Diplomat on Denver flight to be sent back to Qatar, U.S. says

"We all share the same concerns about profiling of Arabs and Arab Americans in a time of strong anxiety, particularly in the air travel industry," said one ambassador. Enhanced security, he said, is in "everyone's best interest, and we hope and expect the security procedures are implemented uniformly."

One of his colleagues was more blunt, saying that the incident "never would have happened if [Madadi] were Swedish."

Several diplomats from Arab and Muslim-majority countries said they had been stopped while boarding domestic flights in the United States, many for secondary searches and pat-downs they think were initiated because of their names or nationalities. "They're not supposed to do pat-downs of ambassadors," said one chief of mission, "but my choice is to argue about it or just get it over with."

"I have a U.S. passport" in addition to that of the country he represents, another diplomat said. "But I've had situations where I'm traveling with a blond, blue-eyed person and I'm the one who gets pulled out for secondary checking."

The administration announced last week that it would drop a requirement, instituted after the Christmas Day incident, of physical searches and additional baggage checks for U.S.-bound international passengers from or traveling through 14 predominantly Muslim nations. The move was in response to protests from governments, U.S. Muslim organizations and civil liberties groups.

Madadi, the son of a Qatari diplomat, attended high school in Virginia and graduated from Marymount University. He received a master's degree in information systems from George Washington University in 2008, after which he returned to Qatar and joined its foreign service. He arrived here late last summer, said a friend who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He finished his apartment and got a baby bulldog," the friend said. "He just got his new car last week."

Madadi, who served at the embassy for less than a year in what was his first overseas assignment, was on his way to make a consular visit to Ali al-Marri, a Qatari national serving an eight-year sentence for terrorism offenses at the "supermax" prison in Florence, Colo.

Staff writer Laura Blumenfeld and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.