[Vacancier Permanent]

Great thread HC! Lots of good info in here.

I have a biz trip to Phoenix next month and I'm already getting worried about the warm reception from the TSA. How are the TSA's in PHX?

I am usually a calm, cool and poised guy who answers questions politely to custom officers and they've always been good to me too. At least polite. I haven't had any of the nightmarish stuff that one would read here and there. The worst I got was a few years ago when flying to Fortaleza via Miami, at the Toronto Airport, when clearing US Customs, BEFORE getting on the plane to Miamo, I was taken to a room with a dozen other guys and was questioned for a few minutes, they took my finger print and picture. After that, they let me go after abotu 10 minutes. But gotta admit, it was a tense situation as I was dreading the fact that I could miss my flight because of that. Fortunately I was able to get on my flight no problem.

Even tough I have nothing to hide, no criminal record and am well poised, I always dread the experience of going through customs each time I return to Canada and or when passing through the US. I get all nervous and start sweating for no reason. In all situations, I've been polite and answered the questions of the custom officer and was released within 2-3 minutes.

Btw, I miss Mixx's posts. He is a cool guy with a wealth of knowledge both on Colombia and game. He could have been one of the pillars of this forum. Too bad his over blown ego got on the way.

[Sp5]

Don't get me started. It pisses me off that entering my own country is the least friendly and most hassle of anywhere I've been. Some witch shouting at everyone not to use your cellphone while in line, etc.

Since my passport is full of Middle east stamps and visas with extra pages, I always get asked, even though I breeze through everywhere else in the world. They get all excited when they see my destinations, like "we got us a potential terrorist, here," even though I'm a late middle age white guy. A friend of mine who is a rock-solid Republican banker in his 60s got detained in secondary interrogation for two hours because he was in Afghanistan - working on a USG contract!! That opened his eyes.

I did formally complain once, because they asked if I had a security clearance, and then they wanted to look at my laptop. This was before Manning and Snowden. But still, WTF? You have been entrusted, so we can't trust you? Since I made a formal complaint, there has been less hassle, but they still want to see my work IDs when I go back. I helped an Iraqi-American who had a Secret security clearance file and complaint and write a letter to his congressman - they were holding every plane he was on from debarking until they had CBP agents at the door to escort him to secondary inspection. And he was coming back to the USA on R&R from working for the USG in Iraq!!