The complaint is absolutely disgusting to read. One (I suspect uncontested) fact alleged in the complaint really stood out to me:
> As a result, he was stranded in Lebanon for over a month, during which time the U.S. government confirmed that he had been placed on the No Fly List. Mr. Chebli was then able to obtain a one-time waiver to fly home.
If someone is dangerous enough to be on the No Fly List why would the US government allow them to fly? To the US? Even once? And if they're safe enough to fly on that occasion why are they, upon landing (presumably safely), once again considered unsafe to fly? The No Fly List logic just doesn't quite add up for me...
This story is interesting, but I was having a hard time following the backstory. He was in Jordan temporarily, but hasn't been in Syria in 3 years? If so where was he? Just trying to understand context.
There's a lot of stories of people being treated without rights in airports (even rich white European males get the treatment sometimes). It's honestly really scary.
Apparently he wasn't at the time. News reports I read at the time said he applied for ESTA but was found to be in violation of ESTA terms at the boarder.
I don't buy this. If this guy wanted a ka-boom, he'd succeeded.
And this?
"Despite his name being added to the government's no-fly list on Monday, Mr Shahzad managed to buy a ticket on an Emirates flight to Dubai and made it through JFK's security checks late that evening."
"Mr Shahzad was arrested on Monday 3 May after boarding a flight to Islamabad, Pakistan."
At least they told him before he flew over. They could have done that when he actually landed, and he would have been denied entry there, then shuffled back onto a flight.
Assuming we want customs officials doing anything terrorism related at all (which I'm not convinced of) this doesn't seem bad. Basically they made him socially uncomfortable for a while, and sent him on his way. They didn't take any of his stuff, they only detained him for an hour and a half. Overall it seems about as inconvenient as a flight delay.
The article is somewhat misleading. The image of the texts provided by the man himself show an intention to "never be away from you again" in addition to "moving to be with you." We only have the man's word on what happened; we have none of the evidence that the border officials used. Did he have a return ticket? Did he have a home or a job to go back to? A lifetime ban seems a bit extreme, but I am completely unsurprised that he wasn't admitted.
The countries that he has to fly through to avoid immediately being detained and sent to the US are all countries that you find suspicious and "baddy".
> As a result, he was stranded in Lebanon for over a month, during which time the U.S. government confirmed that he had been placed on the No Fly List. Mr. Chebli was then able to obtain a one-time waiver to fly home.
If someone is dangerous enough to be on the No Fly List why would the US government allow them to fly? To the US? Even once? And if they're safe enough to fly on that occasion why are they, upon landing (presumably safely), once again considered unsafe to fly? The No Fly List logic just doesn't quite add up for me...
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