maybe she really is Olivia Neutron Bomb?

[RainDog]

okay, so a reporter who writes for the Australian equivalent of Good Housekeeping gets detained and deported when she tries to enter the country to interview Olivia Newton-John.
---

DECEMBER 19 - 25, 2003

Open City
Coffee, Tea or Handcuffs?
An Australian journalist gets a taste of Department of Homeland Security hospitality
by Steven Mikulan

Sue Smethurst enjoys traveling. “It’s one of the things about my job that I absolutely love,” says the 30-year-old Australian, who works as an associate editor for the women’s magazine New Idea. She doesn’t even mind flying. “It’s one of the great pleasures of the world to be able to turn off your cell phone and be where no one can annoy you.”

But when her Qantas flight from Melbourne, Australia, touched down at LAX around 8 a.m. on Friday, November 14, Smethurst found herself nightmarishly annoyed — by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Smethurst was supposed to continue to New York and on Monday interview singer Olivia Newton-John. Smethurst had honeymooned in Manhattan last year
....

The polite interrogation continued. Who was her father? His occupation? Her mother’s maiden name and occupation? What were their dates of birth, where did they live?

The agents gravely nodded at Smethurst’s replies and left once more, promising to return. When they came back half an hour later, one of the officers offered Smethurst a cup of airport coffee.

“I thought at that stage something was quite wrong,” Smethurst says, “so I asked the man with the coffee if there was some problem.”

“I will tell you when there’s a problem,” he abruptly snapped, according to Smethurst. Then he pointed to a nearby sign:

Your Silence Is Appreciated
....
After the phone call she pleaded for food, having now been away from home nearly 24 hours. Smethurst offered money for a snack to be brought to her — French fries, potato chips, anything — but was refused.

“Would it be possible to get a cup of tea?” she asked. This too was denied, because it could be used as a weapon — someone, it was explained, had recently thrown hot coffee into an agent’s face. When she requested a cup of cold tea, she was similarly refused, although no one could explain to her how a cup of cold water could become weaponized.

[Scott Lee]

1. This is a horrifying story - must read.

I also talk about it on my broadcast this week...

[Sir Craig]

2. I just finished reading the story...

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/04/open-mikulan.php

I'm curious to know: When did we become the Soviet Union? Did I miss the memo?

[RainDog]

5. thanks for posting the link

I didn't realize I hadn't also included it.

[mmm]

3. WTF?

Is this a true story?

[RainDog]

6. She's only one of many.

I'll go get the link for an American journalist who went through the whole ordeal going from Sacramento to LA, too.

edited to add link

http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2001-10-25/cover.asp

...and exerpt


I’d purchased a roundtrip ticket from Sacramento International to LAX to observe firsthand the unprecedented measures being taken to combat terrorism. There’d been more than a little fear and paranoia in Sacramento and I expected to find more of the same in Los Angeles.

I didn’t expect to be ordered to destroy photographs by an irate National Guardsman. I didn’t expect the Los Angeles Police Department to confiscate and read the notes I’d taken on my trip. I didn’t expect to be questioned by the FBI and detained for nearly three hours for no probable cause.

I didn’t expect any of these things, but that’s what happened. As I followed my fellow passengers up the jetway and into the LAX terminal, I had no idea I was stepping onto the War on Terrorism’s first domestic battlefield, where, as in all wars, truth was about to become the first casualty.

[teryang]

4. Federal police who are not properly supervised

...almost always become abusive. I've had trouble like this with customs and the US Marshals service before. I experienced a local policeman become abusive too, when Chimp was in town with JebFraud. The hightened alerts at the airports have the same effect.

Think of how intrusive police searches will become now with no requirement for a warrant.

[RainDog]

7. police abuse of power...tools...

in my town, a man who broke his (drug) parole (he was intoxicated somehow...) died while he was being taken into custody at my local jail.

the coroner said the cause of death was a pre-existing heart condition, intoxication, and electric shock... so in other words, the man died because the police tasered him w/o taking into account if he might have had a health problem which would contravene such action.

I know someone who got picked up for a DUI and was tasered WHILE he had his hands up against the wall for "resisting arrest" because he wouldn't cooperate and open his mouth. Luckily for him, his heart wasn't weak.

I also know people who used to travel to America regularly for work, who would in no way fit a "profile" of a terrorist..and they don't even drink...and they will not travel to this country anymore.

it's not worth it to them to be at the mercy of some overwrought American.

[teryang]

8. I avoid flying whenever possible

...for the same reason. My last flight a few weeks ago was pretty smooth. I'm sure that the transportation authority is aware of the adverse effect this is having on commerce. I'm not sure that other law enforcement personnel or contracted security people understand this.

[Vitruvius]

9. It would be wise to PURGE the police and military of these fascists when

when the Dems come back to power. FIRE them -- and take away their PENSIONS. To (a) remove individuals who are apt to support a fascist takeover, and (b) deter others from supporting fascist tactics or takeovers. The justification: if they don't support democracy, they are unfit to wear a badge or uniform.

In the meantime, I hope people are taking names -- so we can kick ass later.

It might also be wise to go after the industrialists, the rich, the Felonious 5, and the presstitutes who helped Bu$h* sieze power and who benefited thereby; that and their other likely crimes at least merit investigation -- and hopefully prosecution. Note that if we'd had the guts to imprison and confiscate the assets of the US industrialists who collaborated with the Nazis, Prescott Bu$h would have ended up a destitute felon, and George HW Bu$h and George W. Bu$h would have been destitute substance-abusing freepers -- instead of pResidents of the United States.




P.S: Not how -- after they abused that Australian journalist, they smeared her as "abusive" to justify their own misconduct. Typical. And lying is grounds for dismissal in industry -- I hope we have the guts to extend that to the two-bit jackboots who are feeling their oats while Bu$h is in power. That Michael Fleming flack -- and every manager who approved or condoned his untruths -- merits dismissal.