It sounds like it was paid for by the Swedish government:
Sweden paid for a private jet to fly him to Portland five years after he left.
I'd assume the "no fly list" isn't going to apply to requests from other governments to transport US citizens. I don't think the US is worried about friendly European governments shipping terrorists into the US on private planes.
That is not the case. Flights that don't even intend to land in the US can't enter the airspace of the US if they have someone on board that is a member of the no-fly list.
My theory is that someone in a diplomatic role in Sweden called in a couple favors to handle this. Since his request for asylum in Sweden was denied his visa there was likely to expire soon.
Both TSA officials and FBI Terrorist Screening Center director Timothy Healy confirmed to ABC News last week that the effort to keep U.S. airspace off-limits to terror suspects has not included vetting the passengers and pilots on large private jets such as the one owned by Chagoury, which he has used to shuttle between Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and Europe.
I'd suspect there are similar loopholes for private jets chartered by friendly governments. But you may be right and someone in the Swedish government called in a favor.
Sadly I don't think I can say that it's definitely not true, but this is mostly speculation. UAE could have easily just gotten a memo from the FBI about a terrorism suspect and they decided on their lonesome to torture him.
There are only 500 U.S. citizens on the no fly list, it doesn't appear like it is being used a weapon of coercion on a wide scale.
The US has to share that sort of terrorism suspect list in order to get other countries lists and to make connections.
That said, I'm not sure how the fuck the No-Fly list has survived so long. It is boldly unconstitutional.
Sadly I don't think I can say that it's definitely not true, but this is mostly speculation. UAE could have easily just gotten a memo from the FBI about a terrorism suspect and they decided on their lonesome to torture him.
True. It's perfectly plausible the FBI would outsource their dirty work in a deniable manner, but equally plausible the UAE would be highly motivated to take extreme measures in interrogating someone circumstantially linked to terrorism entirely of their own accord. Arguably the interrogator volunteering the US and UAE are definitely working together is better evidence for the latter than the former.
Either way the beatings actually add to the suspicion that the approach - joined up or otherwise - was governed more by a "just because we don't have any evidence of your guilt doesn't mean we believe you're innocent" attitude than "we really badly want you to work for us"
"There are only 500 U.S. citizens on the no fly list, it doesn't appear like it is being used a weapon of coercion on a wide scale."
Well, we can only speculate as to the extent that this list is being used to "intimidate" individuals. Just because there are only 500 on the list, does not mean it hasn't be threatened upon countless other individuals.
It doesn't even have to be directed at you for you to be scared of it. Heck, I'm even scared that some day some random asshole with the same name as me will do something stupid and get himself on that damn list; and I haven't even done anything wrong. I think you'll find a few news articles online about people being harassed because their name hits against the list.
I guess that brings me to the third point. There are 500 unique names on that list, as I'm under the impression that all that list has is name+surname. Unless they include other details, odds are there are many more than 500 individuals that those names match against.
Sure most people can't afford charter jets for day-to-day use, but for an average middle-class person, if you had to make a choice between chartering a jet and never going home again, you'd probably find a way.
Bit of a misnomer then, isn't it? Does that mean those on the no-fly list are just flat-out not allowed to cross borders, whether they're inside the US or not?
Depends on how devoutly religious he is... I could see any number people of catholic, jewish, etc. faith enduring torture vs spying on their own church.
Comments
This sucks, and what sucks more is that I assume it's true.
Also, what's the point of putting people on the no-fly list if they can take a private charter jet and get in anyways?
To intimidate citizens. What do you think?
Because no one creates laws that might inconvenience the kind of people that can afford private charter jets from other countries.
It sounds like it was paid for by the Swedish government:
I'd assume the "no fly list" isn't going to apply to requests from other governments to transport US citizens. I don't think the US is worried about friendly European governments shipping terrorists into the US on private planes.
That is not the case. Flights that don't even intend to land in the US can't enter the airspace of the US if they have someone on board that is a member of the no-fly list.
My theory is that someone in a diplomatic role in Sweden called in a couple favors to handle this. Since his request for asylum in Sweden was denied his visa there was likely to expire soon.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/terrorism-loophole-fly-list/st...
I'd suspect there are similar loopholes for private jets chartered by friendly governments. But you may be right and someone in the Swedish government called in a favor.
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Not strange if you consider that the no-fly status was really an intimidation tactic.
Sadly I don't think I can say that it's definitely not true, but this is mostly speculation. UAE could have easily just gotten a memo from the FBI about a terrorism suspect and they decided on their lonesome to torture him.
There are only 500 U.S. citizens on the no fly list, it doesn't appear like it is being used a weapon of coercion on a wide scale.
The US has to share that sort of terrorism suspect list in order to get other countries lists and to make connections.
That said, I'm not sure how the fuck the No-Fly list has survived so long. It is boldly unconstitutional.
Do you have a source on the number of U.S. citizens on the no fly list?
I see a report from 2012 which cites 500 Americans, out of a total 21,000 (https://www.aclu.org/national-security/factsheet-aclus-chall...), and a report from 2014 which cites 47,000 total (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/05/watch-commande...), so I would assume the number of U.S. citizens on the no fly list is at least double the figure you list.
According to the end of CITIZENFOUR, 1.5 million Americans are on various stages of the federal terrorist watch list.
Wow, those numbers are way larger than 500. Kind of makes my points above (your post's sibling) quite a fair bit more scary.
True. It's perfectly plausible the FBI would outsource their dirty work in a deniable manner, but equally plausible the UAE would be highly motivated to take extreme measures in interrogating someone circumstantially linked to terrorism entirely of their own accord. Arguably the interrogator volunteering the US and UAE are definitely working together is better evidence for the latter than the former.
Either way the beatings actually add to the suspicion that the approach - joined up or otherwise - was governed more by a "just because we don't have any evidence of your guilt doesn't mean we believe you're innocent" attitude than "we really badly want you to work for us"
Well, we can only speculate as to the extent that this list is being used to "intimidate" individuals. Just because there are only 500 on the list, does not mean it hasn't be threatened upon countless other individuals.
It doesn't even have to be directed at you for you to be scared of it. Heck, I'm even scared that some day some random asshole with the same name as me will do something stupid and get himself on that damn list; and I haven't even done anything wrong. I think you'll find a few news articles online about people being harassed because their name hits against the list.
I guess that brings me to the third point. There are 500 unique names on that list, as I'm under the impression that all that list has is name+surname. Unless they include other details, odds are there are many more than 500 individuals that those names match against.
Most people can't afford charter jets
Sure most people can't afford charter jets for day-to-day use, but for an average middle-class person, if you had to make a choice between chartering a jet and never going home again, you'd probably find a way.
I'd look for a ship before I looked for a private jet.
The no fly list is also checked at other border crossings (ships, trains, border crossings) as well.
Bit of a misnomer then, isn't it? Does that mean those on the no-fly list are just flat-out not allowed to cross borders, whether they're inside the US or not?
Really. Who needs to fly to enter a country?
Home is subjective.
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Depends on how devoutly religious he is... I could see any number people of catholic, jewish, etc. faith enduring torture vs spying on their own church.