re: "Qatar Diplomat: Airline Shoe Bomber? No: Potty Smoker"

James Joyner at Outside the Beltway ("an online journal of politics and foreign affairs analysis") also charts a moderate course on the incident.

Money quote(s):

"A Qatari diplomat with a disregard for the rules and an odd sense of humor managed to create a major air incident — including the dispatch of a pair of F-16s — for trying to sneak a cig in the lavatory of a 757 while in flight."

"(I)t strikes me as perfectly prudent to take the word of an Arab man producing smoke in the lavatory who proclaims that he’s a shoe bomber. I must agree, though, that scrambling fighter jets seems extreme overkill."

"We can expel a diplomat for any reason we want. That goes double for some low-ranking schmo.

Diplomatic immunity is an age-old principle and one that by and large makes sense. It can be waived by the diplomat’s government but I doubt we’ll pursue that course in this case since no lives were threatened or lost. One suspects that he’ll be quietly recalled to Doha and directed to another line of work."

&

"I’m merely suggesting that the Qatari government might not want this buffoon representing them in Washington after this embarrassing incident."

JG - IMMIGRATION CORNER - Filing for my fiancée

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Gleaner


IMMIGRATION CORNER - Filing for my fiancée

Published: Tuesday July 7, 2009

Your articles in Jamaica Gleaner is where I got your information. My name is C.J.; my fiancée is from Ethiopia, and lives and works in Doha, Qatar. I am a US citizen over 32 years, retired from the US Air Force, working in Iraq as a contractor, and my home of record is Miami, Florida. I have known her more than two years. My questions are:

Should I apply for a fiancée visa or get married and file for a resident visa in Qatar?

Which procedure is more feasible, less time consuming? Based on your experience in immigration law, which method is more logical?

- CJ

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"A citizen of the United States is entitled to file a petition for a fiancée visa to bring your fiancée and the fiancée's minor children to the United States.

There are several requirements to obtain approval for this visa. Premier among these requirements are that you must both be free to be married, must have met each other within the last two years - unless there is a cultural prohibition against the meeting, and you and your fiancée plan to be married within 90 days of her arrival in the US. You must show proof that you are legally divorced, if previously married, or proof of your prior spouse's death, if that is the case. "

_____

Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington, Esq. is a Jamaican-American attorney who practices law in Florida in the areas of immigration, family, corporate & personal injury law. She is a mediator, arbitrator and special magistrate in Broward County, Florida. Send your questions and comments to info@walkerhuntington.com or editor@gleanerjm.com