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Aaron Hoffstein
SPECIAL TO THINK & ASK
NEW YORK CITY
Part 4 of 4
This is Part 3 of 4
Continued from Part 2 of 4
Part 1 of 4
Main story
"The resistance to the United States in Europe was overwhelming," said Jeffrey Allen Miller who witnessed U.S.-flag burning an anti-U.S. slogans spouted in the streets of Paris and Berlin on the first weekend of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
"I'd never seen so many people gathered for a cause." Not only were protests peaceful, but both the German and French police stayed away from hundreds of thousands of protesters. "That was quite a contrast to what happened in New York City weeks earlier," Miller said. Manhattan Police used pepper spray on protesters and blockaded streets, forcing protesters to abandon their permitted route.
In Paris, Miller wasn't about to participate or tell the locals he is one of those citizens from the country they now seem to despise. "In a way, I was actually a little frightened."
After the weekend, in his Paris office Miller checked the logs of his website and found that traffic had suddenly disappeared. "I thought the site had been brought down again, but after I checked the pages everything was fine and there had been no outage."
He did a fast check with the search engines and his website was off results entirely. "Think & Ask was nowhere to be found, and in fact the URL didn't even register as a domain in use." And that was the case for MSN, Yahoo!, and Google, the Internet's top three and competetitive search engines.
"I know how search works as I was one of IBM's top search experts at the time." He said it was impossible for a "chance or random deletion" of his website by three competetitive engines, except that he did not know at the time the Pentagon was "advising the media, ISPs and search engine companies to aid in the blocking of certain websites. They were 'guidelines' according to the Pentagon, not mandates," Miller said.
One week later, Miller and his colleague left Paris for London. "When we arrived at London City airport, the passport agent slipped my passport through computer and immediately asked me to come with her."
The agent took Miller to a holding room. "I was not prepared for this, especially since we'd planned a customer meeting in London in two hours -- time was tight as it was."
A British customs officer questioned Miller for 10 minutes on his reasons for entering the United Kingdom, "and then he let me go." As he rejoined his colleague at luggage collection, Miller was approached by two customs agents and taken back to the holding room where he was again questioned, "They asked the same questions, 'Why are you here?,' 'How long do you plan to stay?,' 'Had I any affiliation with political groups in Syria, Iran or Iraq?'" The second group of agents allowed Miller to leave. "They were cordial, and almost friendly actually, but I was deeply troubled by their line of questions."
There were no other issues on that trip through France and Germany, Miller said. "But when I returned home, I was not prepared for what happened next."
Miller was detained for two hours at JFK in New York upon his return from Europe on 22 April 2003.
"They did not speak to me. That was the weirdest part, they didn't inquire where I'd been or what I did -- it was as if I didn't exist," he said. Customs agents went through Miller's luggage, and they did ask him to boot-up his laptop. The agents told him to "sit-tight," and left. "One and a half hours later they told me I could pack up and leave."
Miller decided to investigate why he'd been targeted. Through a series of connections, "which was a bizarre experience in its own right," Miller found a private investigator who said he could verify whether or not Miller was a target. The cash price was $2,000 paid in full before work began.
"Maybe it was the heat of the moment, it was as if suddenly I couldn't trust anyone." Due to his website's disappearance from search engines, Miller called the ACLU to inquire about other reports of censorship. The ACLU was not aware of news website censorship, "But even he joked with me about being on an FBI list," Miller said.
Miller paid the private investigator, "If someone was on my trail, then I wanted to know who and why."
Three weeks later, Miller received a telephone call. "The guy said I was to call him from a pay phone and he would only be able to talk for five minutes."
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