PNGMK wrote:
IT sounds very similar to my experience... and of course my American wife was already through and wondering where the hell I was....
(You can't make phone calls in those places... technically you're actually "no where" without any redress possible - I'm sure they can rendition you from there without any legal difficulties).
I'm certain that it was my visits to Pakistan (multiple times) that triggered this but shit, you know there is MORE than just terrorism in Pakistan.
Yeah, 11pm. JFK. In an windowless ante-room with 200 green plastic chairs bolted into the floor. The only other people there, an Indian in robes asleep on the floor holding a sitar, and the uniformed guy seated 3' above you behind a counter yelling questions at you, but not waiting for answers.
I found it ironic that as you queue at immigration you'd wait hours, and every few yards pass posters of some noble looking immigration USCBP officer, captioned, 'We are the face of America!'... indeed.
Israel. They must have profiles and records of what tourists do. I'd booked one place, checked out, slept a couple of nights on the beach, checked into another place. I suppose I didn't tick their boxes. I was carrying about 10kg of camera gear, and they did not like that. I got taken away and asked maybe 200 quickfire questions ('Who have you met, where have you eaten, how much did this lens cost you, what do your parents do?... )', then soldier A left the room, and soldier B came in and repeated the entire script, every question again... I have a lot of sympathy for Israel and the Israelis, perhaps more than many people, but it hardly endeared me to the place. You get a similar kind of paranoia in Lebanon, but it's not quite SO intense.
p.s. yes I had the same situation as you, once with my (then) American wife. Me hauled off, and her with no idea where I was...
