And I will show you fear.

[marycrawford]

Foreign citizens who change planes at airports in the United States can legally be seized, detained without charges, deprived of access to a lawyer or the courts, and even denied basic necessities like food, lawyers for the government said in Brooklyn federal court yesterday.

The assertion came in oral arguments over a federal lawsuit by Maher Arar, a naturalized Canadian citizen who charges that United States officials plucked him from Kennedy International Airport when he was on the way home on Sept. 26, 2002, held him in solitary confinement in a Brooklyn detention center and then shipped him to his native Syria to be interrogated under torture because officials suspected that he was a member of Al Qaeda. -- New York Times, 10 August 2005

I was just at the point where I thought, OK, maybe I've been a little alarmist about the whole going into the US thing. Maybe I could survive being fingerprinted and photographed at the airport, like a criminal. After all, it would be such fun to go to Vividcon one year, and maybe, if Chicago wins the 2008 Worldcon bid, I could go to Worldcon and Vividcon and wouldn't that be fantastic. Maybe I should just suck it up and stop being afraid, so I could meet my friends.

Well. I still want to meet my friends, but the fear is definitely back. I'm not going to the US any time soon.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden: "Don't kid yourselves that this is an extreme situation which will somehow self-correct. Quite the contrary, America can go on for a long time like this. There's so much more to lose, and we've made such an excellent start."

Charlie Stross: "This isn't just about terrorists. It applies to tourists, too. In fact, it applies to anyone that any member of the immigration department doesn't like the look of. If I sneeze at the wrong time or catch the wrong eye in the INS queue as I wait to hand in my I-94 and have my passport stamped, my number just might come up. And the War on Tourism claims another victim."

Comments

[absolutedestiny.livejournal.com]

I'm totally with you on the fear. If it weren't for the fact that I'm so eager to go to vividcon the US would be the last place I'd want to visit.

It honestly pains me that I have to be fingerprinted when going this thursday. Last time I was there was a week before they started doing it.

Should they ever start RFID tagging I think that will stop me going completely. That is a line I am not prepared to cross.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

I had to Google RFID tagging, but now that I have, yes. Gah. I can't believe people are already using it - to buy drinks in a beach club. headdesk

But I hope you make it into Vividcon with the least hassle possible, and that you have a fantastic time.

[elysianmusings.livejournal.com]

I would like to apologize on behalf of our retarded government. Please understand that well over half the country did not vote for this schumck and once out of office we will attempt to fix what he's destroyed.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Aw, no need to apologize. I know. And I don't think most of the people who voted for him had any notion of what that would really mean.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

I must say, it is quite amazing. The US is locking themselfs in. And scaring people of. Land of the free, my ass! *grumble, grumble*

[amorettea.livejournal.com]

I'm proud to be an American. However, I am disgusted, embarrassed and appalled by the illegal bunco squad who bought their way into power and who are hell bent on subverting and destroying everything that made America great all for their own personal profit. May the Shrub and all his cohorts rot in Hell. . .and I'm an atheist!

Amorette