"Soon one of the customs officers was going through my personal files and photos"

[FourScore]

Hot/Live
August 14th, 2007 | By Samar Mazloum

Hot/Live that’s what the US customs officer at Detroit Metro Airport wrote on my customs declaration form as he asked me to follow the blue line.

I’ve been getting on and off of planes since the tender age of 6 months, so I’ve had my fair share of travel stories. This trip actually went pretty smooth until I arrived in Detroit, and so as I was a few feet away from the exit, I was flagged by customs. I guess the phrase “I’m moving back from Lebanon” isn’t too popular.

The customs officials at the end of the blue line checked my luggage after questioning me about the reason I was in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries that I had visited during my 4 year stay. They were actually very polite and I wasn’t really bothered until they pulled out my laptop. At first I thought they probably want me to just turn it on to make sure I wasn’t hiding a bomb in it. But then I was asked to put in my password and soon one of the customs officers was going through my personal files and photos. Something that really bothered me, I felt a complete invasion of privacy.

I was questioned behind the reason I had a document saved from a Lebanese newspaper, I then explained my interest in middle east politics and that I used to write for Dose and I blog occasionally. This was followed by the question “Do you write anti American material”. I said I didn’t, that I mostly concentrated on Middle East politics but for some reason one of the officers said that sometimes even Americans wrote anti American material. I really wanted to say that those are probably the ones that are in jail. They then asked for the websites addresses that I blog on (So Matt, you might get a couple of extra fans)I just thought the wording was interesting, I mean asking if I criticized US politics is one thing but to ask about Anti-American material made me feel like they were insulting my intelligence. I mean even if someone was would they really admit it???

And so while cruising through my photos, a water bottling plant layout came up and I had to clarify what it was and explain yet again that I am an environmental engineer after all. In all reality I doubt a person who is planning to commit any terrorist act would be dumb enough to just store the info on their personal laptop.

Now on to the major reason I am writing this… Does anyone know what the phrase (Hot/Live) on the customs form means? At fist I thought hey I might be getting a date out of this whole ordeal but once they started with the questioning I knew it must be something else...

http://www.matthewgood.org/2007/08/hotlive/

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

1. K & R. The questions about writing anti-American material ..

...are truly scary and very telling. This has nothing to do with national security -- they're openly targeting political dissenters, and this is meant to intimidate. These people need to be publicly challenged to produce examples of what they consider to be anti-American writing. What a bunch of fascist thugs.

[FourScore]

6. You've hit the nail on the head

with your comment Mr._Jefferson_24!

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. Kick. nt.

[NotGivingUp]

3. “Do you write anti American material”. Does everyone now know what kind of country we live in??? n/t

[TheLastMohican]

4. Sounds like KGB more and more

"Do you write anti-Soviet material, comrade Pasternak?"


Jesus, why is US turning to USSA? there are more and more signs that point in that direction, and you just confirmed one of them.
These guys would make KGB envious because there were no laptops to browse through back then.

[MazeRat7]

5. I strongly urge anyone who does international travel with a laptop to do the following...

Install TrueCrypt and use it!!!

http://www.truecrypt.org/

MZr7

[populistdriven]

7. i second that! nt

[Thickasabrick]

8. How do you know this isn't a government program to encourage

people to use their "encryption" software? I hate being this paranoid.

[al bupp]

10. That's the beauty of open source software

If one's that paranoid, they can compile it themselves from the source after thoroughly reviewing it for trapdoors, or other nefarious features.

[hfojvt]

9. "getting a date out of the deal"

When I returned to the US after my trip to Europe my bags were searched by a very nice looking blond woman. She did not boot up my laptop though. I felt sorry for her though because most of what was in my bag was dirty laundry. No wonder I did not get a date out of the deal.