DHS holds talks with U.K. minister, then detains him

Shahid Malik, the U.K.first Muslim cabinet minister (he is the minister for international development) was in the United States last week for meetings with DHS about tackling terrorism. As he was getting ready to leave the United States through Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., he was detained by DHS screeners for questioning. This was the second time Malik was detained by security screeners. Malik was detained by DHS officials, and he and his hand luggage were searched. He reports that he and two others, both black Muslims, were taken aside for further questioning. Malik was previously held by staff at JFK in New York last year while returning from an event where he had been a keynote speaker on defeating extremism. Then, he claims, he was subjected to an “abusive attitude” from DHS staff.

The Brits, more genrally, appear to be unimpressed with DHS’s terror-watch list. Three years ago the system was demonstraetd to a the Parliament’s Transport Committee, headed by chair Gwyneth Dunwoody. As the impressed Dunwoody commented on the system at the time, “it’s a sort of general level of arrogant incompetence.”