[FYI] Lektuereverbote in Zeiten der Hysterie

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Fri, 19 Oct 2001 01:16:29 -0400
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Phila. man hassled, detained, barred from flight because of book
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


http://www.citypaper.net/articles/101801/news.godfrey.shtml

Novel Security Measures

   A local man was kept off a recent flight because of a book he was
   carrying.

   by Gwen Shaffer

   Everyone knows it is a bad idea to try and board a plane carrying a
   box cutter, a flight manual written in Arabic, or a sack full of
   mysterious white powder. But with ultra-tightened airport security,
   a book could also prevent you from boarding that plane.

   No kidding. It happened just last week in Philadelphia.

   Neil Godfrey arrived at Philadelphia International Airport around
   9:30 a.m. on Wed., Oct. 10. His brother's girlfriend dropped him
   off with plenty of time to spare before his 11:40 a.m. United
   Airlines flight. Godfrey was on his way to Phoenix, where his
   father lives. From there, the family was planning to head out for a
   vacation at Disneyland.

   It is fair to say that Godfrey -- brother of City Paper webmaster
   Ryan Godfrey -- doesn't look unusual for a 22-year-old kid living
   in Center City.

   His outfit that day was typical: black Dockers, a T-shirt with a
   logo for the now-defunct Phoenix Gazette newspaper and New Balance
   running shoes. He has a medium build, recently dyed jet-black hair
   and a quiet demeanor.

   When Godfrey stepped up to the ticket counter, the United clerk
   informed him he had been selected for a random baggage search.

   "No problem," he replied, going through the usual motions of
   checking his bag and getting a boarding pass. Now toting nothing
   but a novel and the most recent copy of The Nation magazine,
   Godfrey hiked through the concourse toward his boarding gate.

   As he passed through the metal detector, an airport security guard
   furrowed his brow at Godfrey's reading selections as they
   disappeared through the conveyor belt.

   On the cover of the book, Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey, is an
   illustration of a man's hand holding several sticks of dynamite.
   The 1991 novel is about a radical environmentalist, George
   Washington Hayduke III, who blows up bridges, burns tractors and
   sabotages other projects he believes are destroying the beautiful
   Southwest landscape.

   "For the first time, it occurred to me the book may be a problem,"
   Godfrey recalls.

   He proceeded through the security checkpoint and sat down to read
   near his boarding gate. About 10 minutes had passed when a National
   Guardsman approached Godfrey.

   [...]



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