The Green Party USA is the "original" Green Party. Another Green Party sponsored Ralph Nader's run for U.S. president, which was also backed by the Green Party USA.

In a November 6 phone interview with the Militant, Oden said, "It was like they knew who I was before I got there. No one called my name or asked for my ID. The National Guardsman just yelled out, 'Get those bags over here!'"

The Green Party leader said she was the only passenger searched out of some 15 people on that flight and may have been the only person searched at the airport at that time. The Bangor airport has one gate.

"My bags passed through the X-ray machine okay," she said. "The zipper on one of my bags was caught and when I tried to help, the Guardsman shouted, 'Get your hands out of there!'

"Then he started spouting pro-war things in my face like, 'Don't you know what they did on September 11?' and 'We have to kill them before they kill us.' He put his hands on my arm and I told him, 'don't touch me.'"

After being searched, Oden said she was taken by the Guardsmen down a hallway where she was surrounded by six other National Guard troops toting machine guns. "I thought they were going to arrest me but they just told me that I was not allowed to travel on any flights that day because I was 'uncooperative' with the bag search."

Oden said the National Guard troops were trying to "provoke me into doing something stupid, so that they could arrest me." She said they told her that her money would not be refunded, even though they had prevented her from using her ticket.

"I was treated as if I was guilty just because I'm a dissident and I speak out," she told the press. "They're looking at me like I'm a terrorist and I'm just a peaceful person trying to go to a meeting in Chicago."

Officials at Bangor International Airport and American Eagle Airlines spoke with the Bangor Daily News about the incident. "She was uncooperative during the screening process," claimed American Eagle spokesman Kurt Iverson. He said that Oden reportedly would not stand still when security staff tried to wave a metal-detecting wand over her. "Obviously if they can't submit to screening, [Federal Aviation Administration] regulations require that they not be allowed to board the plane," he said.

Officials from the FBI and the FAA would not discuss why Oden's name was flagged in the airline's computer records.

In a press release Oden said she was "targeted because the Green Party opposes the bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan. Not only did they prevent me from boarding my flight; they also told me that my ticket would not be refunded and the airport was off limits to me." She added that someone unknown to her had also called the hotel she was to stay at and canceled her reservation.

"I was shocked that the military prevented one of our prominent members from attending the meeting in Chicago," said Elizabeth Fattah, a Green Party USA representative from Pennsylvania speaking at a press conference here. "I am outraged that the Bill of Rights is being trampled on."

Mitchel Cohen, media coordinator for the Green Party, said that the government was using the events of September 11 to crack down on dissent, freedom of religion, and freedom of association, and protested the detention of more than 1,000 people since September 11.

Cohen said that Green Party USA positions calling for an immediate halt to the bombing of Afghanistan, opposing preventive detentions, and demanding an end to the sanctions against Iraq were the real reasons the government had violated the democratic rights of Nancy Oden.  
 
 
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