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US Customs Destroys Virtuoso's Flutes Because They Were "Agricultural Items"
McGruber writes "Flute virtuoso Boujemaa Razgui performed on a variety of flutes, each made by himself over years for specific types of ancient and modern performance. Razgui has performed with many U.S. ensembles and is a regular guest with the diverse and enterprising Boston Camerata. Last week, Razgui flew from Morocco to Boston, with stops in Madrid and New York. In New York, he says, a US Customs official opened his luggage and found the 13 flutelike instruments — 11 nays and two kawalas. Razgui says he had made all of the instruments using hard-to-find reeds. 'They said this is an agriculture item,' said Razgui, who was not present when his bag was opened. 'I fly with them in and out all the time and this is the first time there has been a problem. This is my life.' When his baggage arrived in Boston, the instruments were gone. He was instead given a number to call. 'They told me they were destroyed,' he says. 'Nobody talked to me. They said I have to write a letter to the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. This is horrible. I don't know what to do. I've never written letters to people.'"
The Gestapo and STASI only wished they had the ability to do what the NSA does.
This is not even the first time this has happened. There have been a small but published number of other instances of musical instruments being destroyed without appeal. It is a flaw in the TSA`s procedures and a problem with how its authority is structured. If they were law enforcement they could not simply destroy things, but they are not.
The bigger concern is that nearly all non-digital musical instruments (and some digital instruments) contain agricultural products by such a loose definition. Almost every oboe, clarinet, stringed instrument, etc. worth more than a hundred bucks is made out of wood. Even brass instruments and metal woodwinds (e.g. saxes and flutes) use cork for pads, for stops on keys, for tunable joints, for the ring at the top of trumpet valves, for water key/spit valve corks, and so on (though in some cases, it may be a synthetic cork). Even the felt used in various parts of the instrument may be made from agricultural products.
What this effectively means is that the United States government has declared all musical instruments to be illegal contraband that may not be transported into the United States. Musicians around the world would be advised to avoid travel to the United States and its territories for any reason, or if you cannot avoid travel to this country, arrange to rent an instrument after you get here. It simply is no longer safe to carry your own instruments across the borders of this country until Congress passes a law explicitly forbidding these acts of grand theft.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
In most U.S. ports, it's not Customs that makes the decision to inspect, it's actually ICE.
In the olden days, back when I worked as a contractor for Customs, entry into the U.S. went like this:
1. You went to Immigration Control first. Pre-ICE (US Immigration Control) checked your passport and entry form, OK'd you to enter, and then you reclaimed your baggage (whether you were traveling onwards or not).
2. You then had to clear Customs, which looked at your itinerary (e.g where you'd been), your bags (i.e were they bulging, smelly, etc.) and your face and non-verbal cues to determine if you warranted a further inspection. If you did have something questionable, there were actually expert (!!!) customs agents available to determine compliance.
Today, it goes like this:
1. You go to Immigration (ICE) first. Based on your facial expressions, non-verbal cues, and passport history, they determine if (1) you're OK to re-enter the US, and (2) if you need further "assistance" with customs. They make a mark on your entry form, which you later turn in to a customs agent, to indicate if you should be further "assisted". The decision regarding inspection and possible seizure of goods is left almost entirely with ICE, who specialize not in Customs enforcement but Border Control.
2. You move on to Customs Enforcement, which looks at your ICE-noted entry form and either inspects, detains, seizes, or lets you go based on ICE notes on your entry form. If ICE didn't mark your entry form for further scrutiny, you move through Customs very quickly.
The reason for the change? Efficiency. Most people re-entering the US don't need any re-entry assistance, and Customs agents are otherwise very busy. Giving ICE the job of determining 90% of Customs work saves time for travelers and money for the government. But the downside is that most ICE agents aren't trained to sniff out the difference between a guy with handcrafted musical instruments made of foreign raw materials from a guy bringing foreign raw materials into the US with the intent of defeating embargoes and/or tariffs.
The point is, it's not Customs that are dim, it's ICE... and as long as it saves most travelers some time at the desk, it probably won't change.
-- "In order to have power, I must be taken seriously." -Mojo Jojo
There was a well known case of an innocent Canadian who was on a flight connecting through New York City who was seized at the airport and rendered to Syria where he was tortured. He was apparently targetted because he was mentioned as a refernce on an apartment application of someone under suspicion. No one really knows how many other people have been rendered out of the U.S., you only know if they are released at some point and speak out.
There have been well publicized cases in Italy and Germany. A number of CIA agents were tried and convicted in absentia by Italy for kidnapping because they rendered someone off the streets of Italy consulting the Italians.
There was a person rendered from Europe who had the same name as a suspected Islamist, but he was completely innocent and was completely disappeared for months, his family didn't know what happened to him, until the mistake was discovered months later and he was released.
One of the three U.S. citizens executed by drone was Anwar Awliki's son. There is no evidence he ever had anything to do with Al Qaede. He was 16 years old, though at the time he was killed the U.S. claimed he was 21. The U.S. claimed they were targeted someone else from Al Qaeda when they killed him but that person was no where near the drone stoke. The boy was at an outdoor barbecue with cousins when he and all the innocent people around him were killed by a drone strike. They were disappeared in a way, they were turned in to small peices of meat and bone and were buried in a communal grave because they couldn't be identified.
Early in the dirty war in Yeme the U.S. didn't have enough drones so they used cruise missiles from a submarine loaded with cluster bombs to level a village. There may have been one suspected Al Qaeda affiliate in the village, but thats not even certain, nearly everyone killed were innocent bystanders, many women and children.
The dirty wars are certainly killing a lot of Al Qaeda affiliates. They are almost certainly killing a larger number of innocent civilians which will fuel new generations to hate America.
@de_machina
I have a second cousin who plays with a big name orchestra in Denmark or somewhere, (upright bass) Anyways, he, and most other big time orchestral music people say that If you travel with your instrument, you buy a seat for yourself, and one for your instrument, and it comes on the plane with you. NEVER trust it to baggage handlers, or any other person you can't see. It never leaves your line of sight. (like the article says, that object is your living, it is your life, treat it as such.)
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
There is another great story from Scahill's book that shows how flimsy and flawed the intelligence JSOC has been using to execute people is.
An informant apparently figured out he could finger just about anyone and JSOC would sweep in and kill them without even minimaly checking the intelligence. He told JSOC there were Al Qaeda or Taliban at a certain compound. In reality people there were a police commander and his family there. He wactually worked with the U.S. and was having a christening party with music(which should have been the first tip it wasn't Taliban or Al Qaeda since they shun music).
JSOC swept in, shooting first and not asking questions later. The police commander and another man were shot when they stepped out and tried to tell the people with night vision and lasers they were in the wrong place.
Three women then stepped out to try to help the two men and they were shot. About this time JSOC figured out they'd made a mistake. They dug their bullets out of the women with their knives while they were still alive. The official line from NATO for several days was the two dead men had stabbed the women as part of an honor killing and JSOC killed the men to protect the women. This lie quickly unraveled when journalists started investigating. Eventually the JSOC commander, McRaven, had to come to the family beg forgiveness, slaughter a sheep and buy them off with cash.
The basic point here is once you start extrajudicial killings based on often flawed intelligence, and you are accountable to no one, you can literally get away with murdering just about anyone, anywhere and there is next to nothing anyone can do about it. The main failure in this case is they failed to keep journalists away from the victims. They also probably should have used a drone strike since all they leave behind are small peices of meat so its often hard to tell what happened or even who was killed.
@de_machina
I've had an account at /. for over 15 years; you don't even have an account. So shut the fuck up and go to Techdirt if you don't like it. /. has never been solely about "science and technology". It's always had a very strong political part to it, and this cock up at US Customs plays to that part of the site.
Don't like it? Too bad, we won't miss you.
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