Mystery Cloaks Couple's Firing as Risks to U.S. -NYT

[Rose Siding]

ORGANTOWN, W.Va. - May 5, the day that changed Aliakbar and Shahla Afshari's lives, began like most others. They shared coffee, dropped their 12-year-old son off at Cheat Lake Middle School here, then drove to their laboratories at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a federal agency that studies workplace hazards.

But that afternoon, their managers pulled the Afsharis aside and delivered a stunning message: they had failed secret background checks and were being fired. No explanations were offered and no appeals allowed. They were escorted to the door and told not to return.

Mrs. Afshari, a woman not prone to emotional flourishes, says she stood in the parking lot and wept. "I just wanted to know why," she said.
...
Without any official explanations of why they failed their background checks, they came up with their own theory: their attendance, more than five years ago, at two conventions of a Persian student association that has come under F.B.I. scrutiny, once with a man who was later investigated by the bureau.

The Afsharis' case comes at time when immigrants from many nations, but particularly Islamic ones, are facing tougher scrutiny from government agencies.

Unable to clear their names or find new employment in their field, the Afsharis on Thursday resorted to that most American of recourses: they sued the institute and its parent agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, demanding back pay and reinstatement or the chance to appeal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/national/12shiite.html?oref=login

[rodeodance]

1. how awful for them!!!!!

[Ravenseye]

2. Mystery? No Mystery.

If I were in that parking lot I would have said..

"Dude, your names are Aliakbar and Shala Afshari. Are you seriously asking why? Go call your lawyer."

[Just Me]

3. Talk about injustice.

I am truly ashamed to be an American.

Geez.

I see a country doing a downward spiral.

Sad.

[DRoseDARs]

4. Clearly they hate themselves for their freedoms...

:thumbsdown:

Best of luck to them in their lawsuit. This shit must not go unchallenged at anytime or both the terrorists AND the neocons win.

[babylonsister]

5. Everyone's liberties are in peril.

If we allow this to happen w/o explanation from the government, next thing you know people will be rounded up as in Russia; dark governmental car pulling up along side you, and pffft! you're gone. What ever happened to the American melting pot?
So disgusting, this whole thing.

[struggle4progress]

6. kick for arbitrary and capricious government

:kick:

[maddezmom]

14. and another

what a sad, sad state of affairs

[AP]

7. Liberty in America is measured by whether an middle class citizen can...

...afford a lawyer.

[PDX Bara]

10. or...

Could provide proof to be a registered Republican or Republican supporter.

[xchrom]

8. ah, all hail bushamerica!

[anarchy1999]

9. Insanity running amok.

Is "amok" a word? Did I spell it wrong? Amouk? Is it amuk? Sorry and please forgive, lateness of evening or too early in the morning?

Still the same......

INSANITY AT IT'S BEST!

[bin.dare]

12. yes, "amok" is a word ...

it comes from the gaelic "amoch" which sort of means a wild spread.

[The Zanti Regent]

11. James Brown was half right

It's a (WHITE) Man's World...

[bullimiami]

13. Bush's America sucks.

What an horrifying embarrassment of a government.