I have to watch what I say on this blog and elsewhere on the internet. I am no longer an American citizen, and so Homeland Security could refuse me entry into the United States. Case in point: A couple of tourists found themselves in handcuffs after arriving at LAX, then interrogated for hours, placed overnight in a holding cell, and sent home to Europe the next day.
Welcome to the United States!
What was this incident about? Apparently, Leigh Van Bryan tweeted that he planned to “destroy” America and dig up Marilyn Monroe. Emily Bunting was guilty of travelling with a suspected terrorist (her pal Leigh). Mr. Van Bryan’s explanation that “destroy” is slang for “party in” and that the digging up of Marilyn Monroe was a joke from the American TV program Family Guy fell on deaf ears. The Daily Mail reports that Federal Agents were looking for digging implements in their luggage and did body searches. Van Bryan said to the Daily Mail (restoration of text mine):
I kept saying to them they had got the wrong meaning from my tweet but they just told me “you’ve really f[ucked] up with that tweet boy” .
Well, I consider my efforts here at the Isaac Brock Society quite effective. If Federal Agents have time to monitor Twitter, they must be reading me.
Here is my message to you Feds: “Hi Guys! Thank you for making my former home, my country of birth, one of the most inviting places in the world to travel!”
I wonder if the U.S. hotel industry, Disneyland, or Florida real estate people are paying attention to this? The Isaac Brock Society is. Thus, I’ve created a new series “Welcome to America”, and I invite other such stories. Essentially, the United States is closing the door to tourists. Planning to go to the United States for holiday? Change your plans, cancel your trip if you can get a refund. Who knows why an arbitrary and capricious terrorist government will choose to detain you? Leigh and Emily are back home. Perhaps they are lucky that they aren’t now sitting in Guantanamo Bay at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
ACTA anybody?
“placed overnight in a holding sell, and sent home to the United States the next day. ”
I think you must mean “sent home to the UK” Otherwise it makes no sense!
@canuckDoc: Thanks, I’ve fixed that. “to Europe”.
holding “cell” isn’t it?
@geeeez One day I will learn how to write. DIY investor, used to financial terminology, “holding sell”. Thanks.
@geeeez The Patriot Act pretty much gives the US the right to detain anyone they suspect as a terrorist, no? Not that they actually need a law to do so. It’s just a convenient fallback.
@z – the US was already monitoring the Tweets.
I was trying to allude to the fact that with the ACTA, we’re probably going to see a great deal more people arresed over “online offences”.
The fact of the matter is, the United States is slowly becoming a police state.
Democracy and Freedom has been replaced by fear and insecurity.
The USCs who are living there are blind, deaf and dumb to the things going on around them. (present company excluded).
Why would anyone want to stick there toe in that water??
God save the Queen!
@Mach7
AMen!!
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
– George Orwell
The land of the free and home of the brave is now the land of the indefinitely detained and tortured.
All this breaks my heart…Long live the Queen!
And for those who don’t tweet the wrong thing, here is the standard treatment upon arrival in the United States (for those who missed this video):
Well…in all fairness, Canada is just as bad. And now they have those ATI machines. I WILL NOT step into one of those….i always tell them I am ‘opting out’ (the exact words you have to use).
Although I dislike the pat-downs, I hate the ionized radiation even more.
@Mach7 You are right. Last time I travelled I had a hand down my pants. It wasn’t my hand either.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive… those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
– C. S. Lewis
thank you @Cato for that quote from C.S.Lewis. it is very apropos.
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