This story from Michael Yon makes me embarrassed and ashamed of my country. Hopefully something good will come from Yon’s article.
While the U.S. Immigration officer named Knapp rifled through all her belongings, Aew sat quietly. She was afraid of this man, who eventually pushed a keyboard to Aew and coerced her into giving up the password to her e-mail address. Officer Knapp read through Aew’s e-mails that were addressed to me, and mine to her. Aew would tell me later that she sat quietly, but “Inside I was crying.” She had been so excited to finally visit America. America, the only country ever to coerce her at the border. This is against everything I know about winning and losing the subtle wars. This is against everything I love about the United States. We are not supposed to behave like this. Aew would tell me later that she thought she would be arrested if she did not give the password.
The Government of the United States was reading the private e-mails of a U.S. citizen (me). The Department of “Homeland Security” was at work, intimidating visitors with legitimate visas. They had at least 24 hours to check her out before she landed in the United States. What kind of security is this? The Department of Homeland Security was at this moment more like the Department of Intimidation.
Officer Knapp called my phone as I was driving to the Orlando airport. I was going to be there two hours early to make sure I would be on time, so that she had a warm welcome to my country. But instead, Knapp was busy detaining Aew in Minneapolis and was on my cell phone asking all types of personal questions that he had no business asking. Sensing that Aew was in trouble, I answered his questions. Mr. Knapp was a rude smart aleck. The call is likely recorded and that recording would bear out my claims. This officer of the United States government, a grown man, had coerced personal information from a Thai woman who weighs 90 pounds. I asked Aew later why she gave him the e-mail password, and she answered simply, “I was afraid,” and “I thought I would be arrested.”
What could I say to alleviate any of this? Could I say, “This is the U.S., nothing to be afraid of.”? The world already sees us as senseless bullies. Aew might have been detained indefinitely; even I was concerned that the Department of Homeland Security might detain Aew for no reason. Essentially, she had no rights. They had already coerced her e-mail password out of her head through intimidation.
Read the entire thing.
And then write or call or your Congressman and Senator and let them know that this type of behavior form the Dept. of Homeland Security is unacceptabel, and you expect them to look into it and ensure it doesn’t continue.
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Sorry, Robbie, but I just can’t seem to muster the indignation that Yon and you have. I have a tendancy to want to hear both sides of the story before I make a decision as to who was right and who was wrong.
Yon points out that Aew initially purchased a one-way ticket. First red flag.
Then Aew purchased a round trip ticket (cost being an unimportant factor that Yon chose to throw in).
He goes on to say:
Aew comes from a wealth family.
Aew is well educated.
Aew is well traveled and had no problems in China or other nations.
Aew is a personal friend of an American citizen.
Aeu has a valid U.S. visa.
What about those points are any different that some of the 9-11 highjackers or any other number of terrorists that have been arrested in the United States since 9-11.
Yon is also outraged that Aew was held up at the airport for 90 minutes.
In December, 2002, I was flying from Austin to Denver to spend the Christmas holiday in Breckenridge. My flight was delayed so I decided to go outside to catch a smoke break. I grabbed my lighter and a cigarette, took my break and went to go back through the metal detector. I was pulled aside, asked for my I.D. and when I told them that I had left it in my purse, in the custody of my husband who was sitting in the waiting room, I was detained. I was required to take off my shoes (Cole-Haan penny loafers) as they claimed the penny I had in them set off the metal detector. I was required to remove my coat, empty my pockets, take off a hair band that had a small metal clasp on it, remove a gold chain and St. Jude medal and wait for a supervisor. The airline paged my husband, and he brought my purse carrying my I.D.
The Texas DPS was then contacted to run a make on my driver’s license which is clean. After over an hour, I was given back my shoes, coat, contents of my pockets, St. Jude medal and hair band. By then, I had missed my flight and the airline (Southwest) was kind enough to work with us for another flight.
At the time, I was a 62 year old woman, native born American of Irish and Amerindian hertigage. I wasn’t trying to enter the country, I was trying to get to Denver from Austin (first and last time I will spend any time in Colorado). My passport shows that I have been to Ireland via Heathrow. I come from Texas, not Thailand, a hotbed of radical Islamic activity.
Yes, the people from security can be rude. Yes, it is aggrevating to be stopped and questioned. So what? Have you ever dealt with a New York cab driver?
We live in a new world. Our nation, and the way it operated, ended on 9-11-01.
But for Yon to be so indignant based solely on his friendship with Aew is to ignore that our nation is under seige from those who bring no good will with them. Perhaps had a security guard been as diligent when Mohammed Atta tried to board a flight, almost 3,000 Americans would still be alive.
Are there cases of abuse? Sure, just as there are cases of dereliction of duty. No system is perfect in a free society.
Was I upset that I missed my flight to Denver because of security precautions? Not as much as I was upset at the delayed flight in the first place. I understand that we are still trying to find a method that will allow our freedom to travel at will yet still protect the nation as a whole.
And I understand that we are getting one side of the story, from Yon who has injected his emotional reaction into it, and that is not enough for me to say the security personel was wrong, or right.