I was told by someone i met this weekend at a rave that there were 2 stone faced US customs officer standing in the jetway of a KLM flight from LA to Amsterdam just watching every passenger boarding the plane but did,nt want to attract unwanted attention so he just proceded to the plane and his seat and enjoyed his trip.If this is true it must have been during the past reprerssive Bush regime bec ause things seem to have fairly quickly relaxed with the new gov,t.Can anyone from LA verify this or whatever since it,s totally uncool if they,re going to fuck with someone 3 feet from the plane.

I,m concerned about this even if it were the past because if some of you may remember i got into a v ery heated ,screaming,shouting match with someone here in Honolulu who says she doesn,t think i can go to another country to do what is illegal in Hawaii,that argument led to 8 cop cars responding and if i remember correctly,the cops laughed when i told them what got me so pissed off and they said what i do in another country is entirely up to that gov,t and was told to just control my temper!

Vic, your rave buddy may be right. What sometimes happens is that the fibbies get word that someone is about to scarper before trial, on a specific flite, and they turn up to escort the fellow back home. Imagine, if you will, Bernie Madoff back when he was still living large in the apartment, deciding he'd like to skip down to Paraguay for a spot of site-seeing. Or Rod Blagojevitch more recently, packing for Costa Rica for an extended stay. When the cab driver phones the feds and says "guess who I just dropped off at the Departures area", a couple of those stone-faced guys you mentioned will usually drive out to the airport with a spare pair of handcuffs to see what they can find.

Yes, that is happening at LAX. I just left LAX to Amsterdam (KLM #602) and there were 4-5 uniformed 'fed' looking types just standing around looking at people getting on the plane. I saw them poking around the waiting area before-hand and then had to pass a gauntlet of them to board the plane. I'm not doing anything wrong so I don't worry about them. Now if they hassle me on the return leg, then I'll be pissed...

"stone"-faced eh? Maybe they were just regular guys already blazed for the flight :D

Riley,if that,s what you think it is then no worry for me.I just want to make sure the US is not trying to tell us what we can or cannot do in another country like North Korea geta away with doing to their people,

I noticed on my last trip that as I crossed the street late at night a stone faced AMS cop who I am sure was up to no good looked at me. WTF is AMS now a police state?


If things are that bad I may just not go anymore. Where is the freedom to cross the street without being looked at?

Can't get on a plane without a PO looking at you. Can't cross the street in AMS without the same thing happening.

Its a world wide plot I am sure.

Vic, I absolutely think that's allerr, it is (what I wrote before, that is).

I take a backseat to no-one in seeing evil in the government's agents, but really. You gotta remember that most people on that flite to Amsterdam aren't even going to Netherlands, they're actually using it is a transit point to somewhere else. What's the percentage in it, for agents to stare down every passenger, just in the hopes that a handful of them will be dissuaded from getting high ??

Maybe they send newbie agents to flites like this, just to practice their creepy stare. But that's more like a haze or an initiation ritual. rather than a real attempt at harassing the Holland-bound tourist.

They must be idiots. Shouldn't they be focussing on the passengers coming BACK?!

I took the one and only daily KLM flight (#602) from LAX to AMS on March 28th and did not see what you described at the gate, and I was waiting there for quite a while and would have had that occurred.

Hmmmmm........ I don't know. I fly out of in and out of JFK all the time, and many times to A'dam and it just is what it is. Sometimes you see more security, and sometimes you don't. Same with getting back in to NYC from Schipol: sometimes they ask all kinds of questions, other times they barely look at anyone. Who knows what's going on???? I honestly just go with the flow, act like I belong there, and it works out. Travel is never going to be the same as it used to be years ago so we might as well get used to it.

I did not mean to give the impression this security increase was permanent. I think the Feds were looking for something or someone specific. It did not phase me one bit to have those guys there, but I did have a note in my luggage saying it had been searched. I did get pulled aside in AMS for further questions, something that has not happened before. A stone face Dutch (no pun) customs guy was asking alot of questions, where I was staying, why I was there, who I was seeing, when I was leaving, etc. Not a full interogation, just 10 minutes in with the customs people, supposedly just random questioning. I did get the feeling officals on both sides were on high alert for something...

So who's names did you give them in response to the question "who were you seeing"?

I said I would be visiting an old girlfriend in town. Her name is Agnieshka...

I did not lie...

Did the Federale ask you to give her his best and warmest regards? :-)-)

9 out of 10 times I fly out of Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C., never observed anything like this. Haven't observed it in Chicago either. United Airlines, the airline I work for, doesn't fly directly out of JFK to Schiphol, so I have to take a connecting flight to either Washington D.C.'s Dulles Int'l Airport or Chicago's O'Hare Int'l Airport. Those are the only airports that United fly's to Schiphol from.

I came out of a kamer the other night (about 03:30) to an unusual scene for me at least. Right outside the kamer door, the Politie were walking side by side 'sweeping' the street and searching people. I skirted by the police on th canal side and kept walking without being searched. I'm not reporting this to be alarmist, just to let people know and be aware. I can only imagine this type of police activity will get worse as Queensday approaches...

Harvey,
You're spot on. I heard on the Dutch News that there is a current major police operation to weed out undesirables ahead of Queens Day.
Obviously, for some reason, they missed you!!!!
Enjoy QD

Wouldn't surprise me that these guys are here b/c of the (overblown) swine flu threats..