Jan 05 2009

“The Department of Homeland Security in Action”

Just in time for the launch tomorrow night (Tuesday, Jan. 6th) of the the new DHS “reality” television show, Michael Yon has a timely post about an aspect of DHS reality that the “embedded” television production crews probably won’t show us: Border Bullies: The Department of Homeland Security in Action. Read the whole story. The devil is in the details of how Michael’s friend was treated on arrivial in the USA (en route to spend money as a tourist at Disneyworld), but here are a few snippets:

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….

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 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.