Sometiime back we had a regular poster on this site, his handle “barak’. He too is an expat living in SE Asia and seemingly suffers the same indignities such as yourself concerning TSA/Homeland Security watchlists etc.
The article is concerned with the the NSA spying on the media and U.S. citizens. So quite possibly some some of your international phone calls have been broken out for further analysis and you’ve said something that caused you to end up on watchlists.
Let’s put it this way. Every transmission of an international nature via satellite relay or even submarine cables are being intercepted and categorized by NSA supercomputers. Key words are parsed. Supposedly you are talking about recent terrorist attack activities and having had a bellyful on the subject like most citizens said something that could be taken as not ‘friendly’ to the interests of the U.S. Bingo, you’ll end up on a watch list also supported by the fact you no longer hold residence in the U.S. on a fulltime basis and what’s ever to be found in your intel dossier at the FBI, CIA, DIA etc. That’s why there’s mistakes and so many folks are on such lists due to what they believe to be innocuous comments, but not so to our emerging police state mechanisms.
I hate the TSA. I don’t hate the poor gate agents and I agree with the writer that they deserve consideration because they are always polite, kind, efficient, understanding and protecting my ass when I fly, which is often. I’ve got a pacemaker and always request a hand search. I am a man, so I always request a pat down by a female agent. Only in America am I refused this courtesy and I must say that the Chinese ladies who do the pat down are probably the best I ever had since I frequented the bars of Phuket, Thailand.
I don’t like the TSA because they put me on the TWL and won’t tell me W.H.Y. I am not on the DFL, or even the PTA, and altho I was a D.E.M. but never a R.E.P., I was only registered as one because as an I.N.D. I could not vote in the primary in MD. I get no solace in the fact that SEN. E. Kennedy was also on the list but got off with only one phone call. I have filled out papers, called, spoken to my reps, and harassed whatever agency of the F.E.D. I could think of, and the most coherent response I could elicit was, “We do not have to tell you.” I even had the pleasure of riding on a bus next to a TSA Manager, and that poor guy could give me no solace other than a kind ear.
What the hell did we fight for in WW2 if not our freedom?
2 thoughts on “Go ahead, touch my junk”
Hi Bill,
Sometiime back we had a regular poster on this site, his handle “barak’. He too is an expat living in SE Asia and seemingly suffers the same indignities such as yourself concerning TSA/Homeland Security watchlists etc.
The article is concerned with the the NSA spying on the media and U.S. citizens. So quite possibly some some of your international phone calls have been broken out for further analysis and you’ve said something that caused you to end up on watchlists.
Let’s put it this way. Every transmission of an international nature via satellite relay or even submarine cables are being intercepted and categorized by NSA supercomputers. Key words are parsed. Supposedly you are talking about recent terrorist attack activities and having had a bellyful on the subject like most citizens said something that could be taken as not ‘friendly’ to the interests of the U.S. Bingo, you’ll end up on a watch list also supported by the fact you no longer hold residence in the U.S. on a fulltime basis and what’s ever to be found in your intel dossier at the FBI, CIA, DIA etc. That’s why there’s mistakes and so many folks are on such lists due to what they believe to be innocuous comments, but not so to our emerging police state mechanisms.
https://capitolhillblue.com/node/14059
Carl Nemo **==
I hate the TSA. I don’t hate the poor gate agents and I agree with the writer that they deserve consideration because they are always polite, kind, efficient, understanding and protecting my ass when I fly, which is often. I’ve got a pacemaker and always request a hand search. I am a man, so I always request a pat down by a female agent. Only in America am I refused this courtesy and I must say that the Chinese ladies who do the pat down are probably the best I ever had since I frequented the bars of Phuket, Thailand.
I don’t like the TSA because they put me on the TWL and won’t tell me W.H.Y. I am not on the DFL, or even the PTA, and altho I was a D.E.M. but never a R.E.P., I was only registered as one because as an I.N.D. I could not vote in the primary in MD. I get no solace in the fact that SEN. E. Kennedy was also on the list but got off with only one phone call. I have filled out papers, called, spoken to my reps, and harassed whatever agency of the F.E.D. I could think of, and the most coherent response I could elicit was, “We do not have to tell you.” I even had the pleasure of riding on a bus next to a TSA Manager, and that poor guy could give me no solace other than a kind ear.
What the hell did we fight for in WW2 if not our freedom?
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