Iroquois lacrosse team cleared to travel by America–then blocked by Britain
Nation that invented the sport refused entry to UK for tournament
By Ewen MacAskill
Only hours after the US government backed down in a row with the Iroquois team over passports, the team's hopes of making it to the UK were dashed when the British government denied them entry.
The Iroquois team had been due to fly to the UK on Sunday for the opening game tonight against England in Manchester.
For the last three decades, the Iroquois have travelled using their own documents, as agreed by the US, Britain, Canada and other nations. But the US, under new stringent travel rules, insisted that they now use US passports, which the Iroquois do not recognise.
By Neil Goulding
The team had been due to play England tonight (7.30pm) in the opening match of the tournament at the University of Manchester Armitage Centre, but the British government has confirmed that they will not be allowed into the country unless the British government reverses its decision, said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a lawyer for the team.
"They're telling us: 'Go get U.S. passports or Canadian passports,'" Frichner said on Wednesday shortly after getting the news. "It's pretty devastating."
Thus, tonight's scheduled clash will be forfeited and England will be awarded maximum points. In its place, England will play Germany in the tournament's opening game. The England-Germany match-up will be an exhibition game, and the results will not count toward the Championship.
I can just imagine it. Here's the Iroquois team passing through security:
"I dunno. I've never seen him before. Equipment manager? Water boy?"
"He's got dark skin like us, so he must be okay. Let him through with the rest of us."
I don't think they want the competition. Iroquois was scheduled to play [the] hosting country I believe. How's that gonna look if they lose?
For more on the subject, see Iroquois Kept from Lacrosse Championship.
Below: "Percy Abrams of the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team shows his Iroquois Confederacy passport during a news conference in New York." (Bebeto Matthews/AP)
The U.S. let them through it was England that stopped them why is everyone making it sound like America did something wrong?
ReplyDeleteThe US let the Iroquois through...after several days of stonewalling. It took a huge effort by Native activists to coax the feds into action. The delay may have been enough to keep the team out of the tournament.
ReplyDelete"and we all know how Bush famously asserted that Iraq had to be invaded because it was responsible for 9/11"
ReplyDeleteAbout as famous as UFO's landing in Central Park.
Wow, DMarks, could you possibly be more predictable? I should've just gone ahead and posted this as a footnote:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq#Casus_belli_and_rationale
While it never made an explicit connection between Iraq and the September 11 attacks, the George W. Bush administration repeatedly insinuated a link, thereby creating a false impression for the US public. Grand jury testimony from the 1993 World Trade Center attack trials cited numerous direct linkages from the bombers to Baghdad and Department 13 of the Iraqi Intelligence Service in that initial attack marking the second anniversary to vindicate the surrender of Iraqi armed forces in Operation Desert Storm. For example, The Washington Post has noted that,
"While not explicitly declaring Iraqi culpability in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, administration officials did, at various times, imply a link. In late 2001, Cheney said it was 'pretty well confirmed' that attack mastermind Mohamed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official. Later, Cheney called Iraq the 'geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.'"
The BBC has also noted that while President Bush, "never directly accused the former Iraqi leader of having a hand in the attacks on New York and Washington," he "repeatedly associated the two in keynote addresses delivered since September 11," adding that, "Senior members of his administration have similarly conflated the two." For instance, the BBC report quotes Colin Powell in February 2003, stating that, "We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases. And we know that after September 11, Saddam Hussein's regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America." The same BBC report also noted the results of a recent opinion poll, which suggested that "70% of Americans believe the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks."