I find Ted Goodman's response and supposed "apology" totally
inappropriate and inexcusable.  I'm shocked that the President of
ARLIS/NA would publish his email to the consular office in Nigeria and
not only name the individuals who contacted him regarding visas but
publicly declare that those individuals might be "Islamic terrorists."
Although I recognize that these are difficult and emotion-laden times,
the paranoia and prejudice on public display here is embarrassing, to
say the least.

Sheila Wallace

Ted Goodman wrote:

>  Dear ARLIS-L subscribers,
>
> I apologize to Mr. Omar and to you if my reply seemed rude. I am not
> going to try to justify it- however, I am going to tell you about a
> recent incident which was in my mind during my response.
>
> Less than 3 weeks ago we had an incident while preparing for the St.
> Louis conference. It was handled very well by Clarke and the
> Conference leadership. Thus, you have not been previously informed.
>
> 8 Islamic Nigerians attempted to fraudulently register for the
> upcoming conference all of whom were using yahoo accounts (same as Mr.
> Omar) all of whom gave no address (same as Mr. Omar) and all of whom
> used the same credit card.
>
> They wanted us to fax the US Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria and arrange for
> US visas so they could leave the country.
>
> After consulting with the African bibliographer here at Columbia
> whether they were in fact librarians and determining that they were
> not, I contacted the US Embassy and informed them of the visa scam.
>
> Below is a copy of the email from the Embassy in response as well as
> my original email.
>
> I also alerted two societal affiliates who are having conference soon-
> AASL and ARLIS/UK & Eire.
>
> Many of us have received emails from "retired generals with millions
> of dollars". Since Mr. Omar used an anonymous yahoo email address and
> he did not inform us of his institutional affiliation in his first
> posting, I felt justified in issuing a caution.  BTW- he is not listed
> in the web-based UMass Amherst directory.
>
> This is my last word on this- I am too busy to take up further time
> since the conference is in a week.
>
> Times have changed and we must be more vigilant- I'm sorry if my
> manner upsets some people.
> Ted Goodman, President
> ARLIS/NA
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----------------------------
> From: "Lacy, Melanie S"  @state.gov>
> To: "'Ted Goodman'" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: RE: Nigerian Conference Delegates
> Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 09:55:56 -0500
> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2654.89)
>
> Mr. Goodman,
> I sincerely thank you for your vigilance in this matter. Everyday we
> encounter applicants who try to secure visas under fraudulent
> pretenses.
> With regard to this particular case, I checked our database and it
> seems as
> though 3 of the applicants tried to obtain visas but were denied by
> one of
> our consular officers. Now that we have the names of the others, we
> will
> definitely be on alert should they too try to apply for visas.
>
> Again, thank you for notifying us, doing your part to help meet the
> challenging task of protecting our borders.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ted Goodman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 9:31 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Fwd: Nigerian Conference Delegates
>
> Hi- I am the President of the Art Libraries Society of North America
> (web:
> www.arlisna.org <http://www.arlisna.org/> ).
> I just want to alert you that the following 6 Nigerians [2 additional
> came later that day] have attempted to
> register for our annual conference to be held Mar. 20-26, 2002 in St.
> Louis, MO. I think it is a scam and I just wanted to alert you to the
> fact
> that they may be trying to get visas.
>
> SPENCER NOSA, USIOMOIFO IKPONWOSA, USIOMOIFO
> OLUSOLA, BANTALE ADEDAMOLA, MOHAMMED HASSAN,
> MICHAEL AKINTUNDE, OLANREWAJU HASSAN
>
> Do not issue any US visas to these persons- I do not believe they are
> legitimate librarians who would be registering for an art librarians
> conference! In fact, they could even be Islamic terrorists trying to
> fraudulently get into the US.
>
> Please let me know if you have had other encounters with them and if I
>
> should be aware of other dangers.
> Thank you,
> Ted Goodman, President
> Art Libraries Society of North America
> Columbia University
> 1172 Amsterdam Ave., MC0301
> New York, NY 10027
> tel: 212-854-8407
> fax: 212-854-8904
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
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> At 09:31 AM 03/12/2002 -0500, Raymond Smith wrote:
>
>> I also found the response to Mr. Omar's query uncalled for and was
>> quite
>> taken aback by the two quite rude replies.  It was an innocent
>> request
>> and quite similar to others posted by either the membership or
>> library
>> students.  Not too long ago I learned in response to my question as
>> to
>> the exclusivity of the Arlis List Serve that it was open to anyone
>> who
>> found our web site of interest.  Since it is indeed open to the
>> public,
>> need we get paranoid with regard to such queries from outside the
>> membership?  I think Mr. Omar deserves an apology, as his question
>> was
>> an interesting one and in no way threatening nor demanding.  Perhaps
>>
>> some of our membership may also consider providing an answer to his
>> question regarding important art centers in the U.S.
>>     Raymond Smith
>>     R.W. Smith Bookseller
>>     New Haven, Connecticut
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
>> Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
>>         to [log in to unmask]
>> ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
>>        http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
>> Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at:
>> [log in to unmask]
>
--
Sheila Wallace
Director of Information Services
Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design
tel. 604-844-3835 fax 604-844-3801

__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
        to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
       http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]