Je Accuse in the Paranoid States of America by
Captain Paul Watson
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 13:17:47 -0800
Je Accuse in the Paranoid States of America
by Captain Paul Watson
On the morning of Friday, February 10th, I was
returning from Vancouver, British Columbia. I had to
go north to extend my passport the day before. Being a
resident of the United States I had previously gone to
the Canadian Consulate in Seattle or Los Angeles to do
so. However this month, the rules have changed and
Canada no longer issues or extends Canadian passports
outside of Canada.
I had gotten my passport renewed a year ago in
Seattle but because my birth certificate was
laminated, it was issued only for a year until I could
produce a non-laminated birth certificate. This was
not so easily done as my first application to the
Province of Ontario's Registrar General was lost and
my second application took six months to be processed.
I had used the laminated birth certificate for
passport renewal for the last twenty years but the
Consulate General told me that Osama Bin Ladin was
responsible for changing the rules.
It appears that Osama has changed quite a few
rules and has been the catalyst for diminished
freedoms and increased violations of human rights.
What would have been unthinkable pre-September 11th,
2001 is now the norm
So with my passport successfully extended at a
cost of $84 in addition to the $84 I paid a year ago,
I spent the night in Vancouver and headed south to the
border bright and early the next morning.
There was not much of a line up and I was hopeful
of breezing through and making the ferry to Friday
Harbor.
I handed my passport and resident alien card to
the Homeland Security Officer. He asked me why I had
been in Canada and I answered that I had to come north
to extend my passport. He then entered my passport
number into his computer. I saw his eyes widen and his
hand went to his gun. He quickly stepped out of the
booth and ran to the back of the truck and ducked
behind a concrete barrier. Suddenly additional
Homeland Security agents appeared, all of them taking
up positions behind concrete blocks as they crouched
down and leveled their guns straight at me.
There were at least seven guns aimed at my head as
the first officer I encountered yelled. "Toss your
keys out the window."
I did so.
He then barked, "put both your hands out the
window."
I did so.
"Now," he continued. "Take your right hand and
bring it back in and open the door and step out of the
truck.
I did so.
"Turn around, face the front and place your hands
over your head. Now!"
I did so.
It was very surreal to see these uniformed men
crouching down with their handguns leveled at my head.
It certainly left no room for argument or protest.
"Bring your right hand down behind your back."
I did so.
"Now bring your left hand down behind your back."
I did so.
"Spread your legs apart."
I did so.
"Wider."
Suddenly I felt the cold steel of handcuffs on my
right wrist and heard the click as they seized me.
I was violently pushed towards the door of the
Border office.
"Look, I said, this has happened to me before.
Just run the passport and I'll be cleared."
They pushed me into a room and emptied my pockets,
felt for weapons and an officer actually felt my anus
through my pants.
They unlocked the cuffs.
"Guys, look, I always get flagged for secondary.
I'm an environmentalist."
I told them that I had already had similar
incidents with guns being drawn, handcuffed and
interrogated at the Detroit border crossing in
September 2005 and at the Niagara Falls border
crossing in 2003.
In Detroit they held me for four hours and woke up
a special agent to come interrogate me. While waiting
one officer, when he found out I was a director of the
Sierra Club, informed me as fact that the Sierra Club
was a subversive organization.He spent some time
browsing through my book Ocean Warrior and told me
that he was worried about my potential for violence
because I had written about shooting a boy in the butt
with a bb gun when I was 12 because he was about to
shoot a bird. One of the officers at Blaine
laughed and said, "Hell, I did that."
After that they were all very friendly and
explained that they were following procedure and
promised to have my record updated. Of course they had
promised me that in Detroit and Niagara Fall also so I
was not to hopeful.
I do know why I am tagged. Two reasons actually.
Way back in 1977, I was arrested for trespassing
during an anti-nuclear protest in Washington State. I
was convicted but the case was appealed and the
charges were dismissed. Apparently there is no record
of the dismissal in the computer, just the arrest and
the conviction. For this reason I have to carry a
letter in my passport from the Federal Court in
Seattle with a copy of the dismissal order. I have to
produce this letter whenever asked at the border.
The other reason is that back in 2001 we had
transported a ton of equipment and supplies to the
Costa Rican National Park rangers at Cocos Island.
Included in these supplies were 14 rifles. I had gone
through the proper and legal channels to take on the
rifles and when the ship stopped in St. Lucia, I
declared them as stipulated by St. Lucian law. The St.
Lucian Custom officials removed the rifles as is their
policy. When I left St. Lucia with the ship, the
rifles were returned. When we unloaded the rifles at
Cocos Island we were given a receipt for the donation.
Everything was above board and completely legal.
However when we were in St. Lucia we had
documented the killing of a whale in Castries harbour
and the photograph was published worldwide much to the
embarrassment of the St. Lucian government.
They retaliated by reporting to the United States
that I was smuggling guns. Why they thought this was
the business of the United States is interesting
because our ship was registered under the British flag
and I am a Canadian.
So in September 2002, When I was clearing Customs
in Long Beach, California, I was approached by six
Customs officers and escorted to a room and
questioned. I answered their questions and referred to
the proper channels that I had gone through including
the legal declaration of the weapons in St. Lucia.
"What laws have I broken?" I asked.
"None," they answered. "We are viewing you as a
person of interest."
And so I have been flagged by Homeland Security as
a "person of interest."
I am allowed to live in the United States and I am
free to come and go but each time I arrive at an
airport I am directed to a room where I sit for an
hour or two, or sometimes three. No one asks me any
questions and usually after missing a plane
connection, I am handed my passport back with a
friendly, "Thank-you for your cooperation Sir, you are
free to go."
Not that I had any choice but to cooperate.
When this first started I asked a Homeland
Security agent just why they were doing this to me.
She answered that anyone with a criminal record is
automatically sent to Secondary.
"But I don't have a criminal record." I answered.
"Sir," she replied. You were arrested in August
1977 on a trespass charge in Washington State."
"Yes I was," I replied. And I was acquitted."
She looked at me and said, "Sir if you've been
arrested in this country you have a criminal record."
I was stunned to discover that since 9-11, the
mere fact that a person has been arrested on any
charge is grounds for having a criminal record. This
completely overturns the concept of innocence until
proven guilty. Arrest is now evidence of guilt and
grounds for suspicion.
It is a strange new world in Post 9-11 America.
Stranger still that so many people have unquestionally
accepted this new order.
It reminds me of the words of President Franklin
D. Roosevelt when he said that "we have nothing to
fear except fear itself."
Today, the Bush Administration is playing fear as
a weapon and an excuse to undermine freedom in America
in the name of freedom.
Osama Bin Laden and his band of fanatic
superstious wackos has succeeded in completely
transforming America from a land of liberty to a land
of paranoid tyranny.
I am sure that I will be regarded with more
"interest" for this article but I happen to believe in
the old America, the land of freedom, tolerance,
liberty and opportunity where a person was judged by
their actions and their ability, and not by accusation
and suspicion.
Perhaps we may see the day when freedom is once
again restored to America. Such a day will only happen
however when people once again listen to the words of
Franklin Roosevelt and reject the fear-mongering
posturing that has replaced legitimate and responsible
governance in the United States.
Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President - Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society
Director - Sierra Club USA
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - Atlantic Grey Whale Society
President - Oceanic Research and Conservation Action
Force
P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
Tel: 360-370-5650 Cell: 310-701-3096
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: www.Seashepherd.org
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