CPTnet
March 16, 2004

IRAQ: CPTer forcibly removed from IAC for objecting to inappropriate search
of female colleague

U.S. military personnel removed CPTer Le Anne Clausen at gunpoint from the
Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC) on March 11, after she objected to an
inappropriate search of a female colleague.

Clausen was part of a delegation of international and Iraqi peace workers
seking a permit from the IAC to hold a `Human Rights Solidarity Week'
festival on March 16-19. The colleague is an Iranian-born U.S. citizen.

After her colleague passed through several outdoor checkpoints and
personal/bag searches, Clausen could hear U.S. soldiers joking about their
colleague being born in Iran. Inside the final checkpoint, Clausen and an
Italian colleague put their bags on an x-ray machine and passed through a
metal detector. However, security personnel immediately pulled
Iranian-American colleague out of line and brought her to a special
searching area.

After finding nothing in her bag, a male officer swabbed the colleague's
hands and put the swabs into a device for detecting explosive material. He
then swabbed the pockets of her loose outer jacket, and ordered her to lift
up her shirt so he could put his hands inside her pants pockets and inspect
them also. The colleague looked uncomfortable and politely questioned his
order. The officer gestured for her to comply.

"Wait a minute, you can't search her there, you need to have a female
officer do that," said Clausen. The officer told her not to interrupt.
Clausen replied, "You are violating international human rights law, you
cannot touch her there. You need to get a female officer." Although there
were two U.S.-trained Iraqi security women present who conducted personal
searches of Clausen and her Italian colleague, the officer refused to allow
them to perform the search.

At that point, the officer called his captain, who told Clausen to step back
from the area where her colleague was being searched, and instructed the
officer to continue. Clausen reiterated that they were violating human
rights law and they needed to bring in a female officer. The captain told
her to either continue on into the building or leave the grounds.

Clausen responded, "I refuse to leave while my friend is being abused. I
will not let a male officer search her like this. It is sexually
inappropriate and illegal."

The captain replied, "Then you're out of here!" and ordered soldiers to
escort Clausen from the building. While Clausen tried to tell CPTer Stewart
Vriesinga what was happening, the captain yelled, "I said you were
leaving! Now!" and told the soldiers not to let her speak to anyone else.

Soldiers Clausen spoke with on the way out of the building expressed dismay
at the officer's behavior. "Why didn't he use the wand we have for that
kind of search?" said one. Another observed, "Anyone can put a swab in a
pocket and then hand it to the machine. The machine will pick up the
residue either way." A third advised Clausen to raise a complaint with the
commanding officers for that unit.