Traveling to the US

Charles Stross, a science fiction writer who recently won the Hugo award for his novella "The Concrete Jungle", outlines in his blog the reasons he is going to restrict his travel to the US to necessary travel ONLY.

Here's an excerpt about why (full blog entry linked in the title):

Now, according to the New York times, the office of the Attorney General is contending in court that foreigners have no rights: "Foreign citizens who change planes at airports in the United States can legally be seized, detained without charges, deprived of access to a lawyer or the courts, and even denied basic necessities like food, lawyers for the government said in Brooklyn federal court yesterday."

This legal theory is being advanced in the context of the Arar case, of a Canadian citizen who, changing planes in New York, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in terrorism (for which he was later exonerated), held in solitary confinement without access to legal advice or any charges, and subsequently bundled off to Syria for interrogation under torture.

Fun times ahead, folks...