LessO2 - Remember, the issue is not anything except if the local staff of the airline went out of their way to make sure a passenger was harrassed at USA immigration.

Update.......
I called the airline, spoke to the executive office. My PNR did indeed contain the entire story, including that I called them lazy. The CS supervisor basically said, yes immigration has access to all the PNR's, but if the local airline staff had their buddies at local immigration send a note ahead they would have no way to check as the local office would never admit it anyway. They took the complaint, and told me not to expect a response.

I suspect it is simply the post 9/11 version of sending the passengers bags via Bulgaria.