And the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State apologized for that incident
Thanks for trolling though…
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CNN.com - Apology over ‘strip-search’ saga - Jul 14, 2004
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) – U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has said sorry to India’s former defense minister following allegations he was “strip-searched” at an America airport.
Armitage, who arrived in India Tuesday, said he apologized to George Fernandes for an apparent breach of diplomatic protocol last year when the head of defense was searched by a security official as he entered the United States.
His apology came after a new book entitled “Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb,” by former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, alleged Fernandes was “strip-searched” in June 2003 at Washington’s Dulles Airport.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Armitage said he was “horrified” by the incident and telephoned Fernandes to “personally apologize.”
But Fernandes disagreed with the book’s description of the search.
He told reporters Wednesday that U.S. security personnel asked him to put his hands up and remove his coat, shoes and socks.
“The book calls it a strip search but this was no strip show like the phrase implies,” Fernandes said.
The search continued despite protests from the Indian ambassador to Washington, who repeatedly told the security personnel that Fernandes was a high-level Indian dignitary, he said.
U.S. Embassy sources in New Delhi have denied the charge, saying: “Mr. Fernandes was not strip-searched, but he did have a security wand waved over him when the keys in his pocket set off the metal detector.”
Embassy officials said there is an established procedure by which heads of state and senior foreign dignitaries are exempt from such checks, and regretted that the procedure was not followed.
Armitage’s trip to India is the first visit by a U.S. official since the Congress Party-led government replaced the pro-American BJP coalition in May.
The allegations contained in the book have triggered considerable uproar in Indian newspapers and among members of the government, who accuse their predecessors of turning a blind eye even as a senior Indian dignitary was “insulted.”
In his book, Talbot recounts Fernandes telling him about being strip-searched more than once in the United States.
“Fernandes regaled us with the story of how he had been strip-searched by officers of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service at Dulles Airport when he arrived for an official visit in early 2002, and again, in mid-2003, when he was passing through the U.S. on his way to Brazil,” Talbot writes.
"He seemed to enjoy our stupefaction at this tale. He and other Indians who later referred to the incident clearly regarded it as more than merely a lapse of protocol or just an another example of the post-9/11 excesses and indignities that air travelers had to endure for the sake of security.
“The Indians saw it as a symptom of a deep-rooted widespread condescension — or worse – on the part of the West toward the East.”