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Western Union Blocking Money Transfers to Arabs
lowrydr310 writes "Western Union is blocking money transfers to people with Arab names. They have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed. 'In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending $120 to a friend at home last month because the recipient's name was Mohammed.' Western union claims they are merely following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines that scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links. I agree that Western Union shouldn't allow anyone supporting terrorism to use their service, however I'm fairly certain there are millions of people named Mohammed or Ahmed who aren't terrorists. I wonder if any other financial companies such as banks are doing the same thing."
"Western Union prevented him from sending $120 to a friend at home last month because the recipient's name was Mohammed"
Not true. They prevented him from sending the cash because his name was Sahir Mohammed. A bit of a difference.
Perhaps a Sahir Mohammed has some links to 'bad guys'?
Well, it happens here in the US too. There are plenty of stories regading people being put on the 'do not fly' list due to circumstances like this as well.
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
The statistics may have changed, but I remember one of those trick/trivia questions from when I was younger (in the 1980s): What's the most common name in the world?
It turned out it was, if you include all the variations, Mohammed. Throw in Mahmet, Makhmoud, Mahmoud, and various other spellings and transliterations.
Somehow, I doubt a large enough percentage of them are liekly to be terrorists for the name to be worth checking.
racism isn't just about believing one race to be superior, it's also about stereotyping;
i.e. all arabs are terrorists
or
all Jews have big noses and run banks
It is quite racist to assume based on name alone that someone might be a terrorist. Or have we forgotten Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, Theodore Kaczynski, or Eric Robert Rudolph?
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
Nope, it's not - because I don't legislate that rednecks can't get married. I don't think hillbillies should be prevented from flying on a plane because they are chewin' tobacco. I don't give a fuck if people have opinions... I have a problem with a government run by people who are so ignorant that they believe that stereotypes give them the right to treat some people differently.
My thoughts exactly. This plan is infringing on the freedom of people who have not committed (or who have even been accused of) a crime.
Perhaps the people involved in this should actually do their job and investigate rather than simply assuming Arab == terrorist.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Obviously there needs to be a better system, but what kind of system would work?
What makes you think that ANY system could work?
Some beauraucrat comes up with a lame-ass policy that, by the way, goes against the grain of everything America claims to stand for and even the people smart enough to realize it is a lame-ass policy are still brainwashed into believing that it is somehow necessary?
Here is a system that would work - don't waste my tax dollars on useless anti-american shit. Spend it on emergency services instead.
No matter how many tax dollars you throw at the problem, terrorism is a tactic that can not be fully countered. So instead of fucking with people - 99.999% of whom have nothing to do with terrorism - spend it on the infrastructure that minimizes the damage. Better hospitals, better fire departments, better "first responder" teams. That way, we get the benefit of the money spent regardless of if a terrorist blows up a building or an earthquake knocks it down.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
They use front companies for that, like Halliburton did under Dick Cheney. They set up a shell corporation in the Cayman Islands and have all the transactions go through the shell corp. This way Halliburton was able to secure contracts in Iran in violation of US federal law.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2005/s299.html
A radio maverick jumps to internet only. The Future of Rock n Roll
1. al-Qaeda receives more than 90 percent - even today - of its funding directly or indirectly from Saudi Arabian citizens.
2. Most people using Western Union with Arab names are not from Saudi Arabia.
3. Requiring a Passport of someone wiring money with an Arab name, and just checking to see if they're citizens of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Egypt would work much more effectively.
4. Fake passports and name changes are easy to buy, usually costing less than $25 on downtown streets of any major port city (or even Detroit, Michigan).
5. Fake patriotism, like concern for non-existent flag-burning rampages, is very easy to do, and highly ineffective.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The violent actions of Christians/Catholics have ALWAYS been denounced and condemned by Christianity as a whole.
Yup, especially that whole business of the crusades. All the christians denounced those, but damned if that stopped anyone!
And christians and Jews never wear turbans, right? Good to know "towelhead" isn't targetting Arabic muslims.
And White people never have deep tans, right? So 'darkie' isn't a racist epithet either!
The fact that the association doesn't make sense doesn't mean there isn't one. "Redneck" is equivalent to the less popular epithet "white trash". Therefore, in the infinitely wise laws of comedy, only white people may use the term.
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
You know, I thought quoting Ann Coulter would be the most pathetic thing ever. But I was wrong. The most pathetic thing on the world is tryin to pass of an Ann Coulter quote as yours.
It's like, evil and stupidity PLUS plagiarism. I don't know how much lower you can get (but I'd guess not much).