Is not Mr. Yon one of those who believed strongly in the actions taken by the Bush administration? Why is he bothered that he has been profiled? Why is he bothered that this is happening? Does he believe in two standards? One for good white folk and one for darker skinned folk from the Middle East? Mr. Yon is a victim of reaping what he has sowed. I hope he enjoys it and gets more of it.

Wait at minute, U. S. Border Patrol are not the Gestapo. We live in Tucson and drive through these checkpoints all the time and the USBP guys are polite and from what I can tell try to be as expeditious as possible. They are essentially looking for illegals and drugs and deserve our support. About the only questions they ever ask us is whether we are U. S. citizens and where we are heading and then wave me on with a ‘have a good day’. This is hardly an imposition and we are damn lucky they are on the job or we would be even more overrun with drug smuggling vermin than we are now. I will say one thing if you are snotty and give them lip thinking you are some kind of special case then you are looking for trouble and they will be happy to oblige you.

I've never had trouble at BP checkpoints.

The problem is that the major corporate media refuses to print such stories, which is why they are losing readers. What about the recent story from a reporter at Wired. It seems Homeland Security was upset that he posted an internal memo (not secret) so two agents showed up at his door demanding to know where he got it. They threatened to arrest him, then stole his laptop, with no warrant or anything.

I notice everyone, in or out of uniform, seems to hang a biner (carabiner) on their shoulder harness. I can think of several reasons why besides abseiling, but I wonder if it is mainly to give that high-speed, low drag look?

Anyway, having been in and out of SEATAC all too many times myself, there is a variable in competence by the port authority there. However, sometimes it takes two to tango. I wonder if our good Mr Yon didn't incite the situation somewhat?

Should be made between the border patrol, the TSA, and local cops like the port authority.

The time wasted on BS - especially in light of the failure to "connect the dots" is mind boggling.

Two quick examples:

1. Bernadette McAlsesky, nee Devlin was detained and refused inter into the US a couple of years ago because of her Irish "republican" connections (she was never a member of the IRA but agreed with their goals). He political career had ended decades before and her job over the past 20 or so years has been community development in the Dungannon area of County Tyrone. Her health has been lousy and she posed ZERO danger to anyone or any thing. Her grown daughter was being held by the UK at the time (on trumped up charges - she was eventually released) and that may have had something to do with it, but my point is, the border partol, or the customs folks were not protecting the country or stopping terrorism by preventing her from entering the USA. This occurred at O'Hare and she was coming to the US for a wedding. The people involved were not nice and treated her as if she was potentially one of the 9/11 guys. That's abuse of power and bullying. Eventually a higher ranking officer showed up and behaved in a sympathetic fashion and claimed that he didn't know why she was being sent back tot he UK, but sent back she was. Great way to make friends.

My wife (born and bred in Chicago - third or fourth generation American - much longer them me) gets grief every time she enters the US, whether alone or with me and our kid. She's a journalist and had contacts with dodgy folks all over Northern Ireland (as did I, actually, but I knew a couple of spooks and we got on well) mainly form the IRA side but also from the loyalist side. And she also knew plenty of government officials and other non-problematic types. Back in the early 90s she was caught up in the middle of a couple of special ops deals in South Armagh and had her photo taken and her name taken, as well as her press card and contacts with her editors here in the US. Whenever we go through passport control when entering the US from anywhere the guy gets some flag on his screen and then spends about 5 or 10 minutes typing and (from what we can tell on the other side of the desk) going from screen to screen looking baffled. Eventually we are allowed in. Sometimes they check our luggage thoroughly, sometimes not at all. Lately things have gotten a bit better and the delays aren't as long. When we have asked what the deal is the officer invariably says (if he's being nice) "I don't know." If he isn't being nice he says nothing.

Obviously she's on some database. Getting on one of those things is a hellovalot easier than getting off . We are about to celebrate our 9th anniversary of being back in the US from Ireland. he work has been totally unrelated to this stuff since our return. I have much closer contacts with some of these folks than she does or ever did, yet she got on a list and will probably be on it for the rest of her life.

If anyone can tell me how any of this prevents terrorism I'm all ears. I should add that trying to make folks nervous in order to get them to show fear or give them an excuse to search further will tend to only waste more time and effort. Look at the airport videos of Atta and his crew getting on that plane in Portland Maine. Do they look nervous or suspicious? Hell no. nd I'm sure they would have handled themselves just fine if they had been questioned further. The guys who are trained and determined and motivated don't get caught by acting like numb-nuts.