It appears that all of those billions of dollars for Homeland Security has paid off. The Administration has nailed two Canadians on our shores and protected the nation from the Maple Leaf hoard. Jason Haist took a rather novel way to sneak into the country: he almost drowned himself. The man who tried to rescue him was also arrested. After being released from a hospital, Haist sits in own of our jails awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge.
Haist and his girlfriend left Queenston on two Jet Skis after confirming with U.S. officials that they could explore the waters near Niagara Falls so long as they did not dock. Haist, 28, however, lost control of the ski and was pulled under before various witnesses. His couisin tried to save him without success and he was pulled under. He washed on to the shore unconscious. His cousin, Edward Haist, 21, went to his side. Both were arrested, though the U.S. government was kind enough to allow Jason to be hospitalized to clear the large amount of water in his lungs.
Supervisory U.S. Border Patrol agent Jason Ciliberti insisted that this is all proper and right and sees nothing wrong with holding the men at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility until they can appear before an immigration judge: “They’re here illegally.” Well, I guess that wraps it up. After all, Jason had helped himself to all of that American water in his lungs. He is lucky that he was not charged with theft.
I am curious, however, whether Ciliberti routinely arrested airplane survivors blown off course or other criminal elements.
The men may have to wait three weeks for a hearing and the world has yet another story to use in the portrayal of the country as run by a group of circus-reject clowns.
What makes their claims more persuasive is that no rational Canadian would want to sneak into the United States. With the economy crumbling, the value of the dollar crashing, unemployment rising, and crackdown on civil liberties, you would have to be unconscious to want to wash up on this side of the border.
For the full story, click here.
Sad but true indeed. However, waterboarding is the only job that the Bush Administration refuses to allow to be outsourced to foreign suppliers. For good American waterboarding, you need a board, water, and a good American.
US officials should be grateful to this Canadian. I mean we Canucks have a well-earned reputation for our politeness, but to have waterboarded himself pre-emptively, saving authorities the trouble? That is going above and beyond.
Jill: gives new meaning to the term “photo shoot”, doesn’t it?!
As for the poor Canadian guy, good grief! Agree with everyone who said this makes us look like morons on steroids. But it does give me an idea, though. With universal health care and the relative strength of the Canadian dollar, I wouldn’t mind trying to “drown” in Canada! Think they’d let me in?
Obama-sama,
You’re right about the need for carrots. This film, “Stranger with a Camera” was at a documentary film festival in appalachia. Here’s the story:
“A Canadian filmmaker, in Kentucky to reveal the shocking poverty of Appalachia to the outside world, asks a tired coal miner for permission to film him dozing on his front porch at the end of the day. In the middle of the shoot, the man’s landlord drives up, tells the crew to get the hell off his land, and starts shooting. As the crew hustles back to its car with heavy equipment in tow, the director is shot though the chest, collapses and dies.
I do not question their authority to demand compliance. Merely pointing out the adage about carrots and sticks.
And while I agree with raff in spirit, I would like to point out that astronomers of all flavors (including radio astronomy) face less challenge of Bush Inc. censorship than they do from general lack of funding. Look at how woefully underfunded projects like NEAR are and how great the potential benefits. Rarely can we divert natural disaster, but NEAR is a chance to do just that – possibly avoid a global catastrophe. Unless you like the idea of a large asteroid strike. Not my cup of tea. My perception is that it’s the environmental and biological sciences that are seeing the most malodorous interference from the Flying Monkeys. Global warming. The FDA’s failures in food safety systems and their capitulation to insufficient or biased drug testing before market approval for big pharma’s latest expensive to develop concoctions are unleashed upon the public. Embryonic stem cell research. Those are the sciences that seem to be most at risk from bad science at the hands of politicians. The NSF and the scientists they sponsor still do some good work (often with a pittance of a budget) despite the Luddites in office.
They have a right to demand it but as there ain’t been no killin’s I’m guessing they ask nicely! And I agree, this isn’t the coast guard arresting people for drowning, (although I don’t think it’s just for science either as over the next ridge are some “military” listening posts).
rafflaw,
You’re right about that!
Good Science from a Bush led government is impossible.
Jill,
Do you know if the Feds asked or demanded that repairs be made?
Asking is good science, polite and not intrusive. Most citizens would not feel compelled to do anything, but most would probably comply anyway. It’s not like they are asking you to fix your toaster because it interferes with the shock collars at a detention camp. It’s to help a passive science experiment that brings jobs, money and prestige to a remote area.
Demanding, while also good science, is impolite and oppressive unless the government intends to compensate the existing property holders in the area for the expenses they may incur in complying with the demands of the Feds. This tactic would not surprise me either considering how the Federal government has been operating recently. And knowing some hillbillies, that tactic could really backfire.
On the other hand–What business do the feds have telling any hillbilly to repair the junk at their house?
I have to share what I learned last night concerning slightly malfunctioning toasters, microwave ovens, hair dryers, hillbillies and the FEDS at the:
Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (you guess the state)
This is a really cool place with a very large radio telescope. It’s so sensitive that federal agents have shown up at people’s houses within a 10 mile radius of the it to tell them to fix their toasters etc. so not to interfere with the operation of said scope.
Being of appalachian origin myself I have some sympathy for knocking on the doors of isolated homes in WVA. There have been no killin’s (at least none publically acknowledged).
http://www.gb.nrao.edu/gbt/
Simply ridiculous.
CMM,
The border guards already know that “we don’t torture”!
They probably could have gotten off with a warning if they told the Border guards that they were just practicing their waterboarding techniques.
He was a WMD — Wet Man Drowning.
This is one more example how the Department of Homeland Security is worthless. How much time and money are we going to waste bringing a guy in front of a partisan, Monica Goodling picked immigration judge because he made the mistake of losing control of his jet ski and almost drowning. The next thing we will hear is that he was carrying a WMD!
forget your something this AM?
So they arrested the dead guy and the guy who almost died trying to save his cousin?
I don’t even know where to begin.
The guys dead, the other guy almost dies, and they obviously weren’t trying to come to America so why would someone supposedly “trained” in his job arrest them and toss them into a cell?
Besides, doesn’t the US have an open border policy with Canada? Can’t Canadian day tourists just drive across the border whenever they want just by going through the border entrance?
Are there some hostile relations with Canada that I am not aware of?
Is there some influx of Canadians smuggling themselves into the country looking for work that Lou Dobbs is not aware of?
Can someone explain to me where Mr Ciliberti’s “training” fell short to make him think that the way to console someone who just watched a family member drown is to arrest them and hold them?
And finally, who the hell is raising people like Mr Ciliberti, who are so mind numbingly ignorant, that they’d arrest people for drowning?
And it can’t be just mr Ciliberti.
SOMEONE is over him, who is doing nothing about this as we speak.
We look like a Monkey f$#king a football, and the Canadian government should demand the return of the survivor and publicly chastise the US for acting like a Communist state.
If they were willing to pick fruit or work construction (off the books) they would have been allowed to stay.
“and the world has yet another story to use in the portrayal of the country as run by a group of circus-reject clowns.
What makes their claims more persuasive is that no rational Canadian would want to sneak into the United States. With the economy crumbling, the value of the dollar crashing, unemployment rising, and crackdown on civil liberties, you would have to be unconscious to want to wash up on this side of the border.”
DO TELL!
“Amy Goodman & Two Democracy Now! Producers Arrested at RNC Protest”
More than 280 people were arrested here in St. Paul Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Among them were several journalists covering the protests in the streets, including three of us at Democracy Now! Amy was detained trying to question police officers about the arrests of Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.
….
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/2/amy_goodman_two_democracy_now_producers
In all fairness, they could have been smuggling hockey pucks and Canadian bacon past the border to avoid paying duty.