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Doctor Says He's Profiled at Airports: Beverly Hills Man Joins Class Action Vs. Government

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press

Jun. 20--Claiming that he has been repeatedly detained and searched at airports across the country, a 68-year-old metro Detroit doctor of Arab descent joined a class action Monday against the U.S. government, alleging it profiled him and others who are Muslims or have Middle Eastern backgrounds.

Until the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Elie Khoury of Beverly Hills said he was never profiled. But since 2002, the Palestinian American said U.S. authorities have detained him and his wife seven times at airports in Detroit and across the country. Khoury, a U.S. citizen, said he is often separated from his family and interrogated. He said during one detention, a federal officer watched him while he urinated.

"They treat us like terrorists," Khoury said Monday.

His views are shared by others in metro Detroit's Arab-American and Muslim communities, where profiling has become a major concern. On Monday, Khoury joined a lawsuit filed last year in Chicago by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of several plaintiffs across the country.

Jarrod Agen, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit, but added "we do not profile when inspecting people at ports of entry" such as airports.

But Khoury and others fear they have somehow ended up on the Terrorist Screening Database administered by the FBI. It contains about 200,000 names and is operated by the government's Terrorist Screening Center, said Michael Steinberg, an attorney with the Detroit office of the ACLU.

Part of the problem is that the database contains mistakes and misidentifies a number of innocent Americans, Steinberg said. "The government has to come up with a better system," he said Monday.

Kary Moss, head of the Michigan branch of the ACLU, said that what happened to Khoury and the other plaintiffs is an example of an "abuse of power" by the government.

Born in Jerusalem, Khoury is a Christian who came to the United States in 1966. He is an obstetrician who practices on Detroit's east side.

He said he loves the United States for the opportunities it has given him, but he is concerned that he has been targeted in recent years. He said profiling should not take place, especially "not for somebody my age, my profession."

The profiling started, the lawsuit says, on May 30, 2002, when the Khourys were detained for at least two hours by U.S. authorities at the Toronto airport. On Nov. 19, 2002, they were detained at Los Angeles International Airport. When Elie Khoury had to go the bathroom, an employee with U.S. Customs and Border Protection followed him and observed while he urinated, the suit says.

On Oct. 1, 2003, the suit says, the Khourys were detained at Detroit Metro Airport and extensively questioned.

In other cases, the Khourys said they were separated from children and grandchildren, who wept as they wondered what was happening.

Contact NIRAJ WARIKOO at 248-351-2998 or n warikoo@freepress.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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