So two undesirables (my label) one from Ireland the other the UK where reportedly deported from the US on the basis of two vaguely humorous/vaguely lazy tweets one of them sent:
Quote:
Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America
Quote:
3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p*ssing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!"
Interrogated, detained and deported over these tweets.
While I wouldn't have these folks round for tea; I do find their treatment totally inappropriate and very scary.
Two of my friends when trying to get Visas to the USA have been asked other interesting questions including:
i) Are you a member of Al Qaeda? - to which he laughed, no visa - this was prior to travel but with an invite from a US University to speak.
ii) Are you or have you ever been a Communist? - He said no and was allowed in.
The problem is as a researcher I'd have to ask them to define 'communist' at which point depending on their answer I might have to lie or answer "sort of... although I wouldn't use that word... I'm an idealist, Democrat(non party based), pacifist, who thinks property is a form of theft, that all drugs should be de-criminalised but not used and am against nationalism in all its guises".
Anyway, despite being a fan of the US in many ways, I don't see me visiting anytime soon - which for me is sad.
Do you have a source? While I find absurd deportation plausible I find it equally plausible that a news report sensationalized something by leaving out important data. It's hard to comment one way or the other without some flesh on these bones.
The scummy old Sun has more details (including screengrabs)... though without libelling myself Rupert Murdock if you will, could be the Devil and his papers/newscorp may act unethically... it's possible but unlikely.
The Daily Mail, who may or may not have praised the Nazis prior to WW2 and who continue to voice soundbites by organisations that remind me of the Nazis, not that they are anything like the Nazis, (The rag has also been criticised for emphasising the ethnicity of non-'British' 'white' criminals) have some paperwork:
"[hyperbole], it's pretty much the best and most exceptional and effective way of expressing oneself all the time ever." ~MScrivner
monkeyhandz wrote:
The problem is as a researcher I'd have to ask them to define 'communist' at which point depending on their answer I might have to lie or answer "sort of... although I wouldn't use that word... I'm an idealist, Democrat (non party based), pacifist, who thinks property is a form of theft, that all drugs should be de-criminalised but not used and am against nationalism in all its guises".
Anyway, despite being a fan of the US in many ways, I don't see me visiting anytime soon - which for me is sad.
Any thoughts or stories?
I think that things have gone too far in the name of protection. Of course I am coming from a more Conservative/Libertarian perspective:
As to property being a form of theft, that is pretty hardcore man! I say this:
Samuel Adams wrote:
"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can."
Also, if there is no property (I understand you to mean ownership essentially...) how could there be theft?
Well it's not the first time some UK nitwit has got themselves in trouble on twitter regarding air travel, but on the home side in this case. The moral of the story: airport security has no sense of humour whatsoever, or as my old gran used to say 'the police never find it as funny as you do'.
Besides take a looking at him, I suspect that rather than a sensible explanation and maybe an apology, he more likely came out with inarticulate indignation:
Well it's not the first time some UK nitwit has got themselves in trouble on twitter regarding air travel, but on the home side in this case. The moral of the story: airport security has no sense of humour whatsoever, or as my old gran used to say 'the police never find it as funny as you do'.
Besides take a looking at him, I suspect that rather than a sensible explanation and maybe an apology, he more likely came out with inarticulate indignation:
You have a lot of nerve judging him and his grandmother based on their looks!
monkeyhandz wrote:
i) Are you a member of Al Qaeda? - to which he laughed, no visa - this was prior to travel but with an invite from a US University to speak.
ii) Are you or have you ever been a Communist? - He said no and was allowed in.
Obviously the officer's mistake was in not asking the person in i) the question in ii).
Lots of people talking about this here. I'm not sure how exactly you interrogate someone for 6 hrs over their twitter posts. It seems like a 10 minute conversation tops.
What really interests me though is the technical side (of which I know very little). How do they filter out stuff like this and connect it with a traveller. I can only assume its some kind of spider that trawls along looking for key phrases ("destroy America" rates highly I guess).
Does this sort of thing focus on social media sites or can they really search the entire internet.
Does Chiddler get hassled next time he's at JFK? Will I?
What really interests me though is the technical side (of which I know very little). How do they filter out stuff like this and connect it with a traveller. I can only assume its some kind of spider that trawls along looking for key phrases ("destroy America" rates highly I guess).
Key words that appear within a specific timeframe by the computers monitoring electronic communication. Once individuals are flagged then closer attention will be taken specifically towards them.
The foolishness, of course, is that 'destroy' is simply slang for partying hard and the heavy-handed treatment will simply lower the already less than popular reputation of the US in the UK. Silly really.
I want a job where I read random tweets all day, searching for terrorists.
In all serious this is a disgusting story and I feel bad for the little douche, but still I want to be inside the guys head that made the decision to detain him. "Oh my god this guys going to destroy America! And he's going to GOSSIP first!? That's just disrespectful."
Posted Wed Feb 1, 2012 5:20 pm
It must have been his first trip the USA as well.
