How does one best demonstrate the benefits of democracy and civil rights to a delegation of Iraqis taking a tour of the U.S.? If you’re Joe Brown, city council chair in Memphis, Tennessee, you spout some xenophobic gibberish and refuse to let them in.

The seven Iraqi civic or community leaders stopped in Memphis on one leg of a State Department-sponsored U.S. tour intended to show governmental workings at their finest. The delegates were to visit city hall and meet with a city councillor. Brown, apparently fearing for his ugly life, nixed that agenda.

“Has the FBI been informed?” Brown queried, stating his need to “secure and protect all the employees.”

According to the group’s Memphis guide, Elisabeth Silverman, Brown vowed to “evacuate the building and bring in the bomb squad” if the seven showed up. The Iraqis eventually met with a less paranoid councillor, though not at city hall.

During their three-day trip, two members of the delegation were mugged at gunpoint on the streets of Memphis.

» Scott Saxon