Omar Abdulkadir Artan is a Somali referee, who'd been selected to ref World Cup games in the US.
So....Artan goes to enter the US....traveling on a diplomatic passport of Somalia.
For those who aren't aware of the use....it IS a special/official type of passport....to be used by diplomatic staff.
Entering the US....'red-flags' came up over the use.
What can be said.....without interpretation....the gov't of Somali issued the passport so that there would be no necessity in denying him entry.
Over several hours of interviews....it finally came out from the US side...Artan... is linked-up to suspected members of terror organizations (Al-Shabaab affiliates). So on paper....this poses a national security threat.
Did FIFA know this? I doubt it.
Did the gov't of Somalia know this? I would imagine they did....otherwise, they would NOT have issued the diplomatic passport.
Are there Somalia ref's not on some watch-list? No idea....an unknown.
Germans caught up in this.....believing you can't deny entry to World Cup refs? Well....yeah....the story is told in a way that you can't deny entry to refs...even if they are connected to terror groups.
Would Germany deny entry to Germans? Over the past decade....since the ISIS-war....if you were a stupid German consumed to participate in the Syrian war....you can't re-enter Germany today....without spending several years in prison.
Are there any German players, or ref's.....on German diplomatic passports? No (silly question).
Could the Somali ref come to Canada or Mexico, on a regular passport? Yes, of course. Oddly, this whole thing was designed as a news piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment