The United States Is Efficiently Protecting Itself

On April 18, 2009, on its way to Mexico, non-stop Air France Flight 438 was suddenly forbidden to fly over U.S. air space, “for national security reasons.” Not having enough fuel to bypass the United States, it was forced to make a stopover in the Caribbean. On board, the object of this massive disruption is Colombian journalist and writer Hernando Calvo Ospina, also a contributor to “Le Monde Diplomatique.”

On August 19, a similar misadventure befalls flight AF438, also forced to change its flight course to avoid Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, adding fifty minutes to the duration of the flight. This time, the alleged motive was the presence of Mr. Paul-Emile Dupret on board, a Belgian jurist and adviser to the European political group “Gauche Unie Europeenne” (GUE), or “United European Left.” Mr. Dupret is also an alter-globalist and human rights militant, on his way to the São Paolo assembly forum with a parliamentary delegation.

What Calvo Ospina and Dupret have in common is their critical view of U.S. politics in Latin America, their support of progressive governments in the region, and their uncompromising analysis of President Alvaro Uribe’s management of the situation in Colombia.

It is undoubtedly for similar reasons that journalist Luis Ernesto Almario was intercepted in Los Angeles on November 26. A Colombian citizen, he resides in Australia where he is, among other things, the correspondent to an alternative radio station called Café Stéreo. He had just landed on a Delta Airlines flight and was waiting for a connection to Caracas, where he planned to attend a conference organized by the Bolivian Association of Journalists (Asobolpe), of which he is a member. Detained for 24 hours and interrogated by immigration authorities, the FBI, and the CIA, he was eventually deported back to Australia.

On December 25, an Airbus A330 of Northwest Airlines took off from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and headed toward its destination of Detroit, Michigan, without any problems. While it was preparing for landing, M. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23 year old Nigerian claiming to be a member of Al Qaida, tried to detonate an explosive or incendiary object. Overcome by the passengers, he was intercepted upon landing.

On November 19, his father had shared his “concern” regarding his son’s radical ideas with the U.S. Embassy in Abuja. This information had been transmitted to the National Counter-Terrorism Center (the NCTC, created after 9/11), but, although the name M. Abdulmutallab was listed in a U.S. intelligence database, he was neither forbidden to fly to the United States, nor was he even considered to be someone who needed to be extensively checked by airport security.

In the context of the fight against terrorism, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year by the United States to “secure” airports and planes. Perhaps this money would be better spent if agents of the NCTC, the CIA, and the FBI did not give priority to the surveillance of harmless citizens, even if they are not “politically correct,” or to the repression of the freedom of expression.