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Fisk banned from entering the US

laptop said:
Ouais, et elles le mangent toujours, les sales salopes de singes de reddition!
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au moins, si les ricains bombardent le canada, les quebecois se revolterons contre l'oppression canadienne!

go on, peebs, go and bomb canada and see what's going to happen....
 
AnnO'Neemus said:
something about 'free speech'...
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That's for citizens, silly. Why would it apply to aliens?

These days, if you're a journalist planning to visit the US you need to apply to your home Embassy for a special journalist's visa, supplying a letter from your employer stating precisely what you're commissioned to cover, and go for interview at said Embassy. Where, from accounts I've heard, you have to have the patience of a saint and betray absolutely no sense of humour. And of course it's impossible for anyone, journalist or not, actually to speak to a human to arrange said appointment - it's all premium-rate "press 7 to hear that ninth menu one more time" shit.

Those who read closely even at lunchtime on Sunday will have noticed that freelances are basically fucked.

So the possibilities for Fisks papers not being in order are myriad. Which is the point.
 
My impression is that this is part of a concious media control programme, with many, many implications besides this one. What I think happened is that they sat down, starting from the common US right-wing assumption "the media lost us the Vietnam war" and tried to figure out how to prevent them from interfering with any new wars they had planned.

The techniques that they came up with included intimidation and revenge on dissident reporters, deliberate (rather than institutional as per Chomsky & Herman) exercise of corporate influence over news agendas, embedding etc.
 
FYI, Indy today running advert for free tickets to see Fisk talking about "his life in the war zone", 12th October, 7pm, SW London.
Mail to [email protected] with number of tickets required, name, address, daytime phone.
 
guinnessdrinker said:
au moins, si les ricains bombardent le canada, les quebecois se revolterons contre l'oppression canadienne!

go on, peebs, go and bomb canada and see what's going to happen....
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hey - that's not nice :mad: :D

besides, they would never be able to hold on to the country - vive la resistance!!!
 
Wouldn't you have thought The Independent would have covered this. His column yesterday never mentioned it. Does America have Immigration officers in Canada? If memory serves well, wasn't Yusef Islam turned around in the USA?

Another none story?
 
Bernie Gunther said:
My impression is that this is part of a concious media control programme, with many, many implications besides this one. What I think happened is that they sat down, starting from the common US right-wing assumption "the media lost us the Vietnam war" and tried to figure out how to prevent them from interfering with any new wars they had planned.
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They don't even have to do that much when it comes to alien journalists. Leave the requirement for a special journalist's visa in place (what other countries have this requirement? Uh, China... North Korea... )

Start enforcing it.

Leave the rest to immigration officials' stupidity, paranoia and fear of foreigners.

Oddly, most of the reports I've seen of journalists being turned away concern French citizens - notoriously, a gaggle of computer games reviewers headed for an expo...
 
Perhaps, by analogy with the former Soviet Union again, all the application stuff is so they can make sure there's a secret policeman to follow them around once they get there, and to write down the names of anyone they talk to ;)
 
Bernie Gunther said:
Perhaps, by analogy with the former Soviet Union again, all the application stuff is so they can make sure there's a secret policeman to follow them around once they get there, and to write down the names of anyone they talk to ;)
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And where is the CIA going to find agents that speak music journo? :D
 
laptop said:
And where is the CIA going to find agents that speak music journo? :D
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Wasn't there some sort of post-911 programme asking for patriotic citizens to volunteer to act as unpaid informers on their fellow citizens? Presumably this would provide a cheap and varied pool of touts?
 
oneflewover said:
Wouldn't you have thought The Independent would have covered this. His column yesterday never mentioned it. Does America have Immigration officers in Canada? If memory serves well, wasn't Yusef Islam turned around in the USA?

Another none story?
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His column would have been written in advance, no?

Cat Stevens had his plane diverted 700 miles to another US airport and he was put on a flight back over here. Logical it ain't.
 
Bernie Gunther said:
patriotic citizens
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And why might I have picked music journos? :D

I'm sure, on the other hand, that they get regular briefings about furrin journalists specialising in personal finance and networking software.

Mostly, though, of course, they merely impart and instil the information that they're in the Untied Skates on sufferance [subconscious]so they'd better not be too nasty about the place if they want to go on working[/subconscious].
 
laptop said:
<snip> Mostly, though, of course, they merely impart and instil the information that they're in the Untied Skates on sufferance [subconscious]so they'd better not be too nasty about the place if they want to go on working[/subconscious].
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Yep, that's the overwhelming impression I got while I was over there. The aim seems to be to convey this sense of vast arbitary power that can fuck you up anytime it wants to, unaccountably.
 
Bernie Gunther said:
Yep, that's the overwhelming impression I got while I was over there. The aim seems to be to convey this sense of vast arbitary power that can fuck you up anytime it wants to, unaccountably.
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I know you went on work mate, but there's one answer for everyone: just avoid the country. A big world out there...

I remember reading less than a year ago about all the body searching going on on domestic flights.

I can see what britain and australia are like when flying in to the countries, and i know we have both adopted US methods right across state-influenced spheres of life. And the control factor is all consuming. A huge wave of power muscle-flexing washes over you upon entering the airport. You are a very humble citizen who dare not say the wrong word.

That is their message, so i can only begin to wonder at the state of america. Very authoritarian these days i'd say. A terrible place to be.
 
Fisk 'banned' story was cobblers

This morning, the West Coast radio journalist Jeff Blankfort writes that he has spoken with Fisk, and Fisk told him that he “was not barred from entering the U.S. because [of who] he is but because he did not have the latest British biometric passport which evaluates eye-scans and that is now required of all British subjects entering the U.S....Fisk says it is not a story and shouldn’t be made out to be one.”
 
guinnessdrinker said:
the quebeckers are going to eat roasted yankees for breakfast!
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:eek: Won't somebody think of those poor Quebecois and their cholesterol levels after eating Yankees?!! :eek: :eek:

Nurse, more statins!!
 
ViolentPanda said:
:eek: Won't somebody think of those poor Quebecois and their cholesterol levels after eating Yankees?!! :eek: :eek:

Nurse, more statins!!
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the yankees could always be turned into organic pork joints prior to feeding the quebecois. no need to kill the yankees, just feed them alive to the pigs.
 
guinnessdrinker said:
the yankees could always be turned into organic pork joints prior to feeding the quebecois. no need to kill the yankees, just feed them alive to the pigs.
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Good thinking!

Reminds me of an episode in the first series of "Millennium"
 
Divisive Cotton said:
What a badge of honour for a journalist! I bet, after the initial annoyance, he's actually very proud :cool: :)
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yeah, right. A journalist denied freedom of speech is hardly a badge of honour. I'm sure it would be an honour for anyone who knows exactly what they're against but not what they're in favour of
 
Donegal Mik said:
I'm sure it would be an honour for anyone who knows exactly what they're against but not what they're in favour of
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What does this mean?!

I'm sure fisk knows well what he's against, and well what he's for, in case that was your meaning.

And in case it was your meaning, also i'd have to say that i know of no reason why one should not identify strongly with what they are against, while not proposing any solutions. Once enough people accept that they must be against war-waging by their governments for greedy purposes, then solutions would begin to be debated and brought about.

Step by step.
 
fela fan said:
What does this mean?!

I'm sure fisk knows well what he's against, and well what he's for, in case that was your meaning.

And in case it was your meaning, also i'd have to say that i know of no reason why one should not identify strongly with what they are against, while not proposing any solutions. Once enough people accept that they must be against war-waging by their governments for greedy purposes, then solutions would begin to be debated and brought about.

Step by step.
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No, twas in response to the person who thought it would be a badge of honour to be excluded. Can't see why it would be in his case. It would be 'cool' for sb who wanted to strike a pose.
 
Just got an email that makes it clear that Fisk was *not* banned from entering, but denied entry because he doesn't have a biometric passpaort, which is now re digeur for all US visitors.

*********

In a recent dispatch
<http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000279.php#more> I
mentioned a report from journalist Doug Ireland which stated British
journalist Robert Fisk was denied entry into the US. Upon further
investigation, it appears that he was not turned away due to the content
of his reporting; thus I would like to make that correction here.

The following is from an email sent from Jeff Blankfort, who is a radio
program producer with KPOO in San Francisco, KZYX in Mendocino and
KPFT/Pacifica in Houston:

"Robert Fisk was not barred from entering the US because he is who he
is but because he did not have the latest British biometric passport
which evaluates eye-scans and that is now required of all British
subjects entering the US."

"Unfortunately, the incident was mentioned at a speech he gave over TV
in Arizona, according to Fisk with whom I spoke yesterday, and was
misinterpreted. The story appeared in the New Mexican and thanks to the
internet it has achieved a life of its own. Fisk says it is not a story
and shouldn't be made out to be one."
 
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