By the people
& Letters to the editor
(Page 62)
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23.06.2003
Cash Ew wrote:
>
> Hi Max,
>
> I and Im sure some others would like to know where the restraint
holly wears
> in your latest video, show in
> http://www.rigidcuff.com/bianca/newvideo/holly11.jpg
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Hi
This is a modern version of the
This guy also stopped building these kind of items . You can order something similar at "Martin's Rigidcuffs" (see picture at left ) ( Email mk2427@t-online.de )
Best greetings Max
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Hi there
I have been visiting your site regularly for a couple of years and would
like to congratulate you on such a great site.
It's still the best on the web and the one I recommend
to people interested in this subject
Keep up the great work
Thank you
Mick.
Hi Max
I thank you very much for posting the kind words about me in your site.
I am the only person whose name is posted in the "Pictures of the week".
I am am very proud of it. Thanks a lot.
You must also post a Blessing message for me when I get married with Subhasini.
Best greetings
Mehandren
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Hi Max ,
I recently read about the ring of human smugglers in Texas who botched an operation and killed 19 illegal Mexican immigrants into Texas . Karla Patricia Chavez , age 25 , a citizen of Honduras , was arrested and arraigned in a Houston, Texas court , charged as the ringleader . She pleaded innocent , but was denied bail (July 1 , 2003) If convicted , she faces the death penalty , or life in prison without parole . I believe that the woman shown with her in the above photo is an accomplice , Claudia Carrizales de Villa , a Mexican citizen . Best regards , Rob. |
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Von: MK2427@t-online.de (Martin)
Comments added by Max
July 5, 2003
Locked Up at LAX Over Passport Policy
A woman starting a six-week vacation is detained 15 hours and sent back to Brussels because of new U.S. anti-terror rules.
By Jean O. Pasco, Times Staff Writer
Belgian Noelle Lhoist arrived in Los Angeles on June 22 with her three
children, her French companion and the happy expectation of a six-week
vacation in Southern California. Instead, she never left Los Angeles International
Airport. She was held for 15 hours, handcuffed, strip
searched, fingerprinted and sent back to Brussels.
Her crime: violating a new rule for travelers to the U.S.
( My new rule for american presidents : they should at least have an IQ of 120 and not look and walk like a chimpanzee escaped from a zoo !)
The rule went into effect May 15 for Belgians and begins Oct. 1 for
26 other countries that participate in a program waiving visa requirements.
Under the regulation, foreign visitors must have newer, machine-readable
passports, which are encoded with digital information and cannot be easily
counterfeited.
The rule kicked in early for Belgians because of concerns by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft that their passports could be faked.
( What about elections being
faked ??? )
All that was news to Lhoist, whose passport was issued in 2000 and was not machine-readable. Officials at Swiss International Air Lines, formerly known as Swissair, had accepted her travel documents in Zurich without hesitation for the flight to Los Angeles, she said.
But officials at LAX refused them and she spent five hours in a holding room before even being able to tell her horrified children what had happened.
"I'm not used to crying, but my tears were just coming and coming," she said. "I wasn't allowed to stand, use the phone or speak. I couldn't write anything because they wouldn't give me a pen."
On Friday — her 49th birthday — Lhoist arrived again at LAX, where she was reunited with her children — Jerome, 18; Virginie, 17; and Yolaine, 13 — and companion Alain Terrones, who spent an anxious 12 days at their first destination in Irvine without her.
"This is the best birthday present, to just see my kids and Alain," said Lhoist, who had to obtain a nonimmigrant visa from the U.S. consulate in Brussels, spend $700 for a new ticket and pay a $118 rebooking fee. "Now I would like to forget and be happy together."
This is a tale of innocent foreign travel colliding with the war on terrorism.
(How many innocent civil cuasualties (" collateral damages") have collided with the american wish to control Iraqs OIL ?)
Ashcroft's directive was issued Feb. 28, after U.S. officials became
concerned about how passports were issued in Belgium, said Stuart Patt,
spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs in Washington.
Officials thought there weren't enough internal controls
over lost and stolen passports in the small European country.
(Perhaps we should allow american officials come over here and handle our affairs ? )
The requirement for machine-readable passports was included in homeland security laws passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said.
Lhoist wasn't the only Belgian snagged by the new rule. Swiss airline
officials at LAX said other visitors have been denied entry to the U.S.
since May 15 but couldn't say how many. The problem will only get worse
once the rule takes effect Oct. 1 for the rest of the affected
countries, including Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Sweden
and the United Kingdom.
( One simple consequence : DO NOT TRAVEL TO THE US ! There are a lot of nice destinations in EUROPE . Spend your money in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal .... )
Passengers have the ultimate responsibility for assuring their travel documents are proper, said Sandro Crivelli, Swiss's LAX station manager. "As an airline, we can't baby-sit everybody," he said.
The airline is, however, fined $3,300 for every traveler flown into the country without proper documents.
Lhoist said she would have willingly obtained a machine-readable passport if she'd known she needed one. The e-mail confirmation the family received for their flights contained no mention of the May 15 passport requirement; neither did a travel brochure or flight booklet.
She asked Swiss airline officials to include such a notice in the future. She said she didn't even know to ask, since it was only her second visit to the U.S. — the family vacationed last summer in Florida. Terrones, a former retirement home manager, said he was unaware of the change.
"It is not possible for all the people to know the rules," Lhoist said.
The family was aided by Leroy R. Woodson Jr. with Advantage Ground Transportation,
who drove Terrones and the Lhoist children to Irvine on June 22. Woodson,
a fluent French speaker who lived in Paris for five years, sympathized
with their plight and spent the next 12 days on the
phone speaking with airline employees and an immigration attorney seeking
to get Lhoist back to Los Angeles.
He said he was suspicious that Belgium had been singled out for the new directive. The Bush administration recently settled a dispute with that country over attempts to try Gen. Tommy Franks for war crimes at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
(The US Administration is fighting heavily against the International Court of Justice . But why should american citizens not be held responsible if they really committed war crimes or crimes against humanity ? Why should guys like Hitler, Stalin , Ceausecu , Milosevic or others come free if they happen to be american citizens ? We are back to the Roman Empire : one law for roman citizens ("Civis romanus sum !") , on law for the "barbarians" )
"This was such an unfortunate situation," Woodson said Friday, waiting with Terrones and the children to see if Lhoist would be allowed into the U.S. "My interest in this matter is purely humanitarian, plus I'm outraged."
The family heads Sunday to San Diego and will spend the rest of their trip, which they shorted by two weeks, there.
Despite the shaky start, the experience hasn't soured her on the U.S., Lhoist said.
"I love the U.S.A. and I wanted the children to experience it before they finish their studies," she said. "I love Americans and the way they think and their way of doing things. This trip has just been a bad experience."
(She must be masochistic , that woman ! To love a country whose officials treat you like not even the worst criminal would be treated in European countries ....)
Dear Max,
I am aware that very unacceptable things are happening in the US who will not be taken seriously unless they treat people from Europe with a lot more discretion, and quite besides they have serious human rights problems in a lot of areas. Recently I heard that a pregnant woman was fined 50 dollars for sitting on steps in a new york underground station, or subway as one is supposed to say.
All this shows that visiting the US is a risky thing, every case which seems unreasonable should also be checked out for bringing forward a damages case.
Best wishes,
Chris.
Certainly, I for one will most definitely not travel there, maybe
to
Canada sometime, but all in all, I am in no hurry.
Go to www.google.com/ncr
- type in (but don't hit return): weapons of mass destruction
- hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button, instead of the normal "Google search" button
- read what appears to be a normal (MSIE) error message ;-)
SunMt member Joan Herron got this message from a friend in Senegal.
More than 1,500 persons have been arrested and put in jail between Thursday and Monday. Hopefully they will be released now that the Big Man is gone
The US Army's planes flying day and night over Dakar. The noise they make is so loud that one hardly sleeps at night
About 700 security people from the US for Bush's security in Senegal, with their dogs, and their cars. Senegalese security forces were not allowed to come near the US president
All trees in places where Bush will pass have been cut. Some of them have more than 100 years
All roads going down town (where hospitals, businesses, schools are located) were closed from Monday night to Tuesday at 3 PM. This means that we could not go to our offices or schools. Sick people were also obliged to stay at home.
National exams for high schools that started on Monday are postponed until Wednesday.
Bush's visit to the Goree Island is another story. As you may know Goree is a small Island facing Dakar where from the 15th to the 19th century, the African slaves to be shipped to America were parked in special houses called slave houses. One of these houses has become a Museum to remind humanity about this dark period and has been visited by kings, queens, presidents. Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, and before them, Nelson Mandela, the Pope, and many other distinguished guests or ordinary tourists visited it without bothering the islanders. But for "security reasons" this time, the local population was chased out of their houses from 5 to 12 AM. They were forced by the American security to leave their houses and leave everything open, including their wardrobes to be searched by special dogs brought from the US.
The ferry that links the island to Dakar was stopped and offices and businesses closed for the day.
According to an economist who was interviewed by a private radio, Senegal that is a very poor country has lost huge amount of money in this visit, because workers have been prevented from walking out of their homes.
In addition to us being prevented to go out, other humiliating things happened also. Bush did not want to be with Senegalese or use our things. He brought his own armchairs, and of course his own cars, and meals and drinks. He came with his own journalists and ours were forbidden inside the airport and in place he was visiting.
Our president was not allowed to make a speech. Only Bush spoke when
he was in Goree. He spoke about slavery. It seems that he needs the vote
of the African American to be elected in the next elections, and wanted
to please them.
That's why he visited Goree.
Several protest marches against American politics have been organized yesterday and even when Bush was here, but we think he does not care.
We have the feeling that everything has been done to convince us that we are nothing, and that America can behave the way it wants, everywhere, even in our country.
Believe me friends, it is a terrible feeling. But according to a Ugandan friend of mine, I should not complain because in Uganda one of the country he is going to visit, Bush does not intend to go out of the airport. He will receive the Ugandan President in the airport lounge.
Nevertheless, I think I am lucky, because I have such wonderful American
friends. But there are now thousands of Senegalese who believe that for
all Americans the world is their territory.
___________________________________________________
mAliLink: Forum de discussion Malien
http://www.malilink.net
I added some new stories
The game by Andrea Jordan
Through night
to light by Sailor 861
(now complete in 4 parts)
Dear Diary Part 2 by Cuffs1
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A "must" for all handcuff collectors :
Alex R. Nichols
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