I have been refused entry clearance to the USA to chair the presentation of the Sam Adams Award to CIA torture whistleblower John Kiriakou and to speak at the World Beyond War conference in Washington DC. Like millions of British passport holders I have frequently visited the USA before and never been refused entry clearance under the visa waiver programme.
I shall apply for a visa via the State Department as suggested but I must be on a list to be refused under the ESTA system, and in any event it is most unlikely to be completed before the conference.
It is worth noting that despite the highly critical things I have published about Putin, about civil liberties in Russia and the annexation of the Crimea, I have never been refused entry to Russia. The only two countries that have ever refused me entry clearance are Uzbekistan and the USA. What does that tell you?
I have no criminal record, no connection to drugs or terrorism, have a return ticket, hotel booking and sufficient funds. I have a passport from a visa waiver country and have visited the USA frquently before during 38 years and never overstayed. The only possible grounds for this refusal of entry clearance are things I have written against neo-liberalism, attacks on civil liberties and neo-conservative foreign policy. People at the conference in Washington will now not be able to hear me speak.
Plainly ideas can be dangerous. So much for the land of the free!
Simply outrageous. Given this will effectively bar you from attending the conference could you still speak via skype?
You can book a appointment at the US embassy to get a visa, but it’s a premium-rate number, and you’ll have to hang on the telephone for some time in order to do so.
A large number of people are on the “no-fly” list, including US Senators, so you’re in good company.
I doubt you’d enjoy it much these days anyway. It’s full of gun-nuts, lunatics, the astonishingly ignorant, and fearful xenophobes. Going through their TSA airport security is rather like being processed upon arrival at a prison, only without the courtesy you’d expect there.
My parents, who were both teachers qualified in French and German, used to spend summer holidays in Germany during the 1930s. From what they told me, life in Hitler’s Germany was a great deal more peaceful and relaxed than it is today in the Land of the Free. Mind you, it was only late in the decade that hostility towards Britain began to crystallise. Whereas the 21st century USA is automatically hostile to everyone else without exception.
“It’s full of gun-nuts, lunatics, the astonishingly ignorant, and fearful xenophobes.”
A bit of a sweeping statement there, Glenn, of the type you would only allow yourself to make about America. It is certainly not my experience. Have you been there recently?
I actually completely agree with Glenn, and I just came back from living there from July 2005-March 2016. He’s totally correct, tragically and unfortunately.
Having been refused entry, at least Craig won’t get shot: something we can all be thankful for.
He’s less likely to be shot by the police as he isn’t black. No guarantee against being shot by the other gun nuts out there though.
The bit that gets me is you seem surprised.
I reckon it has more to do with the Sam Adams Award and those fearless people, including yourself, who have won it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Adams_Award
They really despise people like Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
You criticized the SNP
It’s about time that the USA was closed down – it’s their country and they can have it – but leave everybody else’s alone!
I wish.
Does the UN do global petitions? If so, a petition to completely ostracize the USA would get mega support.
People in USUK live in the Matrix, and have absolutely no idea how hated their countries are in the rest of the world.
Instead USUK citizens get force fed “the world’s policeman” and the “special relationship”, and “they hate us for our freedoms” (ha!), and all that rollocks.
Keep dropping them bombs, baby!
They do, but the US has a veto……..
Well Craig, we did warn you repeatedly over the years.
The Dept. of Homeland Security estimates there to be in excess of 11 million illegal Mexican immigrants in the US – so you could always gain entry via Mexico.
If that does not appeal, here is a song all about the US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8jca8ZATfA
Loony, we posted song links at the same time (you can’t beat a bit of the Clash), so here’s another, older song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNBmn0kgTv4
It’s outrageous. If Craig had been some radical tendencies toward unseating the status-quo without the commensurate respect for authority he would still be offered an interview with State. Then it would be obvious you are no threat to the current systems of government.
I am in agreement. Craig is no threat to the establishment or the status quo. This is outrageous.
The land of the free..? This machine kills fascists…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IRuS2aE
Whitehall has contacted the State Department and Homeland Security, they in turn have passed it on to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS), and deemed you inadmissable.
Why? Probably because you’re outspoken, on matters that portray the Great Satan ( consecutive US governments) in a poor light. Wear it as a badge of honour, it’s a sign that you’re on the right path.
Classes of Inadmissibility Waivers Available if (Yes).
People with communicable diseases like tuberculosis -yes
People with physical or mental disorders that
may cause harm to themselves or others – yes
Drug abusers or addicts No
Drug traffickers No
People without proper vaccinations Yes
People with convictions for crimes involving moral turpitude Yes
People who have violated immigration laws Yes
Prostitutes Yes
People with multiple criminal convictions Yes
Spies No
Terrorists No
Nazis No
People likely to become dependent on
need-based government assistance – yes
I wonder Craig which No category they’ve filed you under.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/us-deny-entry-inadmissibility-reasons-29715.html
It works the same in the UK: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2013-0098-judgment.pdf
At least in the UK the Supreme Court analysed this as a potential infringement of free speech, but decided to defer to HMG’s analysis of the foreign policy issues involved. In the US, the courts let the government do what it likes in this area, because they argue that foreigners abroad have no first amendment rights.
Just a possibility that this isn’t what it looks like…
The payment received line says $4.00, but an ESTA is $14.00, could something have gone wrong (or been fat fingered) with the payment processing that would lead to an automatic refusal for the missing $10?
Follow the money
Been communicating to Chris on twitter and he has since worked out they probably drop the Corporation for Travel Promotion $10 charge component if you are refused. The applicant does not enter the sum so couldn’t be that kind of mistake by me.
Skype, video conference?
Others banned from entering the US, and if I recall, George Galloway was banned from entering Canada, okay it’s not America, but Galloway has been outspoken in the past as well.
You’d have thought the US would’ve banned Galloway after he ripped the Senate a new orifice.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_barred_or_excluded_from_the_United_States
Craig,
I assume your remark that Russia annexed Ukraine is a typo.
If you are referring to the Crimea, an Internationally supervised election, gave a result over 94% to secede from Ukraine and re-join Russia ,of which it was a part for over 200 years. Remember the Charge of the Light Brigade
Neither did Russia invade Crimea. They had a 40 year lease arrangement on their Naval base at Sevastopol with permission to base 25000 troops there.
The Donbas and Lugansk Republics of Eastern Ukraine is ethnically Russia and did not wish to be ruled by the illegal Kiev Govt , which was put into power by a US/EU organised coup. An armed rising occurred here and an ongoing war continues ,not reported in the Western MSM, with civilian casualities of 10,000, military casualties approx 50,000 and refugee fleeing into Russia of 1.5 million.
Exactly. The sad truth of no media coverage therefore nobody knows what is going on in Ukraine and the shame of western intervention is succinctly covered in this article.
http://theduran.com/the-eu-and-the-price-it-paid-in-ukrainian-blood/
I am surprised at the number of intelligent people on the left who I talk to who believe that the Donbas and Lugansk regions supported by Russian troops are responsible for the hellhole that is Ukraine today. All this is due to MSM. The BBC has been disgusting over not reporting the civil-war. At least we learn about the Palestinian deaths over the same period but it is incredible that Ukraine, with four times as many deaths is a war that goes largely unreported still.
Perhaps someone who disagrees with this outline of the events could explain why. It seems correct to me.
All ESTA application are now refused if you have been to Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia or Yemen. I work at a very international company so I know a few people impacted. You still get in OK, but need to go through additional checks at immigration.
The Exploited over 30 years ago had it right! Caution expletive language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og5T-3Q8mDs
Nice one, Maxtor. Here’s something a little bit milder: Mr Tax Evasion himself, Bozo, and the boys from Dublin, into the arms of America (Bullet the Blue Sky)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdmNC8ylrXI
Is it true a stamp from the immigration officials in Iran would be good enough reason for the TSA to refuse entry?
It is true that a stamp from the immigration officials in Israel is a good enough reason to be refused entry by Iran (as well as many other Muslim countries).
Yes. This is public knowledge issued by DHS themselves.
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/02/18/dhs-announces-further-travel-restrictions-visa-waiver-program
Can you read?
Yep. Maybe I could have been clearer that I was replying to Tom, not you. Being new here, I didn’t realise that the @ wasn’t auto added as it often is.
Yes – and that is a fact which the Israel-haters on here conveniently never mention.
I suppose it could be worse those Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, which was annexed by the illegal apartheid forces of Israel in 1967, don’t have a Palestinian passport they can only hold a laissez-passer, the travel document issued to them by Israel.
That was in 2013, it may have been updated, but I doubt it.
According to this Palestinian passports in general are only issued;
“The passport issuance is subject to additional restrictions imposed by the Israeli government. Israel asserts that the requirement is permitted for security needs under the Interim Agreement.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Authority_passport
Is it any wonder then some Arab nations (though Iran isn’t a Arab nation) take a dim view of a Israeli stamp on a passport.
RoS
Clutching at straws again?
The refusal of many Arab govts to admit people with an Israeli entry stamp in their passport predates the 1967 war.
It is rarely mentioned because it is generally known. And perfectly understandable. The wonder is that other UN members do not take similar measures to show their disapproval of a colony which, from the first, has defied the UN and treated its resolutions with contempt.
I always used to have two separate British passports, to avoid certain stamps being given as a refusal for entry. This used to be perfectly legal, as long as Petty France were satisfied about your reason for having to hold two British passports.
I’m not sure what the position on that is these days.
It’s still straightforward as long as your employer will vouch that you travel overseas regularly, and that may well include countries with long visa application wait times (India, Russia, etc)
Maybe Israel has something to do with it!
Craig is not exactly a dissident. He is right on with most of the liberal establishment consensus here and in the US. More likely there has been an administration cock-up that will be resolved in good time.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Americans are shit, and that IS the topic.
Hatred of America is a staple of the left in this country, Ben. See Glenn’s comment above.
Hatred of America is a staple of most of the human beings who live on this planet, not to mention the wildlife.
Craig’s entourage is littered with bigots. It must be island fever.
@ Anon1 (aka Half Wit Anonymous), You’re spot on the money, as usual! Craig is no threat to the Establishment, that’s why the ‘Freedom-Loving, Democracy-Loving’ torchbearers of the US won’t let him in.
Sorry about your not being able to come, but there is the consolation of the terrorists not being able to assassinate you while here.
As I keep saying, the pace is a paranoid, conspiring shit hole.
Wonder if they will do an al-Hilli on me and my brother when we visit Brittany later this month.
Probably not. But only because you’ve mentioned the possibility. 🙂
America is a race between Muslim terrorists, Christian terrorists, random mass shooting gun nuts, and gangbangers to get to see who shoots you first, by accident or design. Insane place. Terrifying. totally psychotic.
You missed the Cops, John, who have killed more than all the others put together.
I am sorry to hear that, Craig.
Perhaps the competent authorities have been reading this blog, have taken note of the extreme anti-USA (and more generally anti-Western) views expressed regularly by a handful of commentators (indeed, by the majority of those who comment here regularly), and have found you guilty by association.
You must also admit that your posts often – directly or indirectly – give the impression of stimulating, whether deliberately or otherwise, such extreme views. The comment of Brian Barder to your immediately previous post illustrates the point (although it is about Keith Vaz).
If I am correct, then it might be good idea if you were to introduce tougher moderation. You yourself are a man of essentially good will: I am not so sure that the same can be said of some of the contributors. You can perhaps thank them for this affair and they should hang their heads in shame.
Just typical rubbish by Habby.
The whole problem with America will be reduced if Craig tones down his complaints, and the mods shut up posters like.me!
“If I am correct, then it might be good idea if you were to introduce tougher moderation.”
Yes. Perhaps he should start with those who issue threats to other people should they travel to Poland. 😀
Mr Goss
Threats?
Your posts over the years have shown that you are certainly no friend of Poland. Or, to qualify that, no friend of today’s free, post-Communist Poland, happily no longer part of the Soviet Empire.
You have denounced Solidarity as being a tool of the US (to bring about the downfall of the Evil Empire), you have suggested that Poland is actively involved, through the use of military special forces, in supporting what you are pleased to call the “fascist” govt in Kiev…and so on.
Why the devil do you think the Polish authorities would welcome the presence of an unreconstructed useful idiot for the Soviet Union (then) and Putin’s Russia (now) on their territory?
“Threats?”
There are plenty here who will remember the threats you made for me not to travel to Poland.
As to the rest of your utter garbage I will treat it with the disdain it deserves.
FYI I have travelled to and through Poland many times, love its people and have always been made welcome from my first visit by bicycle in 2001 to my most recent visit in the middle of this year.
re last para – all the more reason for you to be ashamed, then.
NB – I love your reference to “the people”. It’s a standard ploy for people like you to say “I hate the government but I love the people”.
You do not convince, Mr Goss. A refresher course at Party school is called for.
” It’s a standard ploy for people like you to say “I hate the government but I love the people”.”
As opposed to people like you who tend to say “I hate the government, so I’m going to kill/starve/ insult the people until they give in and put my guy (Yats?) in government.
@ John Goss September 5, 2016 at 20:59
“Threats?……”
Just as well you didn’t forewarn Habby, or you might’nt be here to tell the tale…
“.., you have suggested that Poland is actively involved, through the use of military special forces, in supporting what you are pleased to call the “fascist” govt in Kiev…and so on.”
Is there any doubt that they have and do?
Or that they allowed the CIA to run secret torture sites, worse than anything that the Soviet Union was ever charged with doing in Poland?
The Polish government is a byword for illiberalism and authoritarianism. Ask any Pole.
Bev’s ringing condemnation of the Polish government (? governments) would, I imagine, not be shared by the excellent Charles Crawford, former UK Ambassador to Poland and someone who continues to follow Polish affairs closely.
Of interest would be to hear if someone else who served in Warsaw and who also, I imagine, follows Polish affairs also shares Bev’s ringing condemnation.
I refer, of course, to our host Craig Murray.
“…extreme anti-USA (and more generally anti-Western)…”
Your antecedent was right in there claiming that HG Wells and others were “Anti-German.” At the risk of reducing yourself to a caricature, perhaps you should come out and tell us all what you really think.
Went there in 2012. They took my finger prints and scanned my retinas just for visiting their country. Never will return. Fuck the USA!
Maxter
You sound as if you believe you have an absolute, unconditional right to enter the USA – and to be exempted from any of the checks required by US Immigration.
You are mistaken.
Not biting! Must try harder!
Your “Fuck the USA”, complete with exclamation mark, leads me to think that you feel bitten.
Perhaps you’re not familiar with this classic song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bZzM4s0Hgs
Rather catchy, don’t you think?
Indeed, but Maxter (and indeed everyone else who even passes through their airports on their way elsewhere) should not be processed as if they were a criminal. Nobody else goes to such extremes in their security theatre, not even us. The Israelis could be worse though, now that you mention it… so we’re in good company, obviously. Insane, paranoid, belligerent war-mongering countries – now why would anyone have a problem with us?
What really concerned me more than being treated like a criminal, was the witnessing of all my other fellow passengers lining up as if this was a normal way to be treated. Apart from my own display of resentfulness towards the official, there was a severe lack of indignation all round by the other passengers, and I find this is very very disturbing indeed. Obedience to authority in rarely a good thing!
Indeed – I’ve long suspected that this whole security theatre was designed to make the middle classes more subservient to authority. The poor underclass has long been used to submitting to dominant force, which they must obey and never question. The aspiring middle classes? Not so much.
Middle classes tend to use airports. This is an ideal way of getting them used to the notion that they WILL conform, they WILL obey, they SHALL NOT question, they WILL be meek, obedient and show respect.
Just the sort of training that the governing classes really appreciate.
I’ve been informing you of the very same thing, on Palestine, post 1948, the illegal occupying forces also feel they have a “unconditional right” they don’t.
@ Maxter September 5, 2016 at 19:38
Why on earth didn’t you get a visa from the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia? They have (or had) an extremely lax entry program (see ‘Zero’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gETF0_SOXcg )
Craig
I have now read the rest of the comments on your post.
I suggest you do the same and then you will understand better what I was getting at.
Come off it Habbabkuk. Craig very well knows who is in need of a red card and when. You more than any should be aware of this.
Habba, it gets boring to keep posting the very, very long list of democratically elected leaders worldwide who have been ursurped/overthrown by Uncle Sam and his death machine for corporate profit.
Even now, in the 21st century, this nonsense continues (look at South America, for instance). The corporate death machine continues because of the biggest propaganda operation ever seen on this planet, which totally brainwashes the citizens (although the 2008 crash and its ramifications is starting to wake people up).
Can you please explain to me why the United States of America is not a total pariah state, to be shunned by all free thinking people?
(I should add that I’m talking about the US government and military-industrial complex. I do not mean the American people)
I was born in the Old Kent Road (London) in 1964 (I have the tyre marks on my back to prove it). I’m not sure why you take such an apartheid view on my citizenship? Where were you born, Habba?
RobG: I’m not sure why you provided an answer, and I’ve no idea why those personal questions arose. They had nothing to do with the post to which it was supposedly a reply.
Judging by your posts I’d guess the vehicle ran over your head and not your back.
Oh well, it should be fairly obvious that the USA’s alleged commitment to freedom, democracy, justice and human rights has become increasingly hollow, and the hollowing out started well before 9/11.
For example, the lawyer William Pepper won a civil case back in 1999 acting on behalf of the family of Martin Luther King Jr. in which Memphis resident Loyd Jowers was found guilty in a trial by jury of conspiring with US government agencies to kill MLK. Seems after hearing all the evidence the jury didn’t buy into the authorities’ “non-conspiracy-theory theory” that James Earl Ray was a lone assassin. Of course this trial and the evidence presented at trial got absolutely minimal coverage by mainstream media who on each anniversary of MLK’s death still confirm that James Earl Ray was the “lone-nut” gunman responsible for MLK’s death, no-question-about-it. See https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/Unspeakable/MLKconExp.html for more on the 1999 trial.
Pepper and the King family originally had high hopes that the 1999 civil case against Jowers would open peoples’ minds, make them realize that a miscarriage of justice had taken place and lead to a widespread call for a reopening of the investigation into MLK’s death. However when they saw they were getting next to no coverage in the media, and few people even heard about the trial they realized that had been a false hope entirely. Now William Pepper has just released The Plot to Kill King, his third book in a trilogy on the MLK assassination. In this latest book he charges that MLK survived the shooting but was actually murdered in the hospital where he had been taken for treatment after the assassination attempt. William Pepper however, has little expectations that the mainstream media will honestly acknowledge his book exists, far less honestly investigate his allegations and report on them to their audiences.
Martin Luther King survived shooting, was murdered in hospital: an interview with William Pepper
by Craid McKee
……we know that Ray took the fall for a murder he did not commit. We know that a member of the Memphis Police Department fired the fatal shot and that two military sniper teams that were part of the 902nd Military Intelligence Group were sent to Memphis as back-ups should the primary shooter fail. We have access to the fascinating account of how Pepper came to meet Colonel John Downie, the man in charge of the military part of the plot and Lyndon Johnson’s former Vietnam briefer. We also learn that as part of the operation, photographs were actually taken of the shooting and that Pepper came very close to getting his hands on those photographs.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media has ignored all of these revelations and continues to label Ray as King’s lone assassin. In fact, Pepper chronicles in detail how a disinformation campaign has featured the collaboration of many mainstream journalists over almost half a century. He says he suspects that those orchestrating the cover-up, which continues to this day, are no longer concerned with what he writes about the subject.
“I’m really basically harmless, I think, to the power structure,” Pepper said in an interview.
“I don’t think I threaten them, really. The control of the media is so consolidated now they can keep someone like me under wraps, under cover, forever. This book will probably never be reviewed seriously by mainstream, the story will not be aired in mainstream – they control the media. It was bad in the ’60s but nowhere near as bad as now.”
https://truthandshadows.wordpress.com/2016/09/03/king-murdered-in-hospital/
There you go – another example of a friendly post about the USA from one of this blog’s regulars.
With friends like that, does Craig need enemies?
@ Silvio September 5, 2016 at 20:09
Democracy ended in 1963; I believe it, Cynthia McKinney believes it, and lots of good-hearted, clear-thinking people around the world believe it. Jack Ruby even said it, just before he died of ‘contracted’ cancer…….
Only the corrupt shall survive.
Thought is dangerous to the UK, France, Germany, USA, the “West”
The only way to defeat these people is bloody revolution.
Why good and ordinary people have allowed this to happen is not understandable.
There is no scope for debate anymore.
This is war
And another – “defeat these people”….”this is war”…..
Maybe it’s time to hold the Sam Adams Award in Russia? At least you’re all likely to get there and back whereas neither can be assured in America. We need only consider NATO troops along Russia’s border to see how American manipulation has recreated the Iron Curtain, a US-friendly version. Maybe it’s as well they’re stopping people getting in, because next they’ll be stopping them getting out.
Unless you get shot in the street like one of those Russian dissidents or journalists.
Very true, but then again, Craig can still get into Russia.
Not quite true if you compare the number of people shot in the street in America.
I don’t doubt nasty things go on in Russia but as you say Craig, despite his distaste for the Russian establishment can still get in there.
If you wasn’t going for an important reason, I’d say F Uncle Sam. Refused to visit since late 90s and business people could come to me. Today it is even easier. Have good friends over there but got tired of the INS welcome as a white Brit with a journo visa (then). Every other place welcoming…
I’m the same. I’ve lived and worked in various places in the USA. I was last there in 1999. Then 9/11 happened. I wouldn’t go back there now if they paid me.
I don’t recall seeing you in ’99. That was the last time I visited, Dallas, San Francisco.
They tell me New England is very beautiful. Some great writers were around that neck of the woods, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, oh, and Dan Brown. It is especially picturesque in Autumn.
However, the poet Talha Ahsan, probably got a different view from the isolation of a maximum security prison. And he never asked to go. It is what the US does. No wonder H calls it the “Evil Empire”.
I was living in San Francisco in 1988 (Taraval Street, on Oceanside). At the time Reagan was still president and the Americans were bombing Libya – does this all sound familiar?
We never made it down to Texas; unfortunately, because I would have loved to see it.
A decade later, in 1999, I was travelling across North America on an 8,000 mile road journey, that took us to the shores of the Arctic Ocean in Alaska.
The America I lived and witnessed is now long gone.
I’ve met some lovely Americans on my travels, though not in the US. I must confess that I did not see much of the US in 1999 since my flight took me to the airport of Chicago, sorry not Dallas. I had to package my bike in cardboard and carry (drag) it across the airport to catch an internal flight to San Francisco, from where I flew to New Zealand.
You could get porters to carry your baggage but I never took any dollars with me.
@ John Goss September 5, 2016 at 22:48
Shit, I was there in 1959! Plenty of tales to tell, jail in Dallas, most of my family still live in the States, mostly New England (Mass, Conn) but some in California).
Though I am barred from entry, I have been there a number of times (and they have turned a blind eye), the last time in 2009 when my mother was dying.
I wouldn’t risk it again.
Though I did a stopover in Havana in ’84 on my way to Nicaragua (and again on the way back), I don’t REALLY fancy a stay in Guantanamo!!
I was through Newark barely 6 weeks before 9/11 en route to Seattle and back for a science conference. I had 5 hours in transit on the way back to observe stuff. I wondered down one arm of the terminal and was looking across the water at a city scape only to realise it was Manhattan Island with the now vanished twin towers front and centre.
The ease of boarding in 9/11 did not surprise me. I witnessed a guy walk up to the desk and buy a ticket with a credit card within 10min of the flight leaving. Also some woman got to the gate with a cat in a carrier ensuring an argument and you have to back to checked luggage argument. Being used to European airport security the whole thing looked very lax.
Not just Europe. I remember way back in must have been early ’88 coming back from Canberra to NZ. There were metal detector arches at the entry to the gates and once you went in you were not allowed out again.
Craig, they do not like ‘pinko’ liberals, and, ‘shock horror’ you have agreed with many of Jeremy Corbyn’s ideas. Now that is socialism, a certain hanging offence in the “exceptional”, “indispensable”, “shining city on a hill” and all that crap which is the US. Please persevere, if you fail to get in, wear it as a badge of pride.
The a**holes even put William Rodriguez, a US National Hero, and Cynthia McKinney (twice Congresswoman for Georgia) on the ‘No-Fly’ list).