Beware of Hema: America's newest security threat

In the days before 9/11 the greatest threat to American security was not a bearded young man of brownish complexion from a turbulent part of the world. It was a desi aunty. I remember standing at the Chicago airport watching sniffer dogs being led to giant bulging suitcases by unsmiling uniformed customs officials. I was freshly arrived in the country, nervous about navigating it on my own, but I was waved through with barely a glance. The middle aged lady in front of me however was pulled out of line and made to stand helplessly at a table while two officials rifled through her over-stuffed VIP suitcase. [caption id=“attachment_1029995” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] She is an Indian-American IT professional who works for the US government. Image courtesy: US Defense Department.[/caption] “Any mangos, ma’am? Any other food you are bringing in?” one asked her. In those innocent days, the greatest threat to America was a mango or a cut of hilsa fish smuggled in by a fond mother convinced that her beloved engineering student son was wasting away, pining for a taste of home. 9/11 changed all that. Until now. The “Insider Threat” program created by the Obama administration aimed at catching the next Edward Snowden has given us America’s latest “high threat” and her name is Hema. The desi woman as security threat is back. Not quite a traditional aunty this time. She is an Indian-American IT professional who works for the US government. Her car was repossessed recently because of money troubles. She visits family in India perhaps twice a year and cribs about American foreign policy. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has created Hema as a hypothetical profile of the kind of person federal workers should keep an eye on. It also created a Maria and a Samuel and a Todd but Hema has raised the most eyebrows. Basically a brown person who visits the homeland regularly and takes an interest, even if a little whiny, about matters outside American shores is immediately worth of suspicion? The slide showing “Hema” is marked High threat in red even though it says her work quality is “adequate.” Meanwhile, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden slipped through the net quite easily. Stephen Aftergood, a security expert called the slide “ignorant and clumsy” and told Huffington Post if unhappiness with American foreign policy was a threat indicator, “it could apply to most members of Congress, if not to most Americans.” For example, a Nikki Haley, inveterate critic of Obama at home and abroad. As for money problems chances are Indian Americans are far behind other groups when it comes to cars being repossessed. But look at it this way. Perhaps Hema is a sort of back-handed compliment to desis. One could say the DISA is now warning that if Hema is not above suspicion, no one is. Edward Snowden has ruined it for white men. Bradley Manning has messed it up for the LGBT community. Latinos are anyway viewed with suspicion as illegal border crossers, a sort of brown mass waiting to Hispanicise America. Chinese Americans have already been fingered in spying scandals because their homeland is viewed with paranoia by Americans. Indian Americans were the good minority who played by the rules, didn’t kick up too much of a fuss, and spoke English fluently even as immigrants. George W Bush, while president, never tired of marveling “A billion people in a functioning democracy. Isn’t that something? Isn’t that something?” A Gallup poll this year showed India edging past even Israel to make it to spot number 6 in favourability ratings among Americans. Republicans and Democrats both woo them. DISA is warning us that the model minority is in fact the perfect disguise for America’s next Edward Snowden. She could be carrying out entire hard drives full of data inside that pressure cooker she brought to the office potluck. A Pentagon spokesman told Huffington Post that they coordinated with 26 federal agencies to address any civil liberties concerns and the insider threat test focuses more on behaviour instead of “personal characteristics or beliefs.” He also said several million people have taken the training and there has only been one complaint. However if you are named Hema, for example, Hema Malini, please be careful while going through US airports. Don’t run your mouth off like Dhanno. And whatever you do, don’t carry a pressure cooker.