Shaffer
06-11-03, 11:06 AM
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Marine Corps officials on Okinawa denied a Japanese newspaper report Monday that the Corps had withheld passes from Japanese students, preventing them from attending college courses on its bases.
A June 4 article in the Ryukyu Shimpo “was both misleading and inaccurate,” said Capt. Christopher Perrine, Marine Corps spokesman on Okinawa.
Perrine confirmed that occasionally passes have been delayed because students changed classes they planned to take, or registered late. However, he said, every student who’d registered for the University of Maryland’s Term V had a base pass by June 5 — three days after the semester began and one day after the article was published.
The spokesman flatly denied the Shimpo article’s allegation that the Corps screened students on the basis of creed.
“Nobody is denied a pass because of thoughts or beliefs,” he said.
Bases routinely do criminal background checks of those seeking passes, Perrine acknowledged, but he said Japanese students face no more stringent screening than Americans do.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=15993
A June 4 article in the Ryukyu Shimpo “was both misleading and inaccurate,” said Capt. Christopher Perrine, Marine Corps spokesman on Okinawa.
Perrine confirmed that occasionally passes have been delayed because students changed classes they planned to take, or registered late. However, he said, every student who’d registered for the University of Maryland’s Term V had a base pass by June 5 — three days after the semester began and one day after the article was published.
The spokesman flatly denied the Shimpo article’s allegation that the Corps screened students on the basis of creed.
“Nobody is denied a pass because of thoughts or beliefs,” he said.
Bases routinely do criminal background checks of those seeking passes, Perrine acknowledged, but he said Japanese students face no more stringent screening than Americans do.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=15993