Foreign Journalists: Avoid the LA Airport
Matt Welch has a column in Canada's National Post about the Homeland Security guards at LAX who have developed a proclivity for frisking, cuffing and detaining foreign journalists from Australia, Britain and France and then sending them back on a plane 20 or 40 hours later for failing to obtain some obscure visa that normally isn't required.

According to the newly enforced rules, if there were an earthquake in L.A. tomorrow, British reporters would need to pay US$100 to the local U.S. embassy or consulate, show up for a face-to-face interview carrying a "comprehensive letter from the journalist's employer on the employer's letterhead identifying the journalist and describing in detail the nature and function of the journalist's position," and then wait any number of days and weeks before getting the go-ahead. British terrorists, meanwhile, could just buy a ticket and hop on a plane.

and ...

What makes this dumb situation truly retarded is officials from both the State Department and Homeland Security will tell you privately that it's precisely as ridiculous and counter-productive as it looks. But since the two bureaucracies despise each other, and since one makes the policy (State) while the other enforces it (Homeland Security), letting a few LAX border guards go postal on some hapless journalists actually serves both agencies in the broader arm-wrestling match.

- posted by Amy @ 12/10/2003 05:44:00 PM