The TSA have an abusive attitude towards *everyone* :)

"Why Is He Complaining If He Has Nothing To Hide"

For travelling to the US without the correct credentials.

1. Not White.

2. Not Christian

3. Not being a Member of the NRA

So no sympathy here

Ah this'd be the same Shahid Malik who voted in favour of an intrusive state detaining people without charge and who also backed intrusive compulsory identity cards.

You'd have thought Malik have learned something from being pulled over twice by the DHS, but rather than worry about the state becoming too powerful, he's bleating that politicans should be treated with kid gloves - or rather no gloves at all - the rest of us should expect to receive the latex finger of freedom.

I guess we'll have to stomach him touring the TV studios tonight whining about his 'ordeal', then we'll have to stomach him trooping into the government lobby when the next Home Office sponsored internment bill gets its time in the limelight.

This is the endemic attitude towards all foreigners. My several trips to the USA without fail go like this:

DHS: you're not a US citizen <eyeballs passport>

me: No

DHS: Go in that line, you've been selected for a random security/bag check

me: Your notion of random doesn't seem so random

DHS: <DHS man tenses and glares at me>

So glad I don't travel there anymore.

C'mon, El Reg! A few details or a reference for the story please!

"Detained"? Does that mean asked to step aside while his hand luggage was searched or taken into Room 101 and given the penitentiary admissions process? "Questioned"? Does that mean "asked who he was and why he was travelling" or introduced to my little friend the rubber hose?

I've long admired El Reg's policy of trashing the USA's security program at the slightest of provocations - after all, I simply can't be seen reading the News of The World. But please, at least tell us what the slightest of provocations is.

Doesn't he know it's illegal to be Muslim in America now? Especially when you're from Dewsbury (source of the 7th July bombers, apparently).

Would hate for him to go to Guantanamo. He's my local MP and he's actually not totally crap.

There is a rather classic quote from him on his site though:

http://www.shahidmalikmp.org/News/Statement-on-detention-at

"Mr Malik continued: "although I am obviously deeply disappointed that this type of thing could recur, this experience will in no way deter me from going back to the USA and help continue the global fight against extremism."

Do you mean Muslim extremism, or American extremism? :-)

...he was whisked through security with all the VIP trimmings, whilst the ordinary plebs were still being frisked and anal-probed?

somehow methinks not; I think it's his conception of his supposedlely "superior" position in society as an MP that's been wounded, not his religious or racial sensibilities. Not getting quite the same servile treatment that he does in the UK seems to be rather upsetting our Mr Malik, perhaps he ought to put in an expenses claim for it?

Be English. That'll see 'em. Use as many English colloquialisms as humanly possible in every sentence. Also be sure to ask for a cup of tea and send it back when it's not done right.

Americans like to think they speak English, so much so in an ironic effort to stick to illegal immigrants, many legislative Nazis want to make it the official language of the US (i.e. all documentation and information is given in English only).

So I feel it's always best to give them what I like to call full-on English - if you can effect a Tyneside accent even better.

As a legal permanent resident I get to bypass the search line and chat with the nice passport people (normally reserved for US citizens with good credit), or better still, get to fly 1st Class via my inlaw's airline passes - which means no security at all apparently.

But I feel for my countrymen when I see them fingerprinted, cavity searched and held for 24 hours without charge - all because they said they were dying to 'smoke a fag' after an 11 hour flight to LA.

As for this prick - good, he's pretty much all that's wrong with government on both sides of the Atlantic.

Funny - but why is it everyone is so afraid of a relatively small number of extremists. All our civil rights must go because otherwise it'll be the end of Britain and the US. Odd that, because even if a couple of them did get a nuke, I feel the threat offered during the Cold War and even WWII was a little bit more dangerous. Notice how we didn't run and cry for our mummies, chucking away civil rights and banning bottles of water during those escapades.

I find it so strange how we're willing to give in to terrorism on a scale never before seen. Every civil right lost is another victory to extremists. Every phone tapped without a warrant, child's toy removed before boarding, innocent person added to no fly lists is proof we have well and truly lost this 'war on terror'. For fucks sake when will some of these politicians grow a bloody backbone and actually stand up to these people.

No we won't torture, we won't steal everyone's email and listen to everyone's phone calls - because we've gone through wars and threats that make you lot look like a bunch of pansies. Personally I believe both the US and the UK can survive the occasional terrorist attack, it's a fuck sight better than giving in to them.

that let me fly with no ID. Granted I had to turn out all of my kit. Since I have replaced my ID I still get "special treatment". By the way I am white, and clean cut.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

To echo the comments, Isn't it nice when the shoe is on the other foot?

Personally, they should do this to ALL MP's, then maybe, just maybe they will realize what the ordinary peeps have to go through.

On the other hand, maybe they did it BECAUSE he was an MP?

Inquiring minds want to know :)

Personally I never go there (USA).

The scenery is beautiful in places, and the fishing can be good, but you can get good scenery lots of places, and who needs the hassle of meeting "Amerikans"?

Strange race because individually those I meet around the world seem OK, but as a nation they suck!

Look,

If you are not sane enough to avoid the US

If you are not white or even if you have a good tan

If you are not Christian

If you are not the bearer of average first name or surname (JOHN SMITH etc)

If you are not a signed up member of the Republican Party

If you are not an avid viewer of FOX News (FOX News, hehe, oxymoron's rule)

Then your gona get crap from men with guns, its what they do, so build it into your journey time before you go and then if they don't hassle you your winning.

NB:

This used to be considered a pessimists view but now its just a realists view and soon to be an optimists view.

You people don't understand, he's Muslim! That makes it OK!

We need to give policemen and other officials more arbitrary unchecked powers because we need to them to protect us from people like him.

Now before you say I'm racist, there were other factors too, his skin colour for one, then there's the silly name, 'Shahid', I mean what kind of an MP has a name like Shahid???!

People in uniforms are special see, normal people may be small minded racist and have all sorts of weird preconceptions. But as soon as they put on a uniform, all that goes! They become perfect supermen who can be totally trusted with discretionary superpowers!

Only thing I wonder is why they didn't tazer him:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071025.wtaser1026/BNStory/National/home

For some reason this sentence made me ill:

"Mr. Dziekanski arrived with three bags, two of which were filled with geography books."

"why is it everyone is so afraid of a relatively small number of extremists"

Probably because the extremists we fear are also the ones in the seats of power in Washington, DC, and London.

I fear for my nation's future because I see extremists using religion and (self-generated) terror to dismantle the freedoms guaranteed to American and British citizens, and previously upheld at great cost to our Services.

Southern Baptist, Muslim, CoE... It's all the same to me. And they can all go to Hell. I just wish they'd stop trying to take freedom to Hell with them.

Strangely enough a common name like John Smith will get you stopped on entry into the states. A friend of mine is a Bob Jones, he goes to Florida every year for a holiday and every year since 9/11 the nazis in the airport stop him and question him with the same questions for three hours, Apparently they think terrorists are all so stupid that they will automatically use a common name like John Smith or Bob Jones, A dead giveaway if you are dark skinned, wearing a turban and chatting in Arabic I think.

Still it give the rednecks something to do in between pigs. Here piggy piggy!

lol. MP eats dogfood.

"I feel the threat offered during the Cold War and even WWII was a little bit more dangerous. Notice how we didn't run and cry for our mummies, chucking away civil rights and banning bottles of water during those escapades."

Not to rain on your parade, but civil rights went pretty much out the window in both the UK and the US during WWII. Those of Germanic or Japanese ancestry were interred, the UK effectively had martial law (curfews, internal travel passes, ...) and both had compulsory acquisition orders for factories, land and any other facility needed for the war effort. Where do you think the land for all those airfields came from?

Sorry, but he's a non-white Muslim travelling to the US. How did he think he was going to get treated?!? What an idiot.

At least now he knows what many of the general public have to go through,

thanks to the government HE works for.

The terrorist have won, our rights are now gone.

Many thanks uk.gov and us.gov.

"with exquisite irony"

But that'll be lost on them, won't it..?