Air controllers: Saudi wanted only men

WASHINGTON – Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's representatives asked that women be barred from air traffic control duties when he traveled Thursday to Central Texas for a summit with President Bush, several Texas aviation officials say.

The request, honored on portions of the prince's flights between Houston and Waco, has angered some Texas air traffic personnel.

"I don't think his request should have even been passed on," said Mark Pallone, a regional vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "Our controllers are all qualified. We don't qualify people based on sex or religion."

Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration and the State Department denied that the Saudis asked for special treatment.

"We have received no request from either the Saudis or the U.S. State Department that we provide any special services" to the prince, said FAA spokesman Roland Herwig. White House officials said they had no knowledge of any such request.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, told KHOU-TV in Houston: "I don't know where this news came from. I can say, without going back to our people, that is absolute nonsense that they would do something like that."

An FAA employee in Texas confirmed the incident, calling it "an outrage." Prince Abdullah is "in our country and should adhere to our rules," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The incident spotlights cultural differences between the United States and Saudi Arabia, where women are segregated in the workplace, banned from driving and forced to cover up from head to toe in public.

Texas aviation officials said the controversy began Thursday morning when members of the prince's entourage approached the manager of the Texas State Technical College airport in Waco, the airfield used by Mr. Bush and dignitaries visiting his ranch in nearby Crawford.

"Apparently, what happened is that an advance group of Saudi Arabians went in and talked to the airport manager and told him they did not want any females on the ramp and also said there should not be any females talking to the airplane," said Ruben Gonzalez, regional manager for RVA Inc., which operates the airport's control tower under a contract with the FAA.

The request was honored, Mr. Gonzalez said, and safety was in no way compromised. He said a male controller handled the prince's morning flight from Houston to Waco, with the female tower manager on the premises and ready to work, if necessary. Two male controllers guided the prince's afternoon flight back to Houston, he said.

"I had never had a request like this and thought it was odd," Mr. Gonzalez said. "But we did not do anything out of the ordinary. We just did our jobs."

Mr. Pallone, the union official, said the Saudis' male-only appeal made its way from the Waco airport to three FAA stations along the prince's route: the Waco approach control center and the Fort Worth and Houston en route centers.

During the morning flight to Waco, authorities in the Houston en route center "refused to comply" with the prince's request, Mr. Pallone said. The issue was moot in the Fort Worth en route center because an all-male crew already had been scheduled, he said. In the Waco center, he said, a male controller took charge of the prince's plane from a female controller.

During the return flight to Houston, only men were working in the Waco center, Mr. Pallone said. At least one woman was on duty in the Fort Worth center, he said, and Houston made no special arrangements.

"I've been a controller 24 years, and I've never heard of anything like this," said Dennis West, who works in the tower at Love Field in Dallas. "I was outraged, as were all the people I worked with, especially the females."

The FAA employee who requested anonymity was equally critical. "My understanding is that he [the prince] did not want any females to work him," the official said. "For us to accommodate that request is absolutely crazy."

The U.S. government has paid heed in the past to Saudi sensitivities, only recently jettisoning an Air Force policy requiring female American military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia to dress in traditional Muslim robes when they go off-base.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, noted that half the people aboard the crown prince's plane were female "hostesses."

"The role of women in Saudi Arabia is undergoing tremendous transformation," he said. "They make half the population. They are needed to bring the population to its full capacity."

The summit between Mr. Bush and the crown prince, who is Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, occurred against a backdrop of rising tensions between the two nations over U.S. policy in the Middle East and the commitment of Arab nations to rein in Islamic fundamentalists and fight terrorism.

I'm patriotic but not really god fearing I do not fear the unfathomable since it is useless to( I'm a deist not an athiest). I am very militantly for small Government and market forces can replace the Government in basically everything except the military, intelligence, and local roads.

I do not believe the House of Windsor runs everything thats tinfoil crap with little evidence they can't even select women who will keep their affairs out of the press. The House of Saud has a lot of influence of Bush's father but they don't control much else besides terrorist networks think of them like a sociopathic version of the Clampett's.

"God fearing" was a figure of speech. I observe the order around me and realize that it is far beyond describing as an engineering marvel. Good engineering always takes a good engineer. I start from that belief and add a lifetime of reading and observation to form my beliefs. I am definitely not an athiest, and I live by Christian beliefs learned as a child - but the likes of Jerry Falwell do not stoke my religious fires.

I am very militantly for small Government and market forces can replace the Government in basically everything except the military, intelligence, and local roads.

I strongly favor a very large number of "small" businesses. They have always been the bedrock American Democracy. And I just as strongly believe that the American Democracy can not exist when a very small number of "very big" business interests get financial control of the political and media systems. From there they control everything - the executive, the legislative and eventually the judicial system. Millions of small business people used to make millions of political contributions. Now, the contributions that control the system come from an ever smaller number of collosal business entities such as Walmart, Goldman and Arthur Anderson.

I would agree with your view of market forces, if they were forces generated by a competitive market of small businesses. However, when the market forces are generated in a market of ever shrinking collosal businesses, then at some point they become oligopoly market forces and eventually monopoly market forces. Under this scenario, oligopoly and monopoly market operations appproach those of government.

The House of Windsor is one of the better known Monarchies, but it is merely the window dressing, the distraction (like race issues and lardbrick issues) to focus interest away from the real target, which includes old world money, oil and drug cartels. Like religion, the "tin foil crap," as you call it, can no more be proven or disproven than the existance of God. In the end, one has to observe the order in the world around them, and then one must make assumptions based upon their experiences and educational knowledge. My decisions are based upon my observation that money is the driving force behind most decisions. Big money becomes a lifelike entity which must grow and survive at all costs. Big money easily replaces religion, patriotism and individual/national survival issues. From my observation, there is no limit to what big money will do to perpetuate itself. Tin foil - maybe. Corporate monarchy - it is just a matter of identifying them.

Well as for Democracy I don't believe in Democracy for the following reason

" A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship." -Alexander Tyler

If you look at the History big Government tends to encourage big buisness more than discourage it. Small buisness would do better with smaller Government( they are less well equipped to deal with the red tape and taxes after all).

And this corollary is also true

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the big businesses discover that they can finance the politicians who will give big businesses money from the public treasure. From that moment on the big businesses always finance the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.

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