Wade Hicks, Jr., was on his way to Japan to visit his Navy wife who is stationed there. But during a layover in Hawaii he became stranded as the US federal govenment has put him on a no-fly list. Doug Hagmann writes:
The above events took place on October 14, 2012. The victim in this case is one Wade Hicks, Jr., 34, a U.S. citizen and resident of Gulfport, Mississippi. I personally checked him out and verified his story. With his permission, I conducted a “basic” background check of Mr. Hicks, Jr. He has no criminal record. He is not a “wanted” man. By all normal and visible accounts, Mr. Hicks, Jr. appears to be a law abiding member of society. I did find, however, that he is an outspoken “patriot” and openly critical of the NDAA. He is a former talk-show host of a small, local radio station known for its “patriotic bias.” He is a member of “Patriots for America” and the Mississippi Preparedness Project. He is openly vocal about the erosion of our rights – and it certainly looks like he has been proven correct. Is that now a crime worthy of being denied the ability to travel freely within the United States?
This is an egregious and recalcitrant violation of the fundamental right of the American people to move freely within the country. The United States has become a totalitarian police state. This incident is the equivalent of a dead canary.
Here is the dangerous Wade Hicks, Jr., giving a speech during a Tea Party demonstration in 2009:
*I really can’t understand the Audio on his film clip.
How did he get back to the manland from Hawaii, or is he still stuck there?
@Roger, Don’t worry about the video clip. I provide it because it show that he is really not some sort of insurgent, though at one point he reads the Bill of Rights.
To my knowledge, Hicks is still in Hawaii–this story broke only yesterday (hat tip Business Insider). The Federal authorities have told him that he may not fly, though they would allow him to swim to the mainland or book passage on a surface vessel.
*Just to set the record straight… My husband was not on his way back from Japan, he was on his way TO Japan to see me. I am deployed and he missed me and wanted to come for a visit. Next thing I know he’s stranded. If anyone has any ideas of how to get him off that island I’m all ears! All the other facts are accurate. He has no criminal history, he was just approved for a Enhanced Concealed Carry license in Mississippi, and he believes in support the constitution and exercising his right to free speech. He is not a danger to anyone.
Thanks. I’ve put your name as Mrs. Hicks because we don’t allow “anonymous” as a user name, but apparently, you are Wade Hicks’ wife. Thanks so much for commenting. I’ve change the information in the above post to reflect that Wade Hicks was on his way to Japan, not on his way back. Apparently he was on Japan-bound military transport which made a routine stop-over in Hawaii, and he was not allowed back on the aircraft. See this most recent article: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/customs-agent-blocks-politically-outspoken-military-dependent-from-leaving-hawaii-tells-him-hes-on-the-no-fly-list-after-hes-already-arrived-in-hawaii-from-california/123
Unfortunaltey this is the Country you now live in. It is going to be very difficult to get him off a ‘no fly’ list, and most likely was perpetrated by the all too famous ‘patriot act’ for his efforts to educate the public using his rights to free speech….sorry…did i say ‘free’?
@Mach7 Well, I don’t understand this. Hick’s wife is in Japan, defending the United States by serving in the military, and her employer strands her husband in Hawaii. I’d be very angry at my boss at this point. What is the point of serving to defend this? It’s certainly isn’t freedom, by any definition of the term.
@Petros
I think what Mrs. Hicks has to consider, is what exactly is she defending?
Here is one of many brave individuals who is putting her life on the line to maintain the freedoms and rights of the people of her country by serving in the Military, whilst her Husband is being detained by (most likely) the same freedoms and rights that her Country claims to uphold.
It makes me feel sad for the people of the United States who now have to read the ‘fine print’ before they decide to exercise any of there constitutional freedoms. It is just another form of control….scare the general population and they will fall into line!
“Here is one of many brave individuals who is putting her life on the
line to maintain the freedoms and rights of the people of her country by
serving in the Military”
US military personnel do not protect a constitutional republic, they enforce the will of the empire.
Nothing to see here slave, move along.
Well, my understanding is that Mrs. Hicks is a naval officer and that officers in the United States military pledge an oath to defend the Constitution not the Empire: on the other hand, enlisted military apparently pledge an oath to the commander in chief.
Well….we all know who the commander in chief is….maybe she should contact him?
@ Mrs Hicks It looks like Russia Today has already picked up on this as well. http://rt.com/usa/news/no-fly-hicks-us-military-650/ I would suggest you contact more press about this incident: NBC,CBS,ABC,CNN and as much foreign press as you can. You could start with the BBC, TF1 in France. This needs international exposure so that allies of the US can recognize what Uncle Sam has become and start putting pressure on the US to refrain from such arbitrary, unjust, and unconstitutional behavior.
I am curious as to how you found Isaac Brock? It would be interesting if you could post some of the documentation (your husband’s various passes, permits, tickets, orders, etc.) perhaps with any confidential information redacted so that everyone can see that what the news articles are saying about the incident is true.
I wonder what legal basis the government is using to prevent Hicks’ return to the lower-48? Of course they are not saying, and this sounds typical.
Part of the NDAA has been indefinitely blocked http://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-permanently-blocked-2012-9. I wonder if District Judge Katherine Forrest (not in Hawaii, but she was the judge who issued the first injunction a few months ago) knows about this. Could someone file an injunction before her on your husband’s behalf?
That the US government appears to be harrasing someone critical of government policies is a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. That it would appear that Hicks is unable to find out who made the decision to put him on a no-fly list is a violation of the 5th (due process) and 8th (blocking someone from going home when there is no criminal warrant for his arrest sounds like a cruel and unusual punishment) Amendments to the US Constitution.
What in the hell does the US government think it is doing? I would really like to know what people at the highest levels really think about such incidents.
“officers in the United States military pledge an oath to defend the Constitution”
As do all the elected officials, but we know what liars they are. Just like all those IBS Canadian liberals should figure out why the welfare state might have something to do with their predicament, so should Mrs. Hicks recognize the nature of the beast whose will she enforces.
Also…it is election time in the US…so getting the information out there for the public to see might be the lever she needs to get her Husband home safely.
I just sent the following to TF1 news in France:
I also sent the links to the BBC and RTS.
By the way, here is the TF1 page on the US Elections: http://lci.tf1.fr/elections-usa/correspondants-tf1-washington/
*Mrs Hicks, this is very strange. I never heard of anything like this when I was serving in the US military many years ago. I hope that the situation will be quickly resolved and that your husband will be heading to Japan shortly.
Oops, it looks like I got the current status wrong about the NDAA.
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-should-be-outraged-about-the-ruling-to-keep-the-national-defense-authorization-in-effect-2012-10#ixzz29aruMzq4
Somebody here at IBS should do an update article on what has been going on with the NDAA since we discussed it a few months ago. I don’t have time right now.
I will be attending a small rally for Gary Johnson, Libertarian presidential candidate, this evening. Let’s see what he says about this incident and also I intend to ask him about FATCA versus the swing votes he is seeking to attract, and whether he has met American Citizens Abroad representatives yet.
*The No Fly List, which contains many names wrongfully added or common enough to cause confusion, and perhaps not a few entered out of spite, is only part of Your Government in Action against terrorism. It is very easy for parts of the Government to take advantage of the huge flow of data for other reasons, whether to collect taxes or to monitor dissent.
The criteria for inclusion on the no-fly list are secret. Still, one should not be surprised that Mr Hicks’ name was identified for scrutiny. He seems to be associated with anti-government militia movements; the connection is easily made using a search engine. Thus: http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=127673 I wonder whether federal police agencies are prepared to distinguish between Ruby Ridge and Waco and other types of armed dissent. (Google ‘removal from no-fly list’ for more on this.)
It isn’t just the no-fly list that should concern one, especially those who have written on the forum about being flagged at crossing the border, or being recognised when using (say) a Canadian passport that may or may not show a US place of birth. The Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS) collects travel reservations and port of entry arrival and (for visa aliens) departure data and can be queried, for example by IRS collection staff (who are, however, instructed not to reveal this fact to taxpayers): http://www.irs.gov/irm/part5/irm_05-001-018r-cont01.html It seems to me that the mere feasibility of 1984-type monitoring of everybody “just in case” and the Bush-era use of the NSA to monitor citizens unlawfully has led the Government to do just that. There is every reason to think that the Utah data storage facility now under construction will diminish privacy and endanger birthright freedoms. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/ And how much of what is collected will be NOFORN and how much shared with allies such as Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand?
It goes far beyond no fly lists, just ask Petros. How about tax evasion scapegoat lists. Its way past time to send Mrs. Hicks and the empire’s nuclear armed navy to go after “tax cheats”, “illegal drug dealers” (never Merk or Pfizer) as well as all those “terrorists”.
Learn to respect the drones, slave.
*@ConfederateH
At first I thought you meant something like this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19269662
Swiss banks were always leaky. I always thought the riskiest sort of account was a numbered account because they were flagged as sneaky. A number of cars were stopped in the 25 km police zone around the French border in exchange control days. Too many to be simple chance or clever intelligence collection by the French authorities. Years later, computerisation made it just too easy for a disaffected or greedy banker to download data to a DVD or memory stick and sell it on.
It turned out of course that the banks were more crooked than the tax evaders. And not clever enough, either in their crookedness (their solicitation of tax evasion) or their own-account trading. Ask Kweku Adoboli.
Banks and bailouts. Go together like love and marriage. Or something like that.
@Mark Twain
I sent a letter to Gary Johnson several weeks ago asking what his presidency would do for US persons living abroad, and never received a response. I’d sure like to hear what he says about citizenship based taxation, FATCA, etc. His response could earn my vote, as I would not vote for Obama nor Romney as neither have committed to addressing our issues in a positive way. He’s a possible spoiler for Romney.
http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2012/oct/17/could-libertarian-gary-johnson-have-ralph-nader-ef/
*FWIW: The Philippines, which had citizenship-based taxation beginning in 1913, when it was occupied and under American sovereignty and its citizens were American protégés, ended it in 1999. Devaluation had put expatriate Filipinos into the highest tax bracket and threatened to impoverish them. Also, compliance was poor.
The overhang of US debt is the only pressure I see on the dollar that could influence a re-think of US tax law, although I could imagine somehow Congress or the courts addressing the tension between an accidental citizenship imposed and difficult to divest. If the IRS continues to ignore those Amcits abroad who never have had a passport or social security account and never visited the USA, or on the other hand if the number of such persons subject to nonreporting penalties of hundreds of thousands of dollars gets publicity and traction, something might happen.
Bad laws, like other unintended consequences, come from notorious celebrities and from newspaper reports of extreme cases. Remember that it was Forbes’s reporting of expatriating Americans avoiding tax that led to the Expatriation to Avoid Tax statute in the first place.
My expectations are low.
But my question que card contains a request for him to have a public dialogue with ACA and finishes with the words “swing votes”
Saw Gary Johnson tonight. His focus is upon eliminating the IRS by creating the consumption tax. I caught 3 of the highest regional aids who showed some understanding of the Worst Law US has Never Known. Gary Johnson has bigger fish to fry. Time to move me and my money to Cuba.
He doesn’t help a FATCA person seeking relief for one issue, however he was more Democratic than a Democrat, and more Republican than a Republican. A better candidate than the other 2 put together.