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US Customs Are Idiots Case #4302: Mo Farah held on terrorist suspicions

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D

Delusibeta

Banned
Farah, who won a 5,000m and 10,000m double at London 2012, was detained for questioning after the US border force saw he was born in Somalia.

The 29 year-old came over to Britain with his English-born father as a child and is one of the most famous athletes in the world, but this did not stop judicious officials from grilling him at the border. Farah moved to Portland last year to work with his coach Alberto Salazar at Nike's HQ in the Pacific Northwest and was travelling back to spend Christmas with his wife and children. And even presenting his two gold medals to the officials did not help his cause. "I couldn’t believe it. Because of my Somali origin I get detained every time I come through US Customs. This time I even got my medals out to show who I am, but they wouldn’t have it," he told the Sun.

This is not the first of Farah's run-ins with US customs. He had similar struggles when he tried to get a residency permit to live in Portland. Farah and his family visited Portland as tourists before exiting the country to Toronto in anticipation of shortly returning as residents with authorised permits. Farah told the newspaper that when he and his family tried to leave Canada and enter the US as residents they were told they were under investigation as a terrorist threat and would have to stay away for 90 days. But Salazar intervened and called upon a friend at the FBI – a massive running fan – and he solved the issue. “God knows what would have happened if he didn’t. We’d probably still be in Toronto," said Farah.
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Source.

ibhM9nYRtaPHD6.jpg


But seriously, this just makes the United States look like idiots. Sort it out!
 
E

ElectricBlue187

Member
The 29 year-old came over to Britain with his English-born father as a child and is one of the most famous athletes in the world,
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Gonna have to call bullshit on this one. Not even one of the most famous track and field athletes in the world.
 
D

Delusibeta

Banned
ElectricBlue187 said:
Gonna have to call bullshit on this one.
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You try driving through any British city for five minutes and not see an advert with his face on it. He's certainly one of the most famous athletes in the UK, although he probably isn't quite at the Rory McIlroy stage at the world level.
 
E

ElectricBlue187

Member
Delusibeta said:
You try driving through any British city for five minutes and not see an advert with his face on it. He's certainly one of the most famous athletes in the UK, although he probably isn't quite at the Rory McIlroy stage at the world level.
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I remember him from the Olympics and his story with that other competitor but that's only because I watched the Olympics incessantly. I doubt many people outside the UK would remember him
 
D

Davidion

Member
He's not so famous here in the US, so the lack of recognition is probably understandable.

However, it boggles the mind how customs can be so deprived of accurate information so as to stop embarrassing both people who have no business being questioned AND themselves.
 
F

Fugu

Member
They almost couldn't do a better job breeding contempt towards their country if they were doing it on purpose.

The irony is that the TSA is justifying their heavy-handed presence by pissing people off at the airport.
 
C

Canis lupus

Member
ElectricBlue187 said:
Gonna have to call bullshit on this one. Not even one of the most famous track and field athletes in the world.
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He is the olympic and world champion in 5,000 and 10,000m according to wiki so he's probably big.

Imagine how hard it is for commoners. Are all Somali born people held on terrorist suspicion at the border?
 
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ElectricBlue187

Member
TurkishEmperor said:
He is the olympic and world champion in 5,000 and 10,000m according to wiki so he's probably big.

Imagine how hard it is for commoners. Are all Somali born people held on terrorist suspicion at the border?
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Probably not a lot of them trying so I'd guess the answer is yes, better to apologize for this than be blamed later.
 
M

MC Safety

Member
Trying to whip out your gold medals when customs wants to have a word with you is the ultimate in "Do you know who I am?"

Whether customs knows who you are or not, customs will have a word with you if it wants a word with you.
 
H

Hot Coldman

Banned
Hahahah what a bunch of prats

MC Safety said:
Whether customs knows who you are or not, customs will have a word with you if it wants a word with you.
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the problem being there's no apparent reason they'd want a word with him, beyond "oh his birth nation is a bit dodgy [let's ignore his english-ass accent]"
 
D

danwarb

Member
It wouldn't take more than a few seconds to find footage of the guy winning 2 gold medals at the olympic games.

But maybe that was all some elaborate cover for terrorist activities.
 
R

Ravensmash

Member
MC Safety said:
Trying to whip out your gold medals when customs wants to have a word with you is the ultimate in "Do you know who I am?"

Whether customs knows who you are or not, customs will have a word with you if it wants a word with you.
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Considering how ludicrous it is for him to be repeatedly stopped and monitored, I'd say it's a pretty apt thing to do.
 
D

duderon

rollin' in the gutter
If Americans cared at all about distance running we'd know who he is. Mo is awesome and this is unfortunate.
 
R

Ravensmash

Member
broadwayrock said:
It's not surprising they didn't know who he is, NBC's Olympics coverage was somewhat shite.
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hahaha

It would be interesting to see why they felt the need to repeatedly stop him/monitor though?

Is US customs really a case of stopping everyone who sounds remotely foreign?

@Salvadora - He trains in the US.
 
A

arglebargle

Member
ElectricBlue187 said:
Gonna have to call bullshit on this one. Not even one of the most famous track and field athletes in the world.
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i agree he isnt one of the most famous athletes in the world but i would argue he is one of the most famous track and field athletes. there are a handful better known that he is, but he became a household name among those who follow track and field even a little bit at the olympics.
 
K

kingdaddy157

Banned
I got stopped and detained by US customs when I came back from the Dominican Republic a few weeks ago. They thought I was transporting drugs or something for some reason and searched me all over. Their claim was that I bought the ticket 2 days before I left the US. They asked me all sorts of questions and looked through my phone and laptop. I told them that I was there at a wedding and that I was the DJ and their supervisor opened up a file on my laptop which happened to be a mix of merengue in which he felt like he needed that for his Xmas party (he was white btw). I call it bullshit though because last year same thing happened and I got stuck in a room with a whole bunch of people but they just told me to leave about 5 minutes later. I don't know if I'm a terrorist threat or they believe I'm a drug transporter.

If you can prove your case once or maybe just twice, like they should just clear you. It makes no sense to want to travel outside then back inside the U.S if you know that this is going to come with it. I will travel this upcoming march again and I will see if this same crap happens to me again.
 
D

duderon

rollin' in the gutter
Salvadora said:
So why is he the only athlete from the U.K/Somalia to train there?
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Alberto Salazar is Mo's coach, and Salazar is based in Oregon as part of the Nike Oregon Project. Mo went from being a good runner to the best runner under Salazar, reason enough to move to the states to train.
 
LAUGHTREY

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
The really sad and horrible reality of the situation is that the only way the TSA is going away at this point is if a terrorist actually gets through their pointless screenings and are proven ineffectual.


That, or it'll just get worse.
 
Bitmap Frogs

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
LAUGHTREY said:
The really sad and horrible reality of the situation is that the only way the TSA is going away at this point is if a terrorist actually gets through their pointless screenings and are proven ineffectual.


That, or it'll just get worse.
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If I recall a journalist did that already.

But the thing is, customs and the TSA are just there so Americans feel secure. Intel is the only thing that can actually find threats, customs and the TSA are just for show.

It is great tho that people with certain backgrounds get hassled and their rights stomped just so fox soccer moms feel safe at home eh?
 
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