YOUR TSA, ON GUARD FOR YOU!
Posted on 01/04/2009 11:15:38 PM PST by Defiant
The Department of Homeland Security in Action
04 January 2009
A Thai friend with whom I have traveled in Europe and Asia took time off from her job to meet me in Florida over the holidays. This was a good time for me, as it was between reporting stints in the war. My friend, Aew, had volunteered to work with me in Afghanistan or Iraq, but I declined because many people around me get shot or blown up. So we were looking forward to spending some vacation time together. She comes from a good family; and one that is wealthier than most American families. She didn’t come here for a job. Well-educated, she has a master's degree and works as a bank officer in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aew was excited about the prospect of visiting America for the first time, though she had traveled to many other countries and had the passport stamps to prove it. She had no problem getting a U.S. visa, and she was paying her own way to fly.
Problems began when she entered the airport in Bangkok. Aew had a one-way ticket to America, because we would travel back in the direction of the war before she would go home, but we did not know our exact itinerary, so she hadn't bought a round-trip ticket back to Thailand. Before boarding the flight from Thailand to America, Northwest Airlines required Aew to buy a return ticket for 53,905 Thai bhat, or about $1,200 for a return ticket, else they would not let her board the flight. Aew paid by her credit card and pushed on.
Understandably, it raises suspicions when a foreign national doesn't have a round-trip ticket in an age of massive illegal immigration -- even if that person is an educated professional with a home and career, and even though Aew has a ten-year visa to the United States. Nevertheless, Aew paid approximately $1,200 for the return ticket, and so now had a return ticket.
That is how it began. She boarded the jet, eventually landed in Japan and then Minneapolis, before the final leg to Orlando. While thousands of people have canceled trips to Orlando due to the failing economy, Aew was coming with cash to spend in Florida. We would go to Disney, Kennedy Space Center and many other places; she'd be seeing the sights while I was meeting with military and other people in preparation for my upcoming return to Afghanistan for the long year ahead.
I first met Aew in Indonesia during a break from the Iraq war. I had gone to visit the site of the murder of my friend Beata Pawlak, who, along with about two hundred other people, was killed in a terrorist attack on the island of Bali.
After meeting in Indonesia, Aew and I stayed in touch. We traveled at different times to Singapore, Great Britain, Thailand and Nepal. Yet when Aew landed in Minneapolis, she was hustled away by an immigration officer. After approximately 24 hours of exhausting travel, Aew was detained for about 90 minutes without cause, and as a result, she missed her connecting flight to Orlando. She was brought into a small room where she saw a camera peering down. The officer conducting the shakedown wore a name tag: "Knapp." Five times she had traveled to China with zero problems, but Knapp grilled Aew with a long series of questions, rifling through her wallet, handling her credit cards and reading them carefully, questioning her piece by piece. Her passport, thick with extra pages, showed stamps from countries around the world. It contained the valid U.S. visa, and stamps and visas from countries she had traveled to, such as Great Britain, Japan, China, Nepal, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei, New Zealand and Cambodia. She had traveled to some of these countries on multiple occasions, always paying her own way. She never had problems. Not even in China. We had toured Parliament together in London, on a private expedition led by Member of Parliament Adam Holloway. Aew was very interested to see the Royal Family, and was beside herself when I met Lady Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who at that time read this website. The British, including military officers, had treated her very well and she left with positive memories of Great Britian.
But that was Great Britain. The American shakedown was just starting. Her sister, Puk, was sending me SMS messages from Thailand, worried that Aew seemed to have disappeared. I had bought Puk's daughters, North and Nurse, who are 8 and 9, a "talking globe" so they could track the travels of their Aunt Aew. The last time I saw North and Nurse, we had taken them to the Chiang Mai zoo, and also to an elephant camp where the elephants paint. Puk's husband, Bey, is a high-ranking Thai police officer who, as part of his duties, helps organize security for the Thai Royal Family.
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.
This does not make me feel safe: Our Homeland Security was focusing on a 40-year-old Thai bank officer while there are real bad guys out there. Thailand and the United States have had good relations for 175 years, and Thailand is one of the few countries in the world that is proud to say they are friends of the United States. There are no threats to Americans from Thai people -- who, among other relevant things, are mostly not Muslims. The King of Thailand was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard. I have never seen the King with a gun; only a camera. His 2009 New Year’s speech was also a call for peace. The King and his family helped bring widespread education to Thailand, which created a special problem. Today there are large numbers of highly educated, successful women looking for highly educated men. I remember General (ret.) McCaffrey, our former drug Czar, telling me a couple of years ago that the King of Thailand was incredibly important in wiping out opium poppies in Thailand. The King of Thailand is highly respected by the government of the United States. He is a very good man.
During World War II, when the Japanese encouraged the Thai people to fight us, the Thai government actually declared war on the United States and Great Britain. But the Thai Ambassador in Washington refused to deliver the declaration of war. The upshot was that the United States refused to declare war on Thailand, and the Thai people formed a resistance against the Japanese.
Thai people refused to fight Americans. Instead, they attacked the Japanese. Has our government had problems recently with 90-pound, 40-year-old Thai women? Do they blow things up? Aew doesn’t even know how to light a match. She doesn’t smoke or drink, and is more upright than your average southern Baptist. She can’t even curse and gets upset if she hears me say a bad word about someone. “Michael!” she says, “Don’t say that!”
When I discovered that she had missed her flight, after about 24 hours of travel thus far, I called immigration at Minneapolis and asked to speak with Officer Knapp. Knapp got on the phone, but this time it was me questioning him. Knapp told me it was legal to read e-mails. I asked for his first name, but he was afraid to give his first name, which was rather strange for someone working within the confines of an airport where everyone has been searched for weapons. Where I work, in a war zone, soldiers give their first and last names and face Taliban and al Qaeda heads up, man to man. I write about al Qaeda, Taliban and other terrorist groups who kill thousands of people. My name is Michael Yon. My first name is Michael. Mr. Knapp hides behind a badge bullying a woman whose only activities are Yoga, reading, travel, and telling me what is healthy and unhealthy to eat. Knapp is a face of Homeland Security. How many other officers at Homeland Security bully 90-pound women, but are afraid to give their own names?
Knowing that Homeland Security officers are creating animosity and anxiety at our borders does not make me feel safer. How many truly bad guys slip by while U.S. officers stand in small rooms and pick on little women?
I have just returned from Afghanistan and Iraq on a trip with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and I can assure you that we can do better. We do not have to violate human rights and insult our closest allies to maintain our security.
Meanwhile, Aew had missed two flights; standby seats were full on the second flight, and I was considering flying from Florida to Minneapolis to get her myself. I did not want Aew to have to sleep in the airport overnight.
I had intended to show Aew a bit of my country. But it's taking a little while for her to get over her discomfort at being in America. She was treated better in China. So was I.
I am an American born and raised in New England . Last time I returned to the NY from Japan ( where I have resided for over 20 years ) , I was grilled for 1o minutes at immigation as if I was a suspected terrorist . Meanwhile , the Japanese and other non-Americans were walking through immigration like a breeze . Same thing happened in Hawaii last year . Question after question after question and my bags were opened and searched . Unreal .
TSA...the next generation of jackbooted thugs.
Does he have a case against DHS? I am getting sick and tired of the govt, and lawsuits seem to be the only think they understand.
Yon's take on a common peeve regarding our current security measures.
Tom Daschle: The weenie that keeps on giving. Oh, and don’t forget to thank GW Bush for giving in to the Dems. RR would have beat them over the head with their effort to politicize homeland security.
At the same time, placing restrictions on members of suspect groups, such as members of CAIR and other Jihadi organizations, should be common sense. We are hassling our own people instead of those who seek to kill us, in order not to single out the people who seek to kill us. That is how morons behave.
Well, they had heard you were in the same city where ricin was released, so I guess they thought they had cause to suspect you.
This is what happens when people with no education/high school diploma/GED are given a little power. There is no right to read emails or to force someone to give you their email password. It’s no wonder the minimum wage powerhead was afraid to give his name. If you’re in the wrong, you tend to do that so you don’t get your name in the paper.
Morons, utter morons. Wait, that’s an insult to morons.
The national-security state is always appealing when the people victimized by it are mere abstractions. Only when they become flesh-and-blood individuals, as they are for far too few Americans, do its costs become clearer.
The downside for this woman is that if she said no, the officer might find or make up reasons she can't be granted entry. If you were an American citizen and refused this request they might decide to "temporarily" hold your laptop.
By not buying a round trip ticket in the first place she made herself a solid choice for a secondary search.
This computer search thing is new, but border searches are not. They have been around forever. Whenever you present yourself for entry you and all your belongings are subject to search.
Everyone must be treated equally (bad)
Next time—try the Rio Grande. You’ll probably even get a free Medicaid card!
” Next time—try the Rio Grande. You’ll probably even get a free Medicaid card!
“
ROTFLMFAO !!!!!
Well, here is another situation you should consider.
My wife is an immigrant from Laos. We are legally married for 2 years now with a newborn.
Before we were married, her mother came to the States several times to visit her. Always no problem. Even 3 of her other children came to school here on student visas. They all went back home to Laos.
Now, we want her mother to come visit. She is 50 years old and married with husband in Laos. She cannot get a visa to come see us.
Why? Who knows.
Last year, I and my mother went to Laos and the American Embassy to vouch for her and give all details about where she was going to stay and who was going to support her (6 mos tourist visa). I went with her and talked to the interviewer at the Embassy. All I can say is, they were bullies to her. Yes, bullies. They asked senseless questions because they already knew they were going to turn her down. They were total a**holes to me. When my mother and I started asking questions to the American interviewers, we got stuttering ambiguous answers.
My final question to their boss was, ‘So will she ever be allowed to come to the US to see her grandchild?’ He said, ‘No, it does not seem likely at this time.’
Also, the American Embassy actually has a racket going whereby the applicants pay $100 to apply for a visa, it’s non-refundable, and there is a 90% turn-down rate. They probably get 20 applicants per day turned down.
The salaries Lao people might avg $30-$80 per month. Only the connected communists make more. A nurse makes about $80 per month. A doctor makes about $42 per month. Yes, that’s true. I asked both at a local clinic while getting malaria medication.
Imagine taking 1-2 months of your salary to apply for even a tourist visa and getting ripped off.
Like the previous person said. Try the Southern border before taking the legal route through an Embassy (or an airport).
In my case:
Senseless? Yes
Bullies? Yes
The whole family thinks that way now. Even I and my mother think that now. I’ll say that it’s not the American people, it’s our government. Don’t call me or my family un-American. We’ve been here 3 centuries. Family has a lot of veterans.
I hope that your friend went on to have a good trip despite what occurred when she first came in.
But, remember nobody at Customs knows your friend. They do not know that she is an upright citizen. They’ve never seen her before. I’ve read about the laptop thing. That has been going on for a little while now.
I do think it was crazy that they made her purchase a return ticket. That I do not understand.
We live in a different world now.
The only problem with targeting only specific groups is that is there are fresh faces out and sleepers who wish us harm, lone wolves, lone psychos & terrorists. There are those who do not fit the stereotypical mold.
My mother went on a church trip to Israel. One of of the people who went was asked how he/she could afford the trip. When that person said that God helped provide the money, Mom didn’t see the person for a few more hours. That person only meant that she had prayed for the financial ability to go on her trip and somehow it worked out. It was a stupid thing to say. As for my Mom, she was in a private room with each item of her bag pulled out, unnpacked and searched in every crevis. Somehow when Israel does it, they are superior, but when Americans do it, we are harassing. And that was before 9/11.
I don’t like it either, but there are reasons for it.
Don’t buy a one-way ticket, even if you don’t know when you want to return home. Most foreign countries require visitors to have a round-trip ticket before they are allowed to enter.
Thanks for the heads up. I heard about the extra screening, but just didn’t know it would be required for overseas travel.
Your papers please you are free to travel what a whiner!
Now thats just funny.LOL
Actually, to qualify as a visitor you must have a return ticket, it may be an “open return” date on the ticket, but you must have a return ticket. This is to ensure the visitor is just that, a visitor. I suspect if she had bought a return ticket prior to arriving at the airport she would have missed all the trouble.
I am NOT saying the Thug acted correctly, far from it, the guy is a complete and utter disgrace to all Americans, it's just of the entire (excellent) article, this part is where Yon is not that strong.
(Scold on-—/Notice how I didn't use profanity. We are not Kos Kids or Huff-Puffers, we are adults and should act that way when we disagree-—/scold off)
Cheers.
My bet is, the incident would have never happened if she simply had a return trip ticket, back out of the U.S.
Did the CBP Officer go overboard in his inspection of this foreign visitor?
Possibly, I would have to review all the facts in the case, and that goes beyond what is written in the essay, and into any official douments, etc. Then possibly take action against the CBPO, if warranted.
Have your ducks lined up when you travel internationally folks, like it or not.
In that case,Fire the CBPO and his managers and Congress for creating this mess!!!
If you don't want something searched then don't take it to the border.
The reason that CBP searches electronic media is because they have always been allowed to search documents in the applicants possession. The lawyers at DHS decided that the legal authority to search all of your effects at the border extended to the data on your electronic devices. You asked if all laptops should be inspected at the border? No, but every electronic device is subject to search, at the discretion of CBP
When somebody shows up with what was previously a one way ticket the CBP officer has to figure out whether that applicant intends to overstay their visa. In this case a passport indicating frequent foreign travel and return to her native country should have been enough.
We also don't know why she was selected for secondary. It might have been her previously one way ticket. It might have been a random selection for secondary. There is no required level of suspicion to be sent to secondary. CBP could subject every person crossing into the U.S. for secondary, but then we would have people lined up for days in Customs. You may not like it, but that is the way the laws are written.
If you are looking for me to defend the thuggish actions on the part of the ICE Agent, won't find it here. I travel in excess of 100K international a year and have seen all types, coming and going. The worst offenders are the brain-dead TSA goons, not ICE. It is usual fair for TSA to throw their weight around, whereas ICE Agents are not so usually inclined.
Well done, you used adult words this time.
You don't know what I think. I'm not trying to tell anybody what I think. My posts were not supposed to support CBP policy, only to inform readers on this thread that might not know what the policy is.
Do you think being informed is important? I hope you do. You should know what to expect when you try to cross into or out of the United States.
No, you didn't just state what they are.
Hey, let's see what I posted.
The lawyers at DHS decided that the legal authority to search all of your effects at the border extended to the data on your electronic devices.
Let me reiterate what the law says about Reasonable Expectation of Privacy and Border Searches. There is no legal Reasonable Expectation of Privacy at the Border. There is no required level of suspicion to go through all of your belongings. It is that simple.
If you want to make it even easier you can blame that all on me, since I made up all those laws myself.
You still haven’t got a clue what I am saying.
Here’s the extension of your flawed logic.
I explain that my child received corporal punishment at school that went way over the line. The child received broken bones.
Then you explain that if I don’t want my child subject to this, I should pick another school.
No! Emphatically not! The behavior was not justified by it’s corporal punishment policy any more than the actions at the airport in this case were warranted under current law.
Sighting current law does not excuse away what took place, so quit quoting current law to me. I know what the laws are. They DO NOT justify what took place, end of story.
I used adult words both times. Adults will know why.
Evidently you don't, because according to your own words you aren't opposed to searches when reasonable suspicion exists. I have pointed out on all my posts that reasonable suspicion is not required.
The only part of this search, which if it happened they way the author said, was wrong was searching email if it did not reside on the computer. If the CBPO asked for the password for emails stored on her computer then he was within in his authority.
Only really stupid people search a guy like that and let a jihadi walk past because they want the selection to remain random. When reality hits and people are dying, such stupidity goes by the wayside. We are not there yet, which means because of the stupid people, some other people will die.
Sure.
Not on the whole, but there is a large muslim extremist movement in the south end of Thailand.
Terrorism is not the only responsibility of CBP. They also are trying to stop illegal immigration, smuggling to avoid duty, and smuggling of contraband.
Do drugs originate in Thailand? Yes. Child pornography? Yes. Human trafficking? Yes.
It sounds like you only want to search people that look like terrorists. If CBP only did that then the port I live near would have missed the Navy pilot smuggling ecstasy, the Canadian constabulary chief smuggling 150lbs. of marijuana, or the convicted child molester traveling with his child that he had molested. It's not just about terrorism.
Holding this woman up for ninety minutes and forcing her to provide secret passwords for her computer and miss connecting flights was unwarranted. There’s no defense of this man’s actions. This woman should have been able to have been assessed in a matter of minutes.
If the woman isn’t a solid citizen, then don’t provide her a visa. If the visa is granted, then treat her in a humane manner.
If you are visiting the USA and think you can come and go as you please without being asked questions you are wrong!!
Just because a visa is granted does not allow her to come to the USA. They are told that when applying and if you cannot remeber that far back, maybe you should stay home and not visit the USA!!!
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