As far as I know, Canadians get the same screening as anyone else entering the US, it just happens before we get on the plane, instead of once we get off it, and perhaps with more respect, judging from what’s described above.

Any time I wonder how East Germany survived so long, someone turns up and inadvertently reminds me.

However since he is part of Assange’s company then it is indeed right for the government to think he is a person of interest given the statements and actions of his employer.

So, please explain to me what will the harassment and intimidation achieve? What’s the goal here?

And, do you support said goal?

I had to travel three more times to the US over the next couple of years and I’d always get pulled up somewhere for some extra checking. The worst was having to spend 20 minutes explaining to a low-IQ, TSA person (with poor English skills ) at the gate on a flight to Dallas (from Chicago again) that the single screw supposedly missing from the bottom of my work laptop was actually the point where the docking station attached to the machine and that I hadn’t secretly opened the machine myself and hidden something inside. For offering such a logical explanation, I got the “take off shoes, belt and empty your carry-on bag” punishment and was then asked if I had any tools that could open the laptop so he could look inside even though it had gone through the X-ray. I was the last to board the plane.

I consider myself to be a fairly ordinary, well travelled person and therefore don’t have any idea why I got all this attention whenever I went to the US. I eventually stopped travelling to the US altogether many years ago and decided I would never travel there again until things changed. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s just getting worse.

I grew up in the Midwest and left for Canada in the late 60′s. Your summary of USA the tribe vs. USA the myth made my hair stand on end for its breathtaking accuracy.

Is the allegorical battle imagery you describe totally your own, or does it come from other sources I could check out?

Thanks.

KC

Another security-clad individual stopped the lady speaking to me for a moment, asking why she had selected 3 people in a row. “This line is 100% selection today.” “Oh.”

My dad’s friend, a radiologist, advised him to avoid the nudie scanners due to radiation, so I that’s what I did. The guy who patted me down was expressionless but polite and respectful. It was a minimal inconvenience that was no worse than the inspection I used to get before entering nightclubs. No, he didn’t touch my package. Everything but.

The whole thing was maybe 2 minutes. No biggie. Not that I didn’t resent it, but I felt I’d earned a bit of smugness by refusing them the privilege of using their expensive machines.

Sadly, nobody else chose the patdown. Presumably they had better things to do with their 90 seconds.

I have a lawyer friend who works for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association whom I alerted about Mr. Appelbaum’s treatment when he crossed earlier this month. I’ll definitely be sharing this article with him. I will also contact the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and inform them.

Um no, you wouldn’t.
There is no evidence of anyone from wikileaks having any more than the sort of casual contact with Manning that you would have with the cashier at your local store.

Yes wikileaks has copies of a bunch of material the US government would rather they didn’t have. The US government would also love to be able to arrest everyone involved with wikileaks. It’s funny though, in spite of weeks of trying, the US government hasn’t even been able to identify which law may have been broken by any wikileaks volunteer, let alone evidence showing which volunteer it may have been.

Until such time as the US government can show which law is broken and at least some evidence of who broke the law, the US constitution forbids the sort of guilt by association and harassment that is currently occurring.

Working at a company that is generally acknowledged to have been working with someone being prosecuted by the US military seems like a pretty big red flag to me. It’s not really the same thing as having a cousin who once got into a barfight.

Mark, do you have any loose connections with anyone who has ever been accused of a crime? If so, please go report yourself to the authorities. As a matter of fact, just being suspicious enough for me to have to ask you that seems very suspicious to me.

Boing Boing moderators, can we get this suspicious person’s IP address? I mean, being suspicious is only one step away from being a potential terrorist.

Moderators, we have a potential terrorist on our hands here. Please report Mark’s IP address to the authorities. Mark obviously needs to be tracked, searched and harassed.

We just can’t be too safe.

Since logistical concerns prevent the border patrol and customs agencies from thoroughly searching everyone’s baggage (!) it seems like there are stupider ways to choose who to search. As to the interrogation, you don’t actually have to answer any questions at all if you are a citizen returning to the United States. They are of course allowed to ask them, but not to detain you longer than necessary to confirm the veracity of your travel documents and examine your baggage.

I’m much more concerned with the fact that so many people pass through customs with only the most cursory of inspections, not that they would use this specific criterion for selecting whose baggage they inspect properly.

If so I’d say that the relationship was more like being a cashier at a pawn shop where most of the inventory came from one person who is currently in jail charged with stealing all of those items. If said cashier followed all the requisite policies and procedures and had no (known) reason for believing the items to be stolen then they would not be guilty of a crime. Still, if that same cashier was travelling internationally I’d have to assume that the customs people would be interested in what was in their bags. At least I’d hope they would be.

But folks in glass empires shouldn’t fly drones.

Obamabush should give its peace prize to Assange.

The livestock of the US should not be surprised at the next
feedback, but they will be. Silly dumb animals.

So your title and article is totally misleading as to where this happened. It was a “Canadian airport”.

Sounded courteous and reasonable in execution, if not justification.