Mini Guantanamos In U.S. Airports? Permission to Fly?
No major patriotic accomplishments this week -- unless you consider losing sleep productive. Finding out that there are Guantanamo-like no-man's lands on U.S. soil scared the shit out of me. Australian-born U.S. citizen Anne Summers recently had trouble entering and leaving the U.S.:
Summers was detained by armed agents for FIVE HOURS each way in LAX on her way to and from the annual meeting of the board of Greenpeace International in Mexico, and her green card was taken away from her. `I want to call a lawyer', she told TSA agents. `Ma'am, you do not have a right to call an attorney,' they replied. `You have not entered the United States.'What?? Who approved this? Is there a list of regions in the U.S. where the law doesn't apply so, you know, we can avoid them if we want to?
Apparently a section of LAX just beyond the security line is asserted to be `not in the United States' -- though it is squarely inside the airport -- so the laws of the US do not apply.
Due to my own troubles I haven't flown since March (I literally flew
20+ times last year so this has required a significant personality
overhaul). Now the idea of turning myself over to the airport security
apparatus is even scarier. My rights have been violated to such an
extent in my own home where U.S. law supposedly still applies -- what
happens when I cross that invisible territorial marker?
And also? By February we may need to apply to travel. I had read that all international travelers will soon need permission to enter U.S. air space. But having to seek permission from our own government for a weekend in Cabo? Wolf says in the original post that in "fascist shift" terms, this takes us from 1931 to 1934 if we're in the mood to compare ourselves with Nazi Germany. (One commenter recommends we read They Thought They Were Free, about Germans during the Nazi rise.)
Please -- write to your Senators and Representatives and ASK about this. Guantanamo should not be allowed to spawn! And flight should remain a symbol of freedom in our imaginations -- not yet another indicator of the ways we've allowed the terrorists to win.
~~
And also? By February we may need to apply to travel. I had read that all international travelers will soon need permission to enter U.S. air space. But having to seek permission from our own government for a weekend in Cabo? Wolf says in the original post that in "fascist shift" terms, this takes us from 1931 to 1934 if we're in the mood to compare ourselves with Nazi Germany. (One commenter recommends we read They Thought They Were Free, about Germans during the Nazi rise.)
Please -- write to your Senators and Representatives and ASK about this. Guantanamo should not be allowed to spawn! And flight should remain a symbol of freedom in our imaginations -- not yet another indicator of the ways we've allowed the terrorists to win.
~~
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Hi Kyeann,
I agree with your concern over all this.
Also I have to inform you that all international airports (the part behind customs) are in no-man's land, comparable to international waters.
So legally they are right when they say that Anne Summers never entered the US.
Of course withholding rights like done in the recent past and at this moment is a large disgrace, the people who had put all this together are war criminals that need to be brought to the international court in The Hague.
Hi nobody,
Thanks for your comment. I am interested in these legal intricacies and need to become more schooled.
I can see how it would have made sense for a variety of immigration-related reasons to have a sort of neutral zone in the air ports. However, using these zones as a means of detaining U.S. residents and denying them their rights does fit in with the disturbing pattern you allude to. Especially when it can be seen as a way to intimidate and harass environmental or other activists.
It seems like we citizens should have a full understanding of what we are opening ourselves up to when we decide to take international flights.
On the other end of the spectrum, who has dominion over these areas if not U.S. law enforcement? Can we say that the military and police have no jurisdiction in those zones if we are being harassed?
Hi Kyeann!
"Can we say that the military and police have no jurisdiction in those zones if we are being harassed?"
Sure, you can say that, but they have the guns. In the immediate situation, I'd have to say you'd be out of options. What's the amount of tourism dollars we've lost because of the hostile travel environment in the U.S.?
Oh yeah, $94 billion.
P.S. Excellent blog. Stands up well next to the other fifteen-or-so I read.
Thanks, sfHeath! That's a great link -- weird that we don't focus more on the harm that we ourselves are doing to, well, ourselves.
Yeah. I guess the only thing declaring yourself sovereign in the air port's no-man's-land would be good for is comedy.