heaven above
September 17th, 2004, 01:19 PM
Melbourne, Australia, September 17, 2004 - 6:13PM
Irving banned from boarding NZ flight
CONTROVERSIAL historian David Irving was today [Thursday, September
16, 2004] refused permission at Los Angeles airport to board a Qantas
flight for New Zealand.
Irving, who has gained notoriety as a Holocaust denier, said he would
take his fight to enter New Zealand to the courts.
He had earlier said he was determined to visit New Zealand this week
to speak to the National Press Club despite a government ban. [click
picture below for our website picture report]
New Zealand Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor said
Irving presented himself at the Qantas check-in at Los Angeles today
and was refused permission to board the plane.
"Mr Irving's status as a prohibited person under the Immigration Act
(S7) means that he cannot enter New Zealand without a special
direction," O'Connor said in a statement, "and no special direction
has been granted."
Irving said tonight the airline staff were very polite and it was not
their fault that Prime Minister Helen Clark (right) and Deputy Prime
Minister Michael Cullen had behaved in an very un-British manner.
"I've visited New Zealand before on two occasions, so why shouldn't I
be allowed to come on a third occasion," he said on National Radio.
He said he had read in the New Zealand media that he would not be
allowed to go to New Zealand -- "the huffing and puffing of the
government in Wellington".
"I was quite impressed actually and rather proud that Helen Clark
should have paid attention to the arrival of one single tourist in my
person."
Irving said he had "instructed a very good lawyer in Auckland to take
the matter further".
"We have certain steps we are going to take that would be extremely
uncomfortable for the government in New Zealand.
"We will now require them to produce their papers and lay their cards
on the table -- exactly as happened in Australia all those years
ago... when I fought action after action against the Australian
government."
Irving's lawyer in New Zealand, Colin Amery, said he was sure Irving
would fight the matter through the courts.
He said the government had acted in a duplicitous manner in stopping
Irving from coming to New Zealand by using rules designed to
intercept stop terrorists.
Earlier this week it was reported that Irving's name had been on an
Immigration Services computer alert for several weeks since the
Government said he would not be allowed into the country, after being
banned from Canada 13 years ago.
The Immigration Service said his name was on the Advanced Passenger
Screening System to which all the world's airlines subscribed.
Immigration Service spokeswoman Michelle Williams said airlines were
aware that a banned person would not be allowed to land and would
have to be returned at the airline's cost.
Amery told radio network Newstalk ZB that Irving had been put on the
list on May 23.
He asked why, when that had happened, the government had allowed
negotiations to be carried out with a view to obtaining a waiver for
Irving.
"My simple argument is, are we using a system which presumably is to
prevent alleged terrorists from coming to New Zealand to stop
historians from getting on planes," Amery said.
Last week, Cullen (left) said New Zealand's borders were closed to
Irving.
"He can say whatever he wants to. Nobody is going to stop him saying
it... it's just not going to be here," he said.
Cullen, who is also a historian, has made it clear he is not
impressed by Irving's theories on the holocaust or insinuations that
the New Zealand Government was being manipulated by a small group of
people.
"Underlying that is that long historical paranoia about some notion
there is some Jewish conspiracy to run European civilisation.
"It is just vomit-inducing, that was the background to what happened
in the 1930s and 1940s," Cullen said earlier this year.
- NZPA
Irving banned from boarding NZ flight
CONTROVERSIAL historian David Irving was today [Thursday, September
16, 2004] refused permission at Los Angeles airport to board a Qantas
flight for New Zealand.
Irving, who has gained notoriety as a Holocaust denier, said he would
take his fight to enter New Zealand to the courts.
He had earlier said he was determined to visit New Zealand this week
to speak to the National Press Club despite a government ban. [click
picture below for our website picture report]
New Zealand Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor said
Irving presented himself at the Qantas check-in at Los Angeles today
and was refused permission to board the plane.
"Mr Irving's status as a prohibited person under the Immigration Act
(S7) means that he cannot enter New Zealand without a special
direction," O'Connor said in a statement, "and no special direction
has been granted."
Irving said tonight the airline staff were very polite and it was not
their fault that Prime Minister Helen Clark (right) and Deputy Prime
Minister Michael Cullen had behaved in an very un-British manner.
"I've visited New Zealand before on two occasions, so why shouldn't I
be allowed to come on a third occasion," he said on National Radio.
He said he had read in the New Zealand media that he would not be
allowed to go to New Zealand -- "the huffing and puffing of the
government in Wellington".
"I was quite impressed actually and rather proud that Helen Clark
should have paid attention to the arrival of one single tourist in my
person."
Irving said he had "instructed a very good lawyer in Auckland to take
the matter further".
"We have certain steps we are going to take that would be extremely
uncomfortable for the government in New Zealand.
"We will now require them to produce their papers and lay their cards
on the table -- exactly as happened in Australia all those years
ago... when I fought action after action against the Australian
government."
Irving's lawyer in New Zealand, Colin Amery, said he was sure Irving
would fight the matter through the courts.
He said the government had acted in a duplicitous manner in stopping
Irving from coming to New Zealand by using rules designed to
intercept stop terrorists.
Earlier this week it was reported that Irving's name had been on an
Immigration Services computer alert for several weeks since the
Government said he would not be allowed into the country, after being
banned from Canada 13 years ago.
The Immigration Service said his name was on the Advanced Passenger
Screening System to which all the world's airlines subscribed.
Immigration Service spokeswoman Michelle Williams said airlines were
aware that a banned person would not be allowed to land and would
have to be returned at the airline's cost.
Amery told radio network Newstalk ZB that Irving had been put on the
list on May 23.
He asked why, when that had happened, the government had allowed
negotiations to be carried out with a view to obtaining a waiver for
Irving.
"My simple argument is, are we using a system which presumably is to
prevent alleged terrorists from coming to New Zealand to stop
historians from getting on planes," Amery said.
Last week, Cullen (left) said New Zealand's borders were closed to
Irving.
"He can say whatever he wants to. Nobody is going to stop him saying
it... it's just not going to be here," he said.
Cullen, who is also a historian, has made it clear he is not
impressed by Irving's theories on the holocaust or insinuations that
the New Zealand Government was being manipulated by a small group of
people.
"Underlying that is that long historical paranoia about some notion
there is some Jewish conspiracy to run European civilisation.
"It is just vomit-inducing, that was the background to what happened
in the 1930s and 1940s," Cullen said earlier this year.
- NZPA