Talk:France protests treatment of government minister by US authorities; US government admits mistake

This article has nothing to show for the US side; is unbalanced, therefore NPOV. Please provide more specifics on the arrest, and less accusations like "imposed some excessive control". Also, there could be more details into this story - it is rather vague on specifics. --Mrmiscellanious 22:29, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Interestingly, hardly any US news source report on it. Yet, apparently, the US government official admitted a mistake. Mr Begag wanted to keep it discreet, so he's not commenting on it.

You won't get specifics unless Mr Begag changes his mind or eyewitnesses come forward. Submarine 22:36, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Can't manufacture news for the sake of "balance"; but more details and "quotes" added.Neutralizer 13:45, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

NPOV

The article statest the US State Department did respond. They apologized for an officer's mistake, reprimanded the officer. The article appears balanced to me. - Amgine / ^talk 23:29, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Should be ok now. There's I think hardly anything opposing a "French view" or a "US view" — both governments seem to agree that the control was excessive. Submarine 23:55, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Traveling into or within the US now like going into East Germany 30 years ago

The chances are you'll not be bothered; but if,for any reason, US authorities/police target you, you can land in an anal rape jail for 10-20 years for having done nothing wrong whatsoever. Just look what they almost did to an american lawyer, Brandon Mayfield . Note his fingerprints were "100% verified" by the main FBI lab. The facts don't count in the US anymore. Neutralizer 13:53, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Getting _into_ East Germany was never the problem. But say, Neut? You ain't PaulRevere2005 redux by any chance are you? 69.23.220.138 00:28, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

NPOV?

The very title of this article is POV, and is far too scant on details to be newsworthy in any credible way. -- Medude24 10:37, 22 October 2005 (PST)

I do agree. Tagging with necessary tags on your behalf. --Mrmiscellanious 18:19, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

I disagree. The event was reported in the press, there was a diplomatic incident, and the US government admitted to the problem. Unless of course you consider that TF1, Le Figaro etc. report not "newsworthy" stuff, but a cursory look at the Wikinews front page shows that we do report even more pointless stuff. Submarine 22:07, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

• Quite honestly, I don't give a rip what other news sources report. Just because they are reporting it doesn't mean it is automatically news worthy. As no details have surfaced, I see this as nothing more than a French government official complaining about something that could be as small as a vending machine giving him the wrong pack of gum. --Mrmiscellanious 03:58, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

I agree that the title is far too biased, especially without concrete details in the story regarding what actually took place. How about something like "France protests treatment of government minister by US authorities"? --Wolfrider 00:23, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Much better, I think. --Mrmiscellanious 03:47, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

I see this as nothing more than a French government official complaining about something that could be as small as a vending machine giving him the wrong pack of gum. Then why would the US government issue a statement that a mistake had been made and that they would reprimand and retrain the customs officer? Submarine 15:10, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

As though comical as it may be, the government customs officer could have been a contractor ordered to fill those vending machines and perform all technical maintenence to the machine, and when it was noted that that hypothetical pack of gum was dispersed incorrectly, the supervisor went for another contractor. I know it's silly, but without details - anything is up for guesses. --Mrmiscellanious 01:56, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I seriously disagree. IMHO by definition, an official complaint by a government on the treatment of a minister is automatically newsworthy. Also, this may surprise you but usually when governments makes official complaints, it's more then a pack of gum. Also this may further surprise you, but the wrong pack of gum coming from a machine is not generally construed as mistreatment and even a politician is unlikely to ever try to claim such... Nil Einne 18:31, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

For the record, the Vienna convention defines the status of diplomats (in particular, a diplomat cannot be arrested and searched). That these international conventions were broken is quite newsworthy, and quite different from "the wrong pack of gum". Rama 09:23, 4 November 2005 (UTC)