Airline Detained Pakistani Trainees Headed To Kirtland
By Rene Romo Journal Southern Bureau
LAS CRUCES — About 20 Pakistanis removed from an airline flight from London to the United States because of security concerns apparently were headed to an anti-terrorism training program at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
The Pakistanis reportedly were members of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's security detail.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and American Airlines apologized to the Pakistani government after the airline incident, the television network CNN reported last week.
The Pakistani security group was removed from an American Airlines flight departing from London's Heathrow Airport on March 16 because of a flight attendant's concerns about the presence of such a large group of Middle Eastern-looking men, Mineta told CNN.
The Pakistanis were put on the next flight to the United States after airline officials determined they were headed to New Mexico at the invitation of the U.S. government to attend the State Department-sponsored anti-terrorism training, CNN reported.
Since arriving in the United States, the Pakistanis have been training at Kirtland, according to Van Romero, vice president for research and economic development at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
The program at Kirtland is managed in part by New Mexico Tech, which also runs a 2-year-old border protection program under a contract with the State Department in Socorro.
Romero said he could not provide details of the training and referred questions to the State Department.
Details about the program remain scarce.
A Kirtland Air Force Base spokeswoman said she had no information about the program.
Asad Hayauddin, a press attaché for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C., told the Journal the security detail had been headed for Albuquerque but said he did not know their final destination.
The anti-terrorism program has been overseen by New Mexico Tech since the early 1980s, according to Andy Laine, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
"Under this program, we arrange for training of foreign civilian law enforcement officials from countries friendly to the U.S.," Laine said. "These law enforcement officers receive training and go back to their countries and they are better able to deal with terrorist threats in their own country."
Laine said the State Department typically does not disclose where foreign agents get training, and he would not confirm or deny that the Pakistani security detail came to New Mexico.
The training director of New Mexico Tech's Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, part of the university's Energetic Materials Research Testing Center, declined to discuss the Pakistani students' training and directed questions to a State Department regional manager in Albuquerque. The State Department official, in turn, directed questions to Laine.
"Certainly the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program is a key component of our effort to combat terrorism worldwide," Laine said.
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