Straight out of Cristina's book.

[camberiu]

This is the kind of stuff I'd expect Cristina to pull. I wonder if we will start to see more of Argentinian style "PR Management Moves" from the administration.


NDAA critic stranded in Hawaii after turning up on no-fly list



Wade Hicks was en route to a US Navy base in Japan to see his wife when armed military guards informed him that they had other plans. Hicks, an American citizen with no criminal record, had just been put added to a federal no-fly list.
After being escorted off his plane during a routine re-fueling stop on the Pacific Island of Oahu, Hicks, 34, was left stranded in Hawaii this week. In an interview, he suggests that his opposition to a newly-created law that allows for the indefinite detention of US citizens at military prisons without charge or trial could be to blame for his mistreatment.
"I was very, very vocal about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and I did contact my representative”about it, Hicks tells talk show host Doug Hagmann. "I do believe that this is tied in some way to my free speech and my political view."

Full article:
http://rt.com/usa/news/no-fly-hicks-us-military-650/

 

[PhilipDT]

Got to wonder if that was just a mistake. A guy I know got stopped at a US Canada border crossing and was detained for almost 2 days (in an interrogation room) because his name and birthday (not the year though) matched a known terror suspect who kind of looked like him. Anyway there was so much bureaucracy involved between the CBP, DHS and FBI that he ended up there for most of 2 days, having to sleep on a cot they rolled in for him.

Anyway, he wasn't pleased and when they finally let them out he called and complained to every supervisor in every agency and even wrote his senator. The only thing he ended up getting was a form letter from DHS saying something like "Sorry that you were inconvenienced by necessary national security measures. Thank you for understanding"

 

[camberiu]

Got to wonder if that was just a mistake.

From the article:
Hicks adds that he has since met with a Navy lawyer in Hawaii who attempted to resolve the case with so far no avail. He reports that the attorney reached out to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement hoping that the incident has been the result of a case of mistaken identity, but, "They said, 'No, we have the right person that is in our database. His social security [number] matches and his birth date matches.'"

 

[sleslie23]

From the article:
Hicks adds that he has since met with a Navy lawyer in Hawaii who attempted to resolve the case with so far no avail. He reports that the attorney reached out to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement hoping that the incident has been the result of a case of mistaken identity, but, "They said, 'No, we have the right person that is in our database. His social security [number] matches and his birth date matches.'"

There is a lot missing from the article. Why was he on a military flight, for example?

 

[camberiu]

There is a lot missing from the article. Why was he on a military flight, for example?

Because his wife is a LT. in the US Navy and he was flying to visit her, as stated in the article?

 

[sleslie23]

Is it standard practice for civilians to fly on military flights to visit family?

 

[sergio]

This sort of thing os happening too often. No fly lists, as I understand it, are the creation of airlines and not actually ordered by the US government. Once someone gets mistakenly put on one life becomes hell. Sorry to say that Americans are gradually giving up civil rights in the name of securty. Some of it is justified but a lot is not.

 

[ElQueso]

Seems kind of odd to me that the government would purposefully put him on a no-fly list because of civilly, non-threatening public criticism as a means of punishing him or harassing him for his views. After all, won't that make him mad and give some weight to his criticisms and have the exact oppostie effect?

Seems to me that it was either a mistake him getting on the list, or he's on the list for some other reason which may seem valid to whoever put him on the list, for whatever reason.

As Sergio says, American citizens have given up way too much freedom, urged by our "benevolent" government, who only cares for our well being, and that of the whole world. This is probably an example of some idiocy, but doubtful to me that they would treat someone who is publicly criticizing, in such a public manner.

But who knows.

 

[sergio]

When governments become authoritarian I don't think they necessarily think logically, for example they don't care that punishing someone for criticizing may create a more enraged enemy. The man mentioned here may be the victim of a mistake or maybe someone with a little authority decided to exercise / abuse that authority. Often these things are related to personality and a misuse of power by a petty official. Long before 9/11 I had the worst airport immigration incident of my life. I was polite, conservatively dressed with nothing to hide. For some inexplicable reason the US official who took my passport at Toronto airport treated me like the worst criminal - threatning, arrogant and really gaestapo like. Why? Maybe I reminded him of someone he hated. I'lll never know but it was so bad that I thought he might have me detained. Now that these officials have post 9/11 security concerns to back them up they can be insufferable.

 

[PhilinBSAS]

Reminds me of Borges' comment:

"Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy".