March 19, 2007

Canadian Student Detained by U.S. Border Officials, Who Confiscate His Laptop

A Canadian student says he might lose credit for this academic year after American officials confiscated his laptop computer, which contained all his work, when he attempted to enter the United States last week, according to The Chronicle Journal, a newspaper in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The student, Mahmoud Zeitoun, an engineering major and president of the Muslim Student Association at Lakehead University, says he was detained for 12 hours at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport en route to Denver with his dentist and her assistant. Mr. Zeitoun, who was born in Lebanon but has Canadian citizenship, was to play the part of the dentist’s patient in a professional examination that would qualify her to practice in the United States. He said that he was interrogated during his 12-hour detention about whether he had ties to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, among other questions.

Last year the United States government introduced new policies to make foreign visitors, including students and visiting academics, more welcome. But some foreign scholars, invited to visit American campuses, have received rebuffs, not welcomes, from U.S. authorities.

Comments

1. And, with strict Canadian privacy laws being implemented in many Canadian provinces, this portends an ever-deepening chill in the North American academic relationship. I have heard that Nova Scotia will impose severe fines on an individual as well as his or her institution if personal data is ever compromised by an action like the one described here. The implications for carrying research data across the border are profound. The American paranoia knows no bounds, it seems.

   — Eric Kristensen    Mar 20, 04:31 PM    #

2. Why did you miss all the torture I have been exposed to? why did you miss posting all the threats they threatened me? why did you not tell them how long they left me with no food nor rest? why dont you tell the people how terrorising some officers were on the US borders? How about the idea of peace and justice infront of the law to respect each individual. How about the terrifing moments and the rudeness and opression. Is that “Securty measurements” too? Some officers where in human, they never cared, never had feelings, they were very aggressive, very angry at me, as if I did something to them? I do ask my government to act justly upon what happened and defend my rights that were violated by both US border officers. Oh and the first when they scanned my laptop and found nothing, shouldn’t they have let me go? why keep me suffer for lnger hours and torture me? Thank you. Peace be with those of peace and justice and shame be with those torturing and opressing inhuman.

   — Mahmoud Zeitoun    Mar 20, 05:39 PM    #

3. The whole thing seems to be one account of what is happening around the United States and possibly in other countries. I believe this goes against everything that academia is trying to gain with other countries (peace, knowlegde and such), by having students detained for long hours and questioned that they detainees probably knew that he wouldn’t know what they asking (the Lebonese terriost group). This is showing that even though the policies are working, they are getting out of control.

   — Elysia Taber    Mar 20, 08:12 PM    #

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