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American Samoa Faces Flap Over Security Alert

By Dan Eggen
The Washington Post
Posted on Thursday December 19, 2002

Order Singled Out Those of Middle East Descent

American Samoa, a tiny U.S. territory located about 2,300 miles southwest of Honolulu, is known for its palm trees, its tuna canneries and not much else.

But now Samoa, a cluster of seven islands at the heart of Polynesia in the South Pacific, finds itself mired in a contentious debate over terrorism and racial profiling—prompting protests from American Arabic groups and, as of yesterday, the sudden and unwelcome attention of officials back in Washington.

The center of this tropical storm is a “security alert” issued in August by the Samoan attorney general, Fiti Sunia, that barred entry into the territory to anyone “of Middle Eastern descent,” and ordered Samoan officials and airlines to “take special note” of visitors with “Middle Eastern surnames and features.”

The territory of 62,000 gets relatively few visitors from anywhere, let alone the Middle East, so the measure gained little attention at first.

But then came a lawsuit filed in American Samoan High Court by Michael Homsany, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native and Samoan resident whose grandfather emigrated from the Middle East. Homsany called the order unconstitutional and un-American, and feared he would not be allowed to return home after a trip to Hawaii for a medical procedure.

“He was afraid that if he would have left the island, they wouldn’t let him back,” said his attorney, Paul Miller, a Coloradoan who decamped to Samoa three years ago.

Sunia’s attempt to clarify the alert by exempting Homsany and other Samoan residents did little to quiet the controversy, in part because the follow-up order referred to the wrong date. More important, Sunia has let stand the order barring outsiders of Middle Eastern heritage.

Sunia did not return a telephone call made to his office yesterday in Pago Pago (pronounced pango-pango). A spokesman for the territory’s governor declined to comment, and said the office did not know if any foreign nationals had been subject to the order.

At the Interior Department, which has oversight responsibility for Samoa and other U.S. territories, officials said they were not aware of the Samoan security alert until informed yesterday by reporters. The alert was originally prompted by reports of suspicious individuals possibly canvassing targets on the cluster of islands, authorities said.

“The alert was an effort to respond to a credible threat that was facing American Samoa,” Interior spokesman Keith Parsky said. “Their response is now under review.”

James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, called the alert “reprehensible” and said officials in Washington are obliged to respond to the actions of a U.S. territory.

“It’s not the way our country has operated and it’s not the way our country should operate, to just issue a blanket exclusion of a whole group of people,” Zogby said.

American Samoa, which was governed by the Navy for the first half-century of its existence, is not a part of the country.

As the only “unincorporated and unorganized” territory of the United States, Samoa has no hope of becoming a state but also enjoys a fair degree of autonomy from Washington, according to U.S. officials and experts. A primary example is the territory’s ability to set its own immigration policies and, rather than accept U.S. visas, to issue its own entry permits.

“They have self-governance rights,” one U.S. official said. “It’s not generally a situation where we dictate to them.”

But in the end, U.S. officials acknowledge, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton has ultimate plenary authority in most Samoan affairs. One official said Sunia’s order “obviously needs tweaking,” with a decision possible as soon as today.

Nine out of 10 residents of the territory are Polynesian, and 98 percent are Christian, according to census figures. As a result, Miller said, Samoa is relatively insular and views outsiders with suspicion.

“Principles of equality are seriously lacking in American Samoa,” he said. “There is no real mechanism for the U.S. government to enforce U.S. laws down here. If nobody is going to object about any conflict between Samoan law and U.S. law, then nobody does anything.”

Del. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, the American Samoa representative to the House of Representatives, said he was unaware of Sunia’s order until recent media reports from Pago Pago.

He said officials in Samoa are concerned by recent terror attacks in the region, including the al Qaeda-linked bombings targeting Australian tourist spots in Bali. But he said he shares the concerns of Arab American groups about the security alert.

“I think there’s no question that the order the attorney general issued definitely faces serious federal questions,” he said. “I’m quite sure he’s going to have to rescind his order, or at least revise it.”