Michael Yon Got arrested at the Seattle airport

[darrels joy]

Michael Yon Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eve...ntually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies.

http://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage?ref=nf

[revwardoc]

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/05/...ivers-airport/

Joan Rivers deemed a danger to national security, bumped off Costa Rica flight back to U.S.

The New York Daily News reports that comedian Joan Rivers was among the many travelers to get snared in the heightened-security frenzy that overtook airports after the December 25th failed terrorist attack. Rivers wasn’t allowed on her Newark-bound flight in Costa Rica this past weekend by a “jittery Continental Airlines gate agent” who thought the two names on her passport, which reads “Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers,” seemed “fishy.” Rivers wrote of her experience:

“If I were going to make up an alias, I wouldn’t pick Rosenberg. I’d pick Jolie or Pitt…Do terrorists wear Manolo Blahniks? I can tell you Donna Karan does not make anything that hides a bomb…I tried the tears; they didn’t work. I tried reasoning. I couldn’t bribe because I didn’t have any money. I said ‘I’m going to have a heart attack over this,’ so the woman called the paramedics.”

Rivers ultimately found someone who “took pity on her” and drove her 6.5 hours to Costa Rica’s main airport in San Jose to get her on a flight back to the U.S. on Monday. Rivers, a wealthy celebrity diva, isn’t necessarily the most sympathetic victim of post-Christmas Day terrorist hysteria, but the New York Daily News notes that many New York-area travelers are reporting similar horror stories. Rivers claims she was signing autographs at the Costa Rican airport while gate agents refused to let her on the flight. Meanwhile, Newark airport ended up shutting down for several hours on Sunday after a man accidentally walked undetected through a secure area.

[SuperScout]

Once again, we are seeing the idiotic knee-jerk reactions of the guvmint nursemaids, responding to history, instead of focusing on the future. Why is it that El Al airlines can screen, clear, and board passengers without incident, yet everytime some POS Muslim terrorist farts, our government installs multi-million dollar fart-detectors, executes a multi-million dollar odor elimination contract, and then demands that no more flatulence-creating foods be eaten within 12 days before boarding an international or domestic flight. Our government is so absolutely chicken-shit that they cannot bring themselves to see the success of El Al, and too cowardly to adopt a similar program for fear that the ACLU will get their hate-America panties in a wad up their communists asses.

[Keith_Hixson]

"closing the barn door after horse has got out." ?

[revwardoc]

We need to more pro-active with regards to terrorism; the #1 priority being COMMUNICATIONS! The FBI, CIA, TSA, Homeland Security, et al MUST stop this damn bickering and get together. Stop worrying about your jobs, you asshats, and start thinking about the security of the USA!

Profiling; nothing wrong with it! DO IT!

No fly lists: use some common sense. Just because 2 people have the same name doesn't make someone guilty, as seen by a recent incident where a 5-year old girl named Sean Kelly was not allowed to board a flight because she has the same name as an IRA hit man. Please!

[SuperScout]

Originally Posted by Keith_Hixson

"closing the barn door after horse has got out." ?

Precisely! Words were never more true! And the reaction of the government is living proof that the liberals live in the past as far as their thinking goes, but stay in the present when thinking up new ways to steal our money and our liberties.

And as anyone else notice how the liberal contingent ain't saying a defending word about The Bastard's continuing failures?

[darrels joy]

Seattle customs officials defend decision to handcuff Michael Yon for refusing to disclose income

By Aleksandra Kulczuga 01/10/10 at 11:00 pm







Veteran war correspondent and retired Green Beret Michael Yon was recently detained at a U.S. airport.



Seattle-Tacoma International Airport officials recently interrogated and handcuffed Army Green Beret-turned-reporter Michael Yon because he refused to tell them how much money he makes.

Ten days after the underwear bomber’s foiled attack aboard Flight 253 to Detroit, the award-winning war correspondent was detained by U.S. Customs Border and Protection after having spent most of the last 12 months reporting from the front lines of Afghanistan.

“I was caught off-guard by the question [about my income],” Yon, who had flown into Seattle from Hong Kong, told The Daily Caller. He said he cooperated fully when asked standard security questions about what was in his suitcase: “I was on better-than-normal behavior.”

Yon, an American citizen traveling on an American passport, said he politely but firmly refused to answer questions he considered invasive and irrelevant to ascertaining whether he was a threat to the country. He was subsequently handcuffed, detained and interrogated. Yon said he largely maintained silence after he realized what was happening, and waited for Port Authority Police to arrive on the scene.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection processes about 1 million international travelers a day. On average, CBP officials arrest 63 people a day (the majority have warrants out) and refuse entry to 575.

“There is not a regulation or law that says what you can or can’t ask,” Mike Milne, a 31-year veteran of U.S. Customs and a spokesman for the CBP, told The Daily Caller.

“We may ask someone for sources and types of income, asking them how they have the means to travel and how they paid for the ticket. If someone doesn’t answer questions it leaves us fewer options for how we’re going to declare their admissibility,” Milne said.

Yon said the incident seemed neither contrived nor politically motivated.

“It was more like spontaneous incompetence,” he said, adding that in his travels to more than 50 countries he had never been treated so badly. Moreover, Yon has written about undue harassment at the border before, and said he doesn’t believe this was a result of increased security in the wake of the Christmas day incident.

“I am a U.S. citizen. If a cop on the street asked me how much money I make, I wouldn’t answer him either,” he said. “I wish they would just release the tapes so we could be done with this.”

A spokesman for U.S. CBP in Seattle said he could not comment specifically on individual incidents, but said that all people passing through customs are made aware they can ask for a supervisor and that the Department of Homeland Security runs a traveler redress program to address concerns.

Yon has been lauded for his efforts to bring readers under-reported and often gruesome details of the war in the Middle East. Sources such as General David Petraeus and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have met with the non-establishment journalist, whose work is completely reader-supported. He accepts donations on his website.

More than anything, Yon sounded baffled by his detention.

“If you’re going to smuggle something in, it’s not going to be through the airports,” he said. “The really dangerous stuff, the bigger shipments, you’re not going to find them in a body cavity search.” He cautioned that the truly dangerous attempts would come in by boat, truck or submarine.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/01/10/se...sclose-income/