U.S. Government Bars NSA Critic From Entering Country

The European press is reporting that German-Bulgarian writer and activist Ilija Trojanow, an outspoken critic of the NSA's surveillance activities, was barred from entering the country to appear before a literary conference in Denver where he was invited to speak. “It is more than ironic if an author who raises his voice against the dangers of surveillance and the secret state within a state for years, will be denied entry into the ‘land of the brave and the free," Trojanow was quoted as saying in response to a decision by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to deny his entry into the U.S. Trojanow was offered no explanation by U.S. officials for denying his entry.

The story is getting a lot of play in Europe, particularly in Germany where great outrage is being expressed. Naturally, the state-controlled media in the U.S. is virtually silent. The U.S. freely allows people to travel to the United States from countries that have been the source of terrorism around the world, and it makes little effort to control millions of undocumented aliens from pouring across our borders. Yet it denies entry to someone who, like many Americans, are disturbed by the growing and pervasive surveillance activities of our NSA and isn't afraid to say so? This is the kind of action one would expect from government officials in the former Soviet Union or China, not the United States of America.

Hat tip to Jonathan Turley.