I agree! I wish they would just institute the checks across the board. I get stripped searched (once) and searched (6 times now) on almost every flight and I don't mind, so I just plan for it-- and budget another 45 minutes or so. I'd rather keep it that way for everyone

[m&n 0]

you know what......they know that they are harrassing you and they want to see how much they can get away with.......some of the questions they asked me I refused to answer because they were personal......for any question I didn't feel like answering I stared at him and sternly said...and I quote..."I choose not to answer that question" He got the idea that I was not going to let him harrass me any further. Before my interrogation was over, I got his name and later that week I sent a letter to the Chief of Security at JFK complaining about how I was treated.

i can't believe they asked you that................................ disgusting.

like i said, our airlines and TSA need to go through the same training El Al does. We'd all be better off.

[Nasturtium 500]

you know what......they know that they are harrassing you and they want to see how much they can get away with.......some of the questions they asked me I refused to answer because they were personal......for any question I didn't feel like answering I stared at him and sternly said...and I quote..."I choose not to answer that question" He got the idea that I was not going to let him harrass me any further. Before my interrogation was over, I got his name and later that week I sent a letter to the Chief of Security at JFK complaining about how I was treated.

I wish I had been more with it. I had 20 minutes at that point to get to my gate before my plane left, and so I was freaking out over the time. I didn't even think about it until afterwards. I really wish I had gotten his name.

[sereia 0]

strip search????? wow. i never knew someone that happened to.

[Nasturtium 500]

strip search????? wow. i never knew someone that happened to.

I was told it was because they had switched my flight times, and also because "bombs don't always set off the metal detector." LOL! I was glad at that moment that I had started to work out and had the flat abs. LOLOL! I don't mind this kind of stuff, I take it in stride. I requested a female officer and stood and waited until I got one. I didn't trigger any metal detector or anything, I never do But this was also my third flight to the Middle east in a year, and it was just a bucket of fun Began with a 24 hour delay, then an unexpected shuttle ride, a strip search, then interrogation on teh way back at both places. I also finally scored a secruity search in Amman, but, the guy was not happy with my dead sea rocks. Kept saying they were "too pointy" LOLOL! And then he called over a military guy, who was like "what's the problem? it's just salt!" and then waved me through. Then they started to yell at eachother and I scurried off as fast as I could go LOL! I figured I had reached my "maximum allowable visits to the Middle East without any real hassle," and since the next day, January 14, they were instituting the new security checks, I figured I was in a beta phase or something

My airport is pretty tiny, so they like to use the maximum security checks they can LOL!

ETA: and by tiny, I mean my airport has 6 gates. Total. LOL!

Edited February 15, 2007 by julianna

[Henia 11]

Did you know that Significant Others travelling from the Middle East or other countries have to undergo a security background check while they are enroute to the USA???

An attorney just informed me that once you check in at the airport, after the visa is issued, you have to undergo another background check and if the POE gets a name match hit, they are instructed to interview you at the POE. If not, they will let you pass own through.

I am not surprised, but the law is the law. There for a reason. And as Aboujen said 'better safe then sorry'

Um, I have been *somewhat* harrassed while coming from ME/NA. In Frankfurt and Amsterdam. One time they did a 'random check' asked me to 'unveil' myself as they put it right there after going throu the metal detectors. I asked for a private area, which the gave me. Then they asked me to basically strip. Kept waving the wand across my chest...I had a underwire bra on. The 2 women asked me to take it off. They had this smirky grinning face on them. I really did not like it. I could tell they did not like my refusal either, so they kept on patting me down. They were I thought a bit rough, maybe long day at work or maybe they did not like me...who knows... I mean they delayed me about 20 minutes, which was not a problem, but I just felt little off with the whole bra thing. Like what I have some TNT in my bra lining #######

[doodlebug 3]

Wow. Just wow. I can't believe this sh!t. Asking about positions and orgasms for fk sake???? I'm going again in July and they'd best not question me like that or my truckdriver mouth will go off on their sorry azzes. My biggest fear is that they'll give me trouble on route to Florida when I take the kids to Disney. I'm actually considering not bringing my passport and just showing them my license so that the visa stamp doesn't trigger anyone off.

And a freakin' strip search????????????????????????????? Is that even freakin' legal??????????????????????????????

When I got off the plane at Logan I was expecting a LOT of searching and hassle. Lemme tell ya the dudes in customs didn't look at my slip of paper saying what i brought in and I never even showed them my passport. They just were chit chattin' and I walked right on past them. Granted I had whipped off my hijab on route to London from Cairo and I have blonde hair and blue eyes and tons of freckles so maybe that was it but if that's the case that's just stupid.

I'm still in shock by what I've read here.

And #######....denying my husband once he's landed in Boston? What the heck is gonna come up in a 12 hour flight on a computer that didn't come up right before he left? I don't get that. Oh would I have a freakin' heart attack if that ever happened to him!!!!!!!!! Thank GAWD Maggie didn't read this thread yesterday!! :lol:

[effortless 0]

i dunno... if they all did that for everyone i'd feel better. i feel its not fair to profile...so why not just grill everyone?

the israeli el al does this and i was more than happy for them to ask me an hour's worth of questions and pick apart all my luggage with a bomb tester....touching each thing one by one. i felt safe! i think our TSA and airline employees need to follow suit with el al's program.

el al's "program" (racist propaganda is a far more accurate term in my opinion) does NOT grill everyone equally. they operate on a three tiered security rating system-jews and israelis rank as the lowest security threat, westerners second, arabs, in particular males, rank as the highest. it's bigotry under the guise of "protection"-disgusting. i can't believe there was anyone out there naive enough to believe el al treats and checks everyone equally. honestly, that's rather amusing.