Posted on 08/24/2005 3:13:28 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CORONA, Calif. (AP) - Sami Habbas was sifting through his stack of mail when he noticed a credit-card offer addressed to "Palestinian Bomber."
The stunned Palestinian-American opened the letter that began with the salutation, "Dear Palestinian Bomber."
"I thought it was a joke or something," he said. "I'm very sad - devastated."
Habbas telephoned JPMorgan Chase & Co., which sent the solicitation, on the company's toll-free number, provided his ZIP code and invitation number from the form and two operators addressed him the same way: "Yes, Mr. Bomber, what can we do for you?"
Habbas, 54, a grocer who has lived in the United States since he was 3 and has served in the U.S. Army, said he was shocked.
"It's very upsetting," he said. "I'm not what they are saying, a Palestinian bomber. That's uncalled for. I have a name. My name is Sami Habbas."
Chase Card Services, the Delaware-based credit card line of JPMorgan Chase & Co., is investigating the solicitation.
"The information on the letter was obtained from a list purchased by Chase from a vendor," Chase Card Services executive vice president Kelly J. Presta said in a statement.
"Although no Chase employee was involved in creating this information, we are embarrassed by this incident and regret that our automatic screening procedures did not catch this erroneous information."
But Habbas is still upset, adding he doesn't know why he would be singled out or how anyone would know that he was of Palestinian heritage.
"It just hurt me to think I am discriminated against in my own back yard," he said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., called the letter "racially insensitive." In a letter sent to Chase, the Muslim civil liberties group asked for an investigation and a formal apology.
"The most important thing is to make sure this doesn't happen again, to any American, regardless of their race or religion," said Sabiha Khan, spokeswoman for CAIR-Southern California.
It was supposed to go to Palestinian Baby Boomer,, not Bomber
" The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., called the letter "racially insensitive." "
The fact that CAIR is involved makes me doubt that the event even happened.
But isn't that an honor in Islamic culture?
ROFLMAO
Did he apply?
The TV news last night showed the mail. Of course I guess CAIR could have forged it.
Hey, Pali: a lot of Jewish widows, widowers (I'm one) and orphans are saddened and devastated too. For far more terrible reason than your self-absorbed self.
"The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., called the letter "racially insensitive." In a letter sent to Chase, the Muslim civil liberties group asked for an investigation and a formal apology."
- Had this guy actually been a bomber, CAIR would have called him a martyr. Ironic isn't it?
LaChania Govan's August cable bill was addressed to "Bitch Dog."
Why does anyone care what CAIR thinks? Aren't they just another watchdog group? What are they going to do declare a boycott? It's not like hardcore Islamics make up a sizable econonomic block in the U.S.
wasn't chase one of the companies that "lost" everyones information...
Waiting for the lawsuit ....waiting ... waiting...
"I told them, 'I'm not Mr. Bomber, I'm Mr. Jihadist! Mr. Bomber lives two houses down from me.'"
This story was posted before and it still makes me laugh because it is so absurd.
"Hello, Mr. Bomber?" Yeesh!
Was this in-house or outsourced?
I tend to glance through articles, but this is the first I've seen of CAIR's involvement.
Did CAIR go to him or did he go to CAIR? Maybe CAIR got wind of the story and is trying to *ahem* hijack it. Mr. Habbas did serve, apparently honorably, in our U.S. Army.
You'd think that the following would be enough:
"Although no Chase employee was involved in creating this information, we are embarrassed by this incident and regret that our automatic screening procedures did not catch this erroneous information."
It's stupid, embarassing, unfortunate and unintentional, but methinks a federal case is about to be made of it.
Ah, what's new.
Do you think a man who has lived in this country for 51 years and served in the US army has anything to do with suicide bombings in Israel? And I guess you weren't offended by the waiter who identified the couple at his table as the "Jew couple".
Check out #2 and 3 on this page of Search Results HERE for
Man upset at credit card offer addressed to 'Palestinian Bomber
Thank you and mmm. Okay. Any sympathy gone.
"Habbas said that several days after calling the phone number on the letter, he called it again, this time with a friend who is a lawyer on the line. He then did the same with lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and CAIR on the line. In each case after supplying his postal and the invitation code he was addressed as "Mr. Palestinian Bomber."
CAIR, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group, called on JPMorgan Chase to investigate the letter, provide Habbas with a written apology, and clarify the company's policy on ethnic and religious sensitivity."
ACLU and CAIR both, hm? Nope, now he annoys me even more than the stupidity of the corp.
He called an attorney friend, who hooked him up with other anti-American attorney friends. Now they're pushing, shoving and tripping over eachother to make an issue of this (and millions of dollars) and further their agendas.
Once the ACLU and CAIR are brought into anything, there's another agenda at work.
The thing while it is funny it is amazing how stupid the phone reps an the company are..."Why yes Mr Bomber how are you today?"
I don't get the problem. Is he not Palestinian?
My bet is this is a computer generated application. Someone probably filled out a form of some kind ( as a joke ) somewhere with this guys name as " Palestinian bomber " and his address, and the info got to this credit card company, and then the form was spit out and sent to this guy. Or maybe the guy did it himself, who knows.
I can`t beleive credit card companies have people typing these things out and sending them to people in the mail. It all done with computers now.
So, does anyone know if he got approved for the credit card?
He must have called after hours, when calls get routed to Indian call centers. The Indians typically read pre-scripted lines, often without deviating from the script.
Maybe they simply followed instructions to address the caller as Mr./Miss/Mrs./etc. followed by the last name on the account, which perhaps seemed easy enough to read that they did not ask him how he pronounced it.
Palestinian Bomber is just rude, they should have addressed him as "Mr. Shaheed."
He's outraged enough to make one think that he may have sent this to himself. Time will tell...
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