Slashdot Mirror
US Blocks Entry For German Black Hat Presenter
bushwhacker2000 alerts us to the dilemma of Thomas Dullien, a prominent security researcher who has been a fixture at the annual Black Hat security conference. Dullien was denied entry into the US on his way to this year's conference. Dullien, a German reverse-engineering expert known in hacker circles as "Halvar Flake," said he was blocked from entering the US on the technicality that he had (years ago) signed a contract with Black Hat as an individual, not as his company. Customs agents said he would need an H1-B visa to perform the contracted two days of training at Black Hat, and put him on the next plane back to Germany.
A passport is required to get a TOURIST visa, which does not allow you to take up residence or work. You're right, they don't want his "kind" there. That would be the illegal alien kind.
It's one thing to argue the benefits of controlling the migration of labour, but it's not rational to assume this is because he's a "hacker" [oooh spooky!]. Most of the time when I told the US customs that I was going to give talks at Toorcon [or whatever] they didn't even know what cryptography was, let alone that it was all dangerous and "against the interests of the united states government." Mostly they just asked if I was paid, once I said it was a free presentation they told me to fuck off and board my plane.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
What is that? A conspiracy theory? You know it's all his own fault.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
Hi Tom.
:-)
You are an asshole.
Take care
General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
Well, at least he got away. Luckily he wasn't sent on a plane to Gitmo. For the rest who probably should stay away for their own safety, there's always tele-conferencing. The US has become hostile terrortory. Please hold the event in Canada(maybe) next time. Or just est up a bunch of cameras and monitors in the stadium and everybody can participate safely from their homes...if they're not Americans, or probably Germans (KisMAC) as the case may be.
What?