By Carlos Miller
Michael Yon, a popular war blogger and former Green Beret, was handcuffed and detained this week at Seattle’s airport when he refused to disclose his salary to federal agents.
Yon told the Custom and Border Patrol Agents that his salary had nothing to do with national security.
He also refused to tell them for whom he was working, which prompted them to lead him into a back room for further questioning.
The following is according to Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government blog, who claims they had an exclusive interview with him:
According to Yon, “they handcuffed me for failing to cooperate. They said I was impeding their ability to do their job.”
Yon described the CBP officials as noticeably frustrated by his refusal to answer their questions: “I always assume everything is being recorded. I was trying to be professional.”
Yon continued, “They said I wasn’t under arrest, but I’m handcuffed. In any other country, that qualifies as an arrest.”
He was eventually released by Port Authority Police, but now the incident has created a political fray between conservative and liberal pundits over who is to blame.
It was just over a year ago when Yon criticized Homeland Security officials for coercing a female friend into giving them her password to her email account, which showed correspondences between Yon and his friend.
The latest incident comes on the heels of an incident in which the Transportation Security Administration served subpoenas on two travel bloggers in an attempt to find out who leaked a security directive to them.
Blogger Chris Elliot refused to cooperate and the subpoena was withdrawn. But travel blogger Steven Frischling complied with the request. Agents ended up destroying his laptop. It is not clear if they will compensate him for the broken computer.
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
was he maybe wearing a turban, male aged 17-35, bearded, from the middle east, screaming bullshit about allah? no? oh, then i have no idea…
Who cares what he was saying, unless he was a threat (actual not perceived), then he did nothing wrong. He is right, his salary and employer have nothing to do with security.
Epic Fail guys.
In October of 2006 a Customs agent asked me what I did for a living and I told her I worked at Wal-Mart. She asked me if Wal-Mart said I could come to the U.S. and asked for the store’s number. I gave it to her, but she never called.
Yet I don’t know why she bothered to ask. Is anyone really going to say “I’m from Al Quada and I’m here to attack America”?
TSA isn’t government is it? He should sue for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. even if they are government, nothing says you have to answer questions to any authority. in fact, the fifth amendment guarantees protections from having to answer questions.
Carlos, as much as i love your blog and the first amendment, it seems as though a lot of people need a refresher course on the fourth and fifth amendments.
4th: without substantial reason or cause you cannot be detained for an extended period of time; nor can you be searched without consent.
5th: No person shall be compelled to be a witness against themselves; this amendment is the reason we have the “Miranda Warning.”
A guy on terror watch lists can light a crotch full of PETN on fire before anyone pays him any notice, but who do they catch? The guy who dares to think his personal income is private information.
Again, this is why I’m not flying to the USA, period. Or driving there.
They can just merge the TSA with the IRS.
Cops are trained to ask employment information. If you give them the least resistance they will call your employer and plead with them to terminate you. Sadly many employers comply as they respect law enforcement. Without income most people cannot afford legal counsel and end up pleading guilty to something they didn’t do. What’s pathetic here is he did nothing wrong in the first place to warrant this. In my case the cops were mad about a website I created that lampooned city hall. Eventually they did get me fired after two years of trying. Cops never give up, they just retire eventually. I left that state and have been cop free for ten years now.
Aha, something I can maybe shed a little light on – today I passed through a Customs and Border Patrol checkpoint at Philly Int’l, returning from a warm and sunny place down south. And, a friend of mine is an immigration attorney.
Prior to my trip, I searched for info on CBP, and came up with ACLU’s “Know Your Rights” pamphlet, which is a very slim bit of info, when it comes to CBP.
It says that CBP are allowed to question you, citizen or not. It’s unclear whether citizens have the legal right to not answer those questions (as we do with nearly all other types of LEOs) — but the pamphlet also says you have the right to have an attorney present (*only* if you’re a citizen.)
My friend the attorney says that CBP can basically ask you anything. I didn’t think to ask what would happen if you refused to answer (I’ll send her this page’s link, in the hopes that she can speculate as to what went wrong with the war blogger’s CBP encounter.)
My experience today: CBP asked me what I do for a living (decent job), where I work (well-known news org), what I did on my trip (relax/destress), and whether I visited the major city nearby my vacation location (no.) As I always try to be with LEOs, I was courteous, cheerful, and told them what they wanted to hear (not necessarily the entire truth.)
It was over in about a minute, which kind of surprised me, given that I probably look like a dope smuggler AND a terrorist, with long hair (and seven-day beard growth.) Attitude has something to do with it, I feel. The fact that I’m white may also factor into their decisionmaking.