Originally Posted by
polonius
Have a look at the Abdulallah Higazy case and others -- the tactic is to badger a suspect until they say something that can be used to charge them with "lying to a federal officer". They interrogate in tag-team fashion -- one will ask, "what time did you get up this morning?" You answer "six". Two hours later, another interrogator throws in a question, "so, you got up at seven, then what?" You: "I don't know, had a shower, got dressed" FBI: "Aha! Lying to the FBI!" You: "what?" FBI: "Bob, bring the tape in here". Then they play the tape of you earlier saying you got up at six, and then indict you for lying. But, they'll drop the charge, on one condition, you have to become an informant for them. Higazy got lucky because another witness has the courage to speak up and admit his original statement concerning the air traffic radio he found was false. Others have not been so fortunate, and are either serving long sentences, or were kidnapped and taken to Guanatanamo, like Bisher al-Rawi, who was held there for five years because he refused to be an informant, although they knew all along he hadn't done anything wrong himself. If you refuse to answer ANY questions, there is no possibility of being slapped with a trumped up "lying to the FBI" charge.
I just read this article:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...20/DD42073.DTL
It doesn't support your contention that saying, "New York" when you fly to EWR will constitute lying to a federal officer. The FBI was abusive in the Higazy case in that it questioned him without allowing him legal counsel and, of course, the Bush administration has simply ignored the Constitution when it comes to detaining and imprisoning people it doesn't like. However, your contention was both factually and legally inaccurate and completely overstates the stituation (which is bad enough as it is).
It is clear anything you say to a TSO could be used against you, but I am not clear about whether making a false statement to one is in and of itself considered a crime the way making a false statement to an FBI officer is.
I would suspect it is not, but that's a shoot-from-the-hip answer and shouldn't be relied upon. As others have noted, TSOs aren't LEOs.
In any case, it's still wise not to answer anything you are not legally obliged to. Yes, you could be denied entry, but that's better than being charged with a crime and facing the possibility of spending thousands of dollars disproving the allegation, if you even get to a trial.
If you refuse to answer the questions of the DHS Immigration officer (who is a LEO and
not a TSO), I guarantee you will not be visiting the U.S. -- that's true of any country.