U.S. Detained and Deported Irish and British Citizens Over Idiotic Twitter Messages
January 31st, 2012Via: The Sun:
TWO pals were barred from entering the US after innocent tweets joking about “destroying America” were picked up by the country’s anti-terror cops.
US special agents monitoring Twitter spotted Leigh Van Bryan’s messages weeks before he left for a holiday in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.
Leigh, who also quipped about “digging up Marilyn Monroe” on Twitter, said they were treated like terrorists on arrival at a Los Angeles International Airport. The pair were held by armed guards and quizzed for five hours before being handcuffed, put in a van with illegal immigrants and locked up overnight.
They spent 12 hours in separate holding cells and were then put on a flight home.
Leigh, 26, was kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers. The Department of Homeland Security flagged up Leigh as a potential threat when he posted a Twitter message to his pals ahead of his trip to Hollywood.
It read: “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America”.
Despite telling officials at LAX airport the term “destroy” was British slang for partying, the pair were held on suspicion of planning to “commit crimes”.
I’m not so sure about the title here.
What’s so idiotic about using slang, hyperbole and contemporary cultural referents when communicating in modern English?
I’m reminded of the psychological tyranny of ‘1984’ where the mutilation of language is a proxy means of dehabilitating the soul. What this couple are guilty of is not self-censoring their speech when someone (or perhaps something) was listening.
What is idiotic is that any reasonable person (or even most counter-terrorism agents) would look at the twitter history of these guys and write them off as any sort of threat. Context is important.
If you have analysis software that siphons in traffic and spits out “person X is a threat” without context or reasoning, then the grunt on the ground is missing vital information. What they know is that the system has flagged a person and their job is to interrogate and deport flagged people. Even if the grunt suspects that the person is harmless, the “more than my job’s worth” aspect comes in.
However I would say that the system fulfils its requirements: To produce the appearance of doing something counter-terroristy. A system that actually worked would be largely invisible and unobtrusive, thus giving the impression that the government wasn’t doing anything.
Warning to all tourists considering coming to the US: This is a Police State and your freedom, reputation, self-respect, and honor are in dire jeopardy once you land in this country.