A bit of a weird round-up this time, but airport security stories have been turning up on the religion blogs lately.
The first story concerns a Canadian Roman Catholic bishop who was discovered with sexual images of young children on his laptop hard-drive by airport security. Tmatt at GetReligion asked “What made them search a bishop?” and, a week and a bit later, he was able to answer. From a story in Halifax’s Chronicle Herald he found why security staff became suspicious:
Bishop Raymond Lahey avoided eye contact, changed his vocal tone and gave evasive responses when a border agent at Ottawa International Airport questioned him last month about his electronic equipment.
A Canada Border Services agent asked the bishop if he was carrying any electronic media such as cellphones, laptop computers or BlackBerrys when he arrived at the airport at 3:43 p.m. on Sept. 15, says a search warrant application. Bishop Lahey had just arrived from London, England.
The bishop told the border agent he had two cellphones.
The agent then asked the former head of the Diocese of Antigonish if he had a laptop. Bishop Lahey hesitated before saying he did. In all, the bishop was carrying a laptop, two cellphones, four memory sticks, three memory cards and a portable hand-held device.
The agent flagged Bishop Lahey for a secondary inspection because of his behaviour and the fact he was a man traveling alone who had visited countries known to be sources of child pornography, says an Ottawa police officer’s application for the warrant on Sept. 23.
The other story concerns observant Jews being allowed by America’s Transportation Security Administration to carry vegetable material (lulavs, etrogs, etc.) for Sukkot. Those American security guards may be humourless, but at least they’re culturally sensitive.
Newsography:
Tmatt ‘What made them search a bishop?‘, GetReligion.org (1/10/09)
______ ‘This made them search the bishop‘, GetReligion.org (12/10/09)
Dan Arsenault ‘Warrant describes evasive bishop‘, The Chronicle Herald (9/10/09)
Michele Chabin ‘Jewish Holiday Objects Allowed Through U.S. Airport Security‘, Religion News Service (2/10/09)
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