A friend (blue eyes, Swedish name) used the word “claymore” (not with any reference to the land mine, btw) in a private email. He had the privilege of visiting with two officers from Homeland Security for four hours the next day. If he wasn’t home, they would have still been in his house. They did tell him why they were there though they had no requirement to do so.
The engineer son of our kids’ pediatrician hates to fly. He has a common Arabic name that must be the same as someone they are monitoring. He gets to the airport 4 hours before flight time and still misses some flights. Why do they detain and question him every time he flies? They won’t tell him. My Muslim sister-in-law was questioned for 2 1/2 hours last time she came to visit from Germany.
When they were selling the Patriot Act to the American people, it was with the assurance that it would never be used against citizens. Now, it is used overwhelmingly against citizens. The DOJ runs seminars on how to use it against citizens. Some like it, some don’t. I am one who does not.
I don’t find it overly alarmist or concerning but reflects the new environment we are living in with terrorism. If it was my family, I probably wouldn’t change plans but would worry, something I do whenever they travel anyway.
“There are invasions of my privacy every day because of government intrusions. I have to supply the government with all my financial information every year when I file my taxes. I have TSA agents rifling through my luggage at the airport and screening my body in a almost see-through way. The local government knows all about my house for property tax purposes”
And they also make you have a license to drive, put a big plate on your car with an identifying number. And they curtail your freeeeedom by requiring you to drive on a certain side of the road and obey traffic lights and speed limits! You’re right, it’s practically barbaric here.
@LasMa - I had that same thought. ALL of Europe - crazy! S2 and a friend have a month long trip planned - leaving late May - late June. They plan on visiting lots of European cities thus will be doing exactly what the State Dept warns against - going to airports, train stations, restaurants, etc. Sigh!!
Wonder if airlines refund tickets when the State Dept issues such a warning? Although, I think the boys may still want to go regardless.
@dwhite There are plenty of places and experiences in Europe to visit which would be less likely to be targeted than Paris and Brussels if it would make you/the boys feel better.
@doschicos - yes and they are visiting several of those. But, they are also visiting Paris and a couple others that I have heard could be targeted. They are not going to Belgium. Their itinerary is complicated and fairly set (airline tickets bought within Europe, Airbnbs reserved and paid for, etc) so I don’t see them altering it.
Any place where people gather is always a potential target. No one here is stopping their kids from going to school in, working in, or traveling to NY, Boston, Chicago, DC, LA, etc.
@Magnetron , my brother in law has the same problem as your pediatrician’s son except he shares a name with someone with a violent history with the IRA and ties to Boston, so his name is also on the " list "
My husband ( a Swede ) Was detained and questioned almost 3 years ago because of his temporary passport , issued when his was stolen while traveling in Europe…so were a handful of other people , but none were of middle eastern descent. This was at Newark Liberty.
A local boy with some issues joked on social media about being an ISIS supporter and the FBI paid their family a visit at dawn and he was taken in for questioning…
Part of the reason some discussions have jumped the shark in this country are because people do things like compare the Patriot Act to Nazi concentration camps.
And I say this as no big supporter of the Patriot Act… but compare to genocide? Really?
I had a chat with a guy who works for one of the top firms that is involved with stuff like this. According to him, no one is sitting in a room reading people’s emails. They have computer programs which search for certain words / phrases that when found on the Internet, alert the authorities.
You may notice you have been linked an article by a Middle Eastern hobbyist, who has a bio that reads: Head of Business Development at en educational toy company,Telecommunications, Marketing, and Sales for McKinsey, and a BSc in Management Science.
Thankfully he lists his sources, so you can see he tried to do his research, perhaps the way a sophomore at a Top 50 university would. It’s not a bad article, but it is incomplete. Things are a lot more complicated than “the U.S. caused ISIL”… ISIL may very well exist in the exact same way it does now if the U.S. was never in Iraq; it easily could’ve started in Syria instead of morphing from it’s previous existence as AQI.
Here is more lengthy look (that includes a lot of history), from Alastair Crooke, who has advised senior government officials and worked at MI6 (British CIA equivalent):
Both of my Ds have plans to travel to Europe this summer. I’ll worry as I always do (I truly am a pathological worrier; it does sometimes interfere with my enjoyment of life), but I cannot tell them not to go. I love Europe, I traveled in Europe when I was their age, so I just can’t in good conscience keep them from doing this.
God help me. And them. Deep breaths, deep breaths.
