Email? You little Terrorist… Just you wait!
It seems to be the weapon of choice these days. Send one to the prez, and you’re barred from the US for life – apparently the man doesn’t like being called a prick. Understandable, but do you really gain anything by barring everyone that doesn’t like you from your country?
It just seems like bad business to us, at least – if we were to bar anyone that doesn’t like us from this site, hell, we’d be cutting into our readership pretty heavily, that’s for sure.
Anyway, Luke Angel, a UK resident, has been barred from entering the US for life – all because he sent a drunken email to the president of the US, calling the man a prick, amongst other things. That’s about all the feds are willing to share, other than that the rest of the email was “threatening” as well. What that means is something we won’t speculate in – next thing you know we’ll be barred to. From what? We don’t know. Something.
Just wait – anyone who uses email will be labelled a potential terrorist. And you think we’re kidding…
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There must be some information which has not been properly covered in the “news”. For one thing, does the FBI read all the President’s e-mails? If so, is that legal and is the president comfortable being under permanent surveillance? Comfort or not, last time I read the Constitution it did not mention that the President shall be under surveillance by FBI.
Of course the President may feel under attack by lurking terrorists and he may have requested the FBI to read his mails to keep him safe. In that case I am sure that the FBI would go to the courts for a ruling barring the young Englishman from entering the “Promised Land”, God’s own Country the United States of America. I hate to believe that they skipped the legal formalities again as they did when they made the “no fly list” to weed out the “homegrown terrorists” who apparently are recruited in great numbers right from the tender age of 5 .
The US administration may have given up its defence of the Constitution after Bush II dismissed is a piece of paper (or rather parchment, which was probably too difficult for Bush II to pronounce, maybe even more difficult than the “nookular bombs”, which is a more difficult concept to avoid in politics than parchment). The promised change under Bush III (aka Obama) has not materialized if you are kind to him or it has been a change for the worse. That is presumably why the “Keep the Change” bumber stickers are in vogue.
It is worse with Great Britain. Why would the British police involve itself in this case without a US court order? In my simplistic world the British police has no business serving foreign powers, who do not even act within their own laws.
It is still widely believed that there is a special relationship between USA and Great Britain. That is obviously trumped by the very special and indestructible relationship between the USA and Israel, a relationship which just like true love survives everything, espionage and military attack included!
This young British bloke was barred from entering “God’s own country” for the rest of his life even if he – provided that he is a reasonably active surfer – will constantly receive offers for Blue Cards to stay and live in the US just for knowing that Obama, not Hillary or Bush II is currently the president of the US. By knowing enough to address his insults to the right person (maybe for the wrong reasons, I cannot judge as I have not had the chance to study his e-mail) he should at least be eligible to get a Blue Card!
Well, he has apparently insulted the President of the USA by his inconsiderate verbal excesses, but what about Israelis liquidating an unarmed US citizen on Mavi Marmara in international waters, is that less of an insult to the President of the US, which is supposed to be a sovereign country?
I do not have all the answers, I just try to ask the questions, and before the relevant questions are asked, who on earth can answer them?
I see your point.
Now, the Secret Service is responsible for guarding the president, but the FBI is the “federal police” that takes care of (and the credit for) most mundane criminal issues like this one.
Granted, Angel’s email must have been threatening beyond calling the president a prick, and that is why the feds fell on him like this.
In any case – I doubt Angel had the president’s private email. He probably sent it through the WhiteHouse.gov contact form, or to some other public email address that will be reviewed by secretaries and interns on dog duty. The person who read it then sends it on to the SS, since he/she has been instructed to do so if there are threats or similar shenanigans in them. Anyway.
We don’t think there’s any reason to bar someone for life from entering the US in an email. That has to be clear. But we do believe in keeping the president safe (actually, we believe that everyone should be safe, and not have to deal with threats or harassing emails) and that means that the agencies responsible for this will take the necessary precautions.
Harald, you have good points, that’s what we’re trying to say.
Just by the way (no disrespect meant here); it’s Green Card, not Blue.
-SB-