I Fled the US to Escape the Security State. Instead, It Followed Me.

"Just before 9 pm on Wednesday, January 21, I landed at the British Airways terminal at London's Heathrow Airport. I was flying in from Cairo for what was my fourth visit since I left the US. I was headed to Birmingham. It hadn't even been a year since I had been forced to leave the United States after sustained political pressure connected to my activism in support of Palestine."

"They asked my name and took my passport from me. When I asked why I was being stopped, one of them said bluntly, "You're being detained under Britain's terrorism laws." He went on to explain that, under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, I had no right to remain silent, and that refusing to answer questions could itself lead to a minimum three-month prison sentence."

After being forced to leave the United States because of political pressure tied to activism supporting Palestine, the traveler returned to the UK and was detained at Heathrow minutes after landing. Officers in civilian clothing took the passport, invoked Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and warned that there was no right to remain silent and that refusal could mean a minimum three-month prison sentence. The phone and laptop were seized, bags searched, body examined, fingerprints and palm prints taken, DNA swabbed, and photographs recorded. Officers implied compliance could be compelled at a police station, and a phone call was limited to stating that the traveler was "safe."

Read at The Nation