U.S. Customs to blogger: "Do you write anti-American materia

[*jr]

U.S. Customs to blogger: "Do you write anti-American material"?
Submitted by lambert on Wed, 2007-08-15 22:33.

Here’s a new one, from Matthew Good:

Hot/Live that’s what the US customs officer at Detroit Metro Airport wrote on my customs declaration form as he asked me to follow the blue line.

They were actually very polite and I wasn’t really bothered until they pulled out my laptop. At first I thought they probably want me to just turn it on to make sure I wasn’t hiding a bomb in it. But then I was asked to put in my password and soon one of the customs officers was going through my personal files and photos. Something that really bothered me, I felt a complete invasion of privacy.

I was questioned behind the reason I had a document saved from a Lebanese newspaper, I then explained my interest in middle east politics and that I used to write for Dose and I blog occasionally. This was followed by the question “Do you write anti American material”.

And it keeps getting better:

I said I didn’t, that I mostly concentrated on Middle East politics but for some reason one of the officers said that sometimes even Americans wrote anti American material. I really wanted to say that those are probably the ones that are in jail. They then asked for the websites addresses that I blog on (So Matt, you might get a couple of extra fans) …


http://www.correntewire.com/u_s_customs ... er_do_y...

[*Arabman]

*jr, I think you're in trouble. See, you post many anti-American articles, and you cheer for America's enemies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Cuba, Putin, etc).

[Unclebin-]

jr

Stop acting like a crazy dude. You will be arrested for simply writing all the stuff you do and posting these topics.

Don't you know about the patriot act?

[*jr]

[quote="Unclebin-"]jr

Stop acting like a crazy dude. You will be arrested for simply writing all the stuff you do and posting these topics.

Don't you know about the patriot act? [/quote]


Arabman, am counting on you and many others here to bail me out if anything happens ...

But I only post what the mainstream media reports.....are they to guilty?


Unclebin:

Mj's aren't the enemy

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

Junior
If you are a US citizen, you can post whatever you want as long as you don't incite violence. THAT is illegal, so obviously you could be prosecuted for it. But just saying US policy is wrong on some issue, that is protected speech, and you, as a US citizen, can not be prosecuted for it. And the authorities know it.

Now, if you are not a US citizen, the US has no obligation to allow you into the country at all. So if they suspect (they don't have to prove, just suspect) that you are a potential risk to US security or interests, they can deport you or not allow you entry. That, of course, is not the same thing as prosecuting someone.