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June 17, 2010

US Citizen Barred from Returning Following Yemen Visit
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A US citizen says he’s been prevented from returning to the United
States after ending an eighteen-month stay in Yemen. Twenty-six year-old
Yahya Wehelie of Fairfax, Virginia, has been stuck in Egypt for the past
six weeks after US officials told him he is on the no-fly list because
of people he met in Yemen during his time there. Wehelie is a Muslim of
Somali descent. In an interview with the Associated Press, he said he’s
in limbo.

Yahya Wehelie: "Why is the US government not letting me go back home?
I’m a US citizen. There’s no way I can—I can’t fly on any US
planes. I can’t fly in US airspace. How would I be able to get home?"

Yahya Wehelie was traveling with his brother Yusuf, who was also
detained before ultimately being allowed to return home. At a news
conference in Washington, Yusuf Wehelie said he was interrogated by a
man claiming to work for the CIA before being sent to an Egyptian prison
for three days.

Yusuf Wehelie: "I was taken before an Egyptian judge, who allowed me to
be released. But I wasn’t released. Instead, I was put into the back of
an Egyptian police car, handcuffed, blindfolded, and driven to what I
believe to be the Police Ministry. I was there, and I was placed in a
corridor with other prisoners shackled to the wall."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations says the no-fly list is being
used as a form of "extraordinary rendition" and is calling on the Obama
administration to intervene.



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