Shakedown target

Audrey Hudson at the Washington Times has the latest on the grievance-mongering flying imams and their attempted extortion:

A group of Muslim imams is seeking an out-of-court settlement with US Airways, saying they should not have been removed from a Minnesota-to-Phoenix flight last month and were not behaving suspiciously.

Five of the six Islamic religious leaders have retained the Council on American-Islamic Relations for legal representation and are seeking a “mutually agreeable” resolution, said Nihad Awad, CAIR executive director.

US Airways scheduled a meeting with the imams on Dec. 4 to discuss the incident, but the men canceled it and hired the activist group to act as legal counsel.

“With the hopes of reaching an amicable resolution to this matter, we would like to take this opportunity to ask for a formal meeting with US Airways executives and legal counsel,” said Arsalan Iftikhar, CAIR’s national legal director, in a letter to the airline. The imams represented by CAIR include Omar Shahin, Didmar Faja, Ahmad Shqeirat, Marwan Sadeddin and Mohamed Ibrahim.

Allah asks: “[I]s CAIR really stupid enough to invite the PR disaster that would result from pursuing a high-profile lawsuit related to terrorism in which the facts very clearly are not on their side?”

Why, yes, yes, they are. These shakedowns have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements engineered by the Department of Transportation doing the grievance-mongerers’ bidding at the nation’s peril. Remember:

Monday, March 1, 2004

DOT Aviation Enforcement Office Reaches Settlement
With American Airlines Regarding Treatment of Passengers

The Aviation Enforcement Office of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has reached a settlement with American Airlines regarding its post-Sept. 11, 2001, treatment of certain air travelers who were or were perceived to be of Arab, Middle Eastern or South Asian descent and/or Muslim.

The settlement was approved by DOT Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Burton S. Kolko on Feb. 27. The settlement will become final March 29 unless a petition for review is filed or DOT takes review on its own initiative.

“Concerns about aviation security in the days following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks do not justify illegal discrimination against passengers,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta. “The Department of Transportation will continue to investigate these kinds of allegations to assure all passengers in our nation’s transportation system are treated fairly and equally.”

The settlement order finds that American acted in a manner inconsistent with federal laws that prohibit discrimination and requires American to provide civil rights training to its employees over the next three years at a total cost of at least $1.5 million.

And:

Friday, April 2, 2004

DOT Aviation Enforcement Office, Continental Reach Settlement
Regarding Discrimination Against Passengers

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today announced a consent order reflecting an agreement with Continental Airlines regarding treatment of certain air travelers who are or were perceived to be of Arab, Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian descent and/or Muslim in the period following Sept. 11, 2001.

The order finds that Continental acted in a manner inconsistent with federal laws that prohibit discrimination and requires the carrier to provide civil rights training over the next two years to its pilots and cabin crewmembers at a total cost of no less than $500,000. Continental is also ordered to cease and desist from future violations of federal anti-discrimination statutes.

“Concerns about aviation security in the days following the September 11th attacks do not justify discrimination against passengers,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. “The Department of Transportation will not tolerate discrimination and will act decisively to protect the rights of the traveling public.”

DOT’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings undertook an
investigation of Continental for security-related civil rights violations after passengers alleged that they were removed from the carrier’s flights because of their ethnic background. Continental emphasized that the complaints at issue took place shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and maintained that its employees did not violate the law. The Enforcement Office believes that in a few instances Continental acted inconsistently with the law when it removed passengers from flights or denied boarding to passengers based on their race, color, national origin, religion or ancestry.

This is the third settlement by the Enforcement Office regarding discrimination against airline passengers due to race, religion, national origin or ancestry. On Nov. 19, 2003, the department issued a consent order reflecting a settlement with United Air Lines stemming from allegations that it had unlawfully removed passengers from flights or prevented them from boarding in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws. On Feb. 27, 2004, the Enforcement Office reached a settlement with American Airlines regarding similar charges. The settlement with American, which was approved by a departmental administrative law judge, will become final March 29 unless a petition for review is filed or the department takes review on its own initiative.

The extortionists have been emboldened by government bureaucrats stupid enough to give in. Why not press their luck with US Airways?

Meanwhile, Katherine Kersten at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the imams’ terror links are piling up. A few more tidbits from Dan Riehl.

All the more reason for US Airways to stand fast. Send ‘em a message of support here.

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Ululations of the aggrieved
Grievance-mongering at the gym
Flight Club: Rules of the flying imams
PJM exclusive: Flying imams police report
Standing up to the flying imams
Flying imam alert
Flying imams, leaping CAIR