Guy Buchanan
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 1204
Location: Ramona, CA
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 Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 11:07 am Post subject: More Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness |
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Cross post from Lancair List
As most of you on the list know we had an incident in April here in St.
Louis where one of our own was "stopped" by local police based on a
"tip" from Customs and Border Patrol. Here is an update to that story:
Bob Rickard (who was the individual stopped) and I have received more
emails from other Lancair pilots who have been stopped as well based on
"tips" from CBP. So this is not an isolated incident. I contacted AOPA,
my congressman's staff, and CBP themselves. AOPA's Craig Spence is
presently working this issue on our behalf. He already had ascheduled
meeting with CBP on Wednesday, so he brought this subject up. He said
that CBP wants to be the new "skycop". He conveyed our concerns to them
--targeting GA for poloce searches and the issue of the fax that is sent
to police agencies justifying detaining pilots. Mr. Spence told them
that the fax has errors on it and agreed to help them correct those. On
the issue of tracking GA flights and detaining pilots, Mr. Spence said
the CBP is not budging. He believes we need to take this to
Congressional leaders --he said we are in for a long battle with CBP.
The day after Mr. Spence's meeting I received two phone calls from CBP
(so it is true about smelly stuff rolling downhill). The first call was
from "Carlos" at CBP HQ. Carlos works in Gen. Mike Kostelnik's office in
DC. Kostelnik, a retired AF two star, is the head of the CBP Air and
Marine Center. Carlos wanted to know what our concerns were and I
repeated that we did not like getting stopped based on bogus
information. He wanted to know how I was certain CBP was behind these
stops (he implied they had nothing to do with it) and I said it was from
information from the local police and the fax AMOC sent to them. (Ah,
the truth and evidence is so great) He was pretty agitated during our
conversation and said if we were stopped and the police questioned us
then we should tell them what they wanted to know. I said I disagreed
(Fifth Amendment) . I gave him the specifics of Bobaloos stop two weeks
ago and he agreed to look into it. I said that in the best light their
intell is either unvetted or their analyis is poor. He disagreed (of
course) and gave many other reasons (all bogus) as to why their intel
was good. He said it could have been because the aircraft was a prior
drug aircraft. I replied that would be pretty difficult since I built
it, flew it and then sold it to Col. Rickard. I said that in the worst
light --their folks are making up stories to get the local police to
stop GA pilots--for the crime of ....flying. Of course he about blew a
gasket. I asked him to tell me where CBP got this information about Bob
carrying a fugitive. He replied that is a matter of national security
and could not tell me.
A couple of hours later I receive a phone call from Tony C. at the CBP
AMOC in Riverside, CA asking again about my concerns. Again I expressed
the same and while he was very polite and cordial and appears to be a
dedicated public servant doing a tough job I reiterated that law abiding
GA pilots do not enjoy getting stopped by law enforcement based on
seemingly bogus information. Tony said they are just trying to "put
their eyes on people"--meaning us. I remarked that there has to be a
better way of doing that than surrounding a pilot with 6 police cars and
ten officers. He said they have tough job catching bad guys. I said
that that they need to do a better job screening their intel. It seemed
both he and Carlos went back and forth on whether the intel came from
internal sources or external ones. At one point he said people were
calling their hotline with tips -- so I challenged him as to how someone
would know the Mr. McCrae was on Bob's airplane and then called them in
Riverside to report it. The story seemed to change to they had strong
intel internally. Never an admission that they screwed up. Just more
reasons why their intel is solid. Even at one point denying it is their
intel-- "it comes from somewhere else-- they are just the middle man."
Tony said they are all ex military and are all pilots so I pointed oujt
that the fax has numerous errors and the FARs contains no language
allowing detention of a pilot for failing to have his medical or
logbook on his person (look for that to change as CBP will probably
write criminal regulations re: pilots) . The whole time I could hear a
beep every ten seconds or so probably indicating I was being recorded.
Althoug Tony was pleasant there was no progress on this issue. None.
I spoke with my congressman's senior staffer as well. I relayed the
details of the issue to her and she seemed sincerely interested. She
said it is best to generate a letter from our organizations (we are) and
forward that with a personal note to all of our congressmen. She said I
should be carefull so that I don't become a target.
All for now.
Jeff "Bullseye" Edwards
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_________________
Guy Buchanan
Deceased K-IV 1200
A glider pilot too. |
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