There was a programme on ITV tonight depicting horror stories concerning the treatment of British tourists stopped at US airports either in the mistaken belief that they had done something wrong or for minor transgressions.
They were routinely shackled, placed in holding cells with the riff raff of American criminal society, detained for many hours (28 hours in one case), held incommunicado, deprived of any food or drink and eventually deported.
One businessman said that if the officials had been wearing red arm bands with swastikas he would not have been surprised.
The response of the US authorities to the programme makers was that the US was combatting terrorism, with the clear inference that civil liberties would have to take a back seat where necessary.
Following accounts on PPRuNe and in the press I made the decision several months ago not to visit the USA again. This programme confirmed my decision. I will take my chance with terrorism but not with power crazed, jobsworths intent on inflicting as much humiliation on the public as they can get away with.