Posted on 01/03/2007 2:16:08 PM PST by Michael81Dus
And we can't wait to see you go.
OK, you judgement process is altogether wrong.
You say he cannot be a terrorist because he was sent home instead of to gitmo.
Your thinking is binary -- either
1) we have tons of evidence on a person and can prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court he is a terrorist.
2) Or the man poses no threat to our country whatsoever.
Reality is there is often a huge middle ground. There are plenty of people who we have good reason to suspect may be up to no good, but we have nowhere near enough evidence to prove the man has contributed to terrorism in a court of law. In this case the individual was on a terror watch list, which alone shows suspicion.
Unless you like putting Americans at risk from terrorism, you would agree that such suspicious people should be kept out of the country, even where we lack proof to convict them and put them away. The standard of evidence does not need to be "beyond a reasonable doubt" to deny people entry into our country.
I know someone with the opposite problem right now as this. He needs to GET OUT of a country. He's a retired US citizen of Eritrean origin who goes there to visit relatives for the Christian holiday. You just don't flount US citizenship around in some countries. Well, guess what just happened this time?
Ethiopia helped Somalia kick a bunch of radical Muslims out of their country. And Kenya just closed and armed it's border with Somalia because refugees may not be just refugees. Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are going to have a military agreement together without the UN or CNN TV cameras allowed in.
Eritrea is right on the Red Sea next to Ethiopia. How do you get out of a war zone? You have a scheduled flight to Rome and then Frankfurt and Kennedy to LAX in a week. They don't happen every week. You either get on an overloaded boat to Yemen and take your chances, or duck in the US Embassy and reveal yourself and your family while waiting for the 5th Fleet to come over and take on refugees? Or lay low?
That's the opposite question. How do you get OUT of a WAR ZONE as opposed to SNEAKING INTO another country. ICE needs to go to Kenya for advanced training.
He has 2 nice daughters at UCLA and a consultant job that needs him back.
LOL, I like your humor. In fact, my visit to Lebanon was to attend the wedding of my cousin with a US citizen (in a beautiful church of the crusaders, build in the 12th century). I´m just visiting New York and Washington, but thanks for your invitation. If I learned anything about Americans here, it´s their hospitality to strangers (which could easily and rightly change in pure hate, if abused).
Your "middle ground" leaves enough space for arbitratriness by officers.
Of course, but 4 days of detention seems to signify some serious investigation.
PS: Residents of Gitmo were taken from battlefields, not from airplane custom entry points.
Wrong. There are a few cases when people were captured in other locations - such as a bus in Macedonia - and brought to Gitmo.
Operative word = Captured.
I would hardly call a person requesting entry into the US "captured." Who took the person off the bus in Macedonia, special ops forces or customs agents?
Photo of mother and daughter in this article:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070102-1702-ca-fatherdetained.html
If I learned anything about Americans here, it´s their hospitality to strangers (which could easily and rightly change in pure hate, if abused).
Its not hate. We like to call it "tough love".
cheers
But you know, he was on a watch list. Maybe he shouldn't have been. Maybe we made a mistake. I still think the guilt should be on Al-Qaeda, not the U.S. We are just trying to stop terrorist attacks, here. It's not like we tortured him or anything.
Let´s hope that this may not happen too often. Btw, the Dept of Homeland Security works on changes of the Visa Waiver Program. They may soon require sort-of visas for citizens from the participating countries, meaning that the US Immigration gets several informations about the traveller earlier than the day of arrival.
There seems to be a lot more to this family's story than we have been told so far. The mother uses her maiden name of Mulligan. Where does she live - US or Germany? How long has daughter lived in US? Are the parents married? The photo shows a little girl with her father. Is that the most current photo of them together?
There is much more that curious reporters could tell us.
I have zero faith in the stupid hacks who work for the FBI.
Other examples are people who were in Gitmo for years (or at least a couple of month) after they were released with a simple "sorry" (if ever).
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