Month: December 2005

I had a wonderful trip to Malaysia to attend the Perdana Global Peace Forum. While in Malaysia, I had no snags or run-ins with any authorities.

This was not the case on my return to the US.

I don’t think I look much like a terrorist. Despite my utter contempt for them, I am always careful to be exceptionally courteous and cooperative with police and bureaucrats who can make decisions that affect my future.

I went through the main line at US customs at San Francisco International Airport. After scanning my passport, the first officer sent me to a different station than the others she was processing. I don’t know if this was a random check, or if I looked like a terrorist because I hadn’t shaved in a day, or if my name popped up when she scanned the passport.

At the next station, I was questioned about what I did for a living. I explained that I was a webmaster. That was not sufficient, so I had to mention Antiwar.com. That sent me to the next escalation and a third station.

At the third station, I was questioned about the nature of Antiwar.com, the forum I went to, and everything I did in Malaysia. The officer looked through all the literature in detail. He made me unfurl an 8-foot banner I had brought back with pictures of all the speakers. He asked me about each speaker in detail, asked me about my relationship with the former PM Tun Dr. Mahathir, who he explained was “very anti-American.” He didn’t just go through my luggage, he examined the political content of the books and papers I had. He made comments about much of it. He was alarmed by the copy of Helen Caldicott’s book because the cover has a photo of Bush, Cheney, and Powell smiling beneath a mushroom cloud. He found it “anti-American.” Then he saw that it was personally autographed to me, which he clearly didn’t like.

He asked me whether there were a lot of Muslims (Duh! It’s Malaysia!). Did I meet anyone I thought might be associated with terrorists? Were there any people from Thailand? (Not that I knew of.)

It didn’t seem to be going well for me, and I am pretty sure that the next “station” would have been “the room” for more intensive interrogation. However, all of a sudden he noticed a group photo with me standing next to a Buddhist Monk, Dr. Chin Kung, who was a speaker at the event. The officer claimed to know who he was and said he saw him on television and liked him. His attitude changed, and he let me go. I am pretty sure he was wrong, because Dr. Kung does not speak English, so I doubt he saw him on TV. But probably to the officer, all Buddhist monks look alike. I am very happy that I met Dr. Kung.

This was a pretty scary experience and in stark contrast to my friendly welcome in Malaysia. I think I came close to a detention/interrogation session that could have turned into something much more serious. With all the articles we run on the site about this sort of thing, it was really brought home to me in a personal way.

They’ll save us from the tyranny of an unrestrained executive.

Won’t they?

In case you haven’t heard yet, or were confused by our titles from late last night like “Bush Won’t Discuss Report of NSA Spying” and “Rice Denies Illegal Domestic Spying”… Bush has since ‘acknowledged approving eavesdropping’.

I’ll spare you any further commentary on it, since I already did so on my own weblog

Addendum: Looks like USA Today updated the article recently and now it’s more about the Patriot Act than the NSA spying. If you want to see what he actually said about the NSA spying, you’ll just have to read the transcript of his weekly radio address

Saturday on the Weekend Interview Show I’ll be talking with Christopher Deliso of Balkanalysis.com about events in the Balkans and the neocon crime ring. In the second hour, I’ll be talking with Congressman Ron Paul about empire and gold money.

Update: Show’s over, archives here.

Michael Young on the assassination of Lebanese MP Gebran Tueni in today’s Reason online:

There was never any doubt that Syria was behind his murder. There are those who will, out of sheer malice, demand that Bashar Assad’s fingerprints be lifted from the detonation device before they can believe such a reckless accusation (what they fear most, of course, is finding themselves on the same side as the Bush administration).

Never any doubt? Really? I could have sworn that just yesterday, Reason‘s Tim Cavanaugh injected quite a lot of doubt into the discussion when he described Tueni’s position on Lebanon’s Shi’ites:

Nobody knows how many Shi’ites there are in Lebanon (because there hasn’t been a census since 1940; CIA demographic estimates don’t break out the Muslim sects), but it’s reasonable to assume they are the largest single religious group, and Hizbollah is the most important party representing them—more prominent than Amal, the other major Shi’a party. So how can you keep Hizbollah out of the political process? [Tueni’s] response was that the Shi’ites could have whatever representatives they chose, but only for the limited number of parliamentary seats that were designated for Shi’ites decades ago, and that that number shouldn’t be increased to reflect population changes.

“Let’s say you and I start a business,” he said, “and we split the shares 50-50. If I have four children and you have one, that doesn’t mean my children should get 80 percent of the shares.”

I’m sure the pacifists in Hezbollah were thrilled by that statement.

Young, who argues for the US to step even deeper into the Lebanon/Syria quicksand, tells us that only “sheer malice” could explain the demand for conclusive evidence of Syria’s (and more specifically, Assad’s) involvement. That’s about as reasonable as saying that only militant atheism could account for skepticism about Intelligent Design. But honestly, I’m relieved he said it. Now we know — was there ever any doubt? — that Young’s call for an expanded investigation into the matter is pure baloney. Why investigate what cannot be questioned? Let’s get the Marines into Damascus ASAP.

Helena Cobban offers and invites suggestions for the antiwar movement.