EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Military Blogger Michael Yon Detained, Handcuffed by CBP in Seattle Airport

Corrected: The federal enforcement agency involved in the incident with Mr. Yon at Sea-Tac was previously misidentified as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).  The article has been updated to reflect that it was Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who questioned and detained Mr. Yon.

Award winning war correspondent Michael Yon was detained and handcuffed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Yesterday by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel.

Yon was returning to the United States from Hong Kong to visit family when CBP officials stopped him during a routine security checkpoint.  “Officials asked me what was in my bag—nothing wrong with this question,” Yon said in an interview with BigGovernment.com.  “I told them it was normal stuff, clothes and toothbrushes.”

At this point the Customs officials escorted Yon to a designated screening area where they examined the contents of his bag.  “Then they asked me how much money I make,” Yon said.  Yon suggested to the Customs officials that the question was inappropriate and unrelated to transportation security.  The award-winning blogger noted another CBP officer approached Yon: “he asked who do I work for.”  ”I did not answer the question which clearly was upsetting to the [CBP] officers.”

Yon was escorted to a room elsewhere in the airport where he said he remained silent during much of the questioning.   According to Yon, “they handcuffed me for failing to cooperate.  They said I was impeding their ability to do their job.”

(more…)

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Tags: BigGovernment.com, CBP, Customs, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security
Posted Jan 5th 2010 at 2:30 pm in Defense, Exclusives, Featured Story, Justice/Legal | 55762457 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/01/05/exclusive-interview-military-blogger-michael-yon-detained-by-cbp-in-seattle-airport/EXCLUSIVE+INTERVIEW%3A+Military+Blogger+Michael+Yon+Detained%2C+Handcuffed+by+CBP+in+Seattle+Airport++2010-01-05+22%3A30%3A30Publius

WSJ: Andrew Breitbart Taking On the ‘Democrat-Media Complex’

From the Wall Street Journal:

The conservative Internet entrepreneur on bringing down Acorn, Hollywood liberals, and embarrassing the mainstream media.

By JAMES TARANTO

Hollywood

Dressing up as a pimp and prostitute in order to seek Acorn’s help in starting a child sex-slavery ring wasn’t Andrew Breitbart’s idea. But without the Internet entrepreneur’s flair for publicity, the hidden-camera sting might not have produced such impressive results. Within days of his publishing the video exposé, government agencies were cutting ties with the left-wing advocacy and community-organizing group, Congress was voting to end its federal funding, and news organizations were rushing to catch up with a sensational story they had initially resisted or ignored.

James O’Keefe, the 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker who played the pimp in the Acorn meetings, came to Mr. Breitbart in early August with his videos. They showed Mr. O’Keefe and his putative partner in crime, 20-year-old Hannah Giles, asking Acorn counselors for advice on how to evade the authorities while setting up a business offering the sexual services of underage girls smuggled into the U.S. from El Salvador. It was a shocking and outlandish tale, but employees in at least five Acorn offices fell for it and offered to help. (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, Acorn's Baltimore, Arianna Huffington, BigGovernment.com
Posted Oct 16th 2009 at 5:53 pm in ACORN, Featured Story | 17250142 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/10/16/wsj-andrew-breitbart-taking-on-the-democrat-media-complex/WSJ%3A+Andrew+Breitbart+Taking+On+the+%27Democrat-Media+Complex%27+2009-10-17+00%3A53%3A22Publius

NY Times Editor: Paper Was Too Slow to Cover ACORN Scandal

From New York Times Public Editor Clary Hoyt:

ON Sept. 12, an Associated Press article inside The Times reported that the Census Bureau had severed its ties to Acorn, the community organizing group. Robert Groves, the census director, was quoted as saying that Acorn, one of thousands of unpaid organizations promoting the 2010 census, had become “a distraction.”

Clark Hoyt

What the article didn’t say — but what followers of Fox News and conservative commentators already knew — was that a video sting had caught Acorn workers counseling a bogus prostitute and pimp on how to set up a brothel staffed by under-age girls, avoid detection and cheat on taxes. The young woman in streetwalker’s clothes and her companion were actually undercover conservative activists with a hidden camera.

It was an intriguing story: employees of a controversial outfit, long criticized by Republicans as corrupt, appearing to engage in outrageous, if not illegal, behavior. An Acorn worker in Baltimore was shown telling the “prostitute” that she could describe herself to tax authorities as an “independent artist” and claim 15-year-old prostitutes, supposedly illegal immigrants, as dependents. (more…)

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Tags: 2010 Census, ACORN, acorn scandal, BigGovernment.com, Bretha Lewis
Posted Sep 27th 2009 at 12:26 am in ACORN, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 9362114 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/27/ny-times-public-editor-discusses-papers-slow-reflexes-on-acorn-scandal/NY+Times+Editor%3A+Paper+Was+Too+Slow+to+Cover+ACORN+Scandal2009-09-27+07%3A26%3A16Publius

Slate: Two Cheers for Andrew Breitbart

Sometimes it takes an outsider to show the press corps the way.
By Jack Shafer

Among the many glorious things about American journalism is that no credentialing organization or regulatory body stands between an individual who wants to break a story and his public reporting of it.

In the old days, one significant barrier did deter aspiring reporters: If they couldn’t find a publisher for their piece or afford to self-publish, they were SOL. But now, thanks to the free-for-all environment created by the Web, those publication and distribution worries have evaporated. Anybody can be a journalist in the new regime, we’re told, and on some days, it seems as if everybody is.

Last week, thanks to the sponsorship of Andrew Breitbart’s new site BigGovernment.com, self-described activist filmmaker James O’Keefe, 25, and his colleague Hannah Giles, 20, brought national scrutiny to the progressive Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, with a series of guerilla videos that are one part 60 Minutes, two parts Punk’d, three parts Ali G, and four parts Michael Moore, all bubbling under a whipped topping of yellow journalism. (more…)

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Tags: "60 Minutes", ACORN, acorn scandal, ACORN videos, Ali G
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 5:25 pm in Uncategorized | 7654102 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/23/slate-two-cheers-for-andrew-breitbart/Slate%3A+Two+Cheers+for+Andrew+Breitbart2009-09-24+00%3A25%3A58Publius

ACORN, Kanye West and the Hierarchy of Multiculturalism

Journalists need to ask themselves, how did this happen? How could they miss the corruption at ACORN? President Obama was once an ACORN lawyer, so the group is certainly significant enough to warrant media scrutiny. Then how did all the seasoned professionals get scooped by two students–James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles–one of whom isn’t old enough to legally drink?

ACORN’s many problems have been well known for quite a while, at least to anyone venturing beyond network newscasts and liberal blogs. As an organization, ACORN doesn’t just limit itself to churning out forged voter registrations. It’s a full-blown racketeering enterprise worthy of The Sopranos, and it finances its operations with the help of taxpayer money.

So how could the major media fail to hold ACORN to account all these years?

I have my pet theory.

Political correctness has been slowly rotting the establishment media to its core, to the point where few professional journalists would dare launch a serious investigation into the exalted Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. Why? Simple: according to the tenets of political correctness, the racial makeup of the communities being “organized” automatically confers the presumption of moral superiority upon ACORN. So all those nasty rumors about ACORN must be no more than lies spread by racist propagandists.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, acorn prostitute video, acorn scandal, BigGovernment.com, Bill Clinton
Posted Sep 19th 2009 at 10:00 am in ACORN, Culture, Media Criticism, Obama, Politics | 5250186 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/emaloney/2009/09/19/acorn-kanye-west-and-the-hierarchy-of-multiculturalism/ACORN%2C+Kanye+West+and+the+Hierarchy+of+Multiculturalism2009-09-19+17%3A00%3A13Evan+Coyne+Maloney

MEDIA MATTERS: ‘On Fox, Breitbart bashes CNN’s ACORN coverage’

“The behavior of Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN, has been despicable during this.”

MEGYN KELLY (co-host): Joining me now is Andrew Breitbart. He’s the founder of the website the video first appeared on. It’s called BigGovernment.com, and the videos are still there. Andrew, good morning to you.

BREITBART: Good morning, Megyn.

KELLY: You were with us the morning that the story broke — the morning that the first video aired on BigGovernment.com. And now in a week’s time, the congressional action, the response by the Feds, has been really stunning. I mean, for years, the Democrats in Congress have not wanted to sign on to anything that would cut back funding from ACORN, and now we see these huge majorities coming out of the Senate and the House to cut down the group — to cut off the group’s funding. What’s your reaction, a week into this?

BREITBART: Well, I’m grateful that the American public has realized that there’s a serious problem here, and that their elected representatives are taking their concerns seriously. A new Rasmussen poll came out this morning that says America’s overwhelmingly disturbed by what they’ve seen on these videos.

But, predictably, and why we rolled the videos out one by one by one by one, we set traps for ACORN to lie; each and every time they lied. They went to the mainstream media, continued to tell those lies. The next day, the previous day’s lies were exposed. And CNN in particular has kept going back to ACORN and taking their line.

MORE at MediaMatters.org.

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, BigGovernment.com, Breitbart, CNN
Posted Sep 18th 2009 at 9:00 am in ACORN, News, Politics | 4970191 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/18/media-matters-on-fox-breitbart-bashes-cnns-acorn-coverage/MEDIA+MATTERS%3A+%27On+Fox%2C+Breitbart+bashes+CNN%27s+ACORN+coverage%272009-09-18+16%3A00%3A32Publius

Rep. Boustany (R-LA) Calls for ACORN Investigation

Boustany Calls for Hearing to Investigate ACORN Tax Filing Assistance following Disturbing Undercover Video

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr., (R-Southwest Louisiana), today called for a hearing to investigate the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and their tax filing assistance programs following evidence of suggested tax fraud.

“In light of the apparent flagrant and willful attempts to suborn tax fraud, I ask you to schedule a hearing of the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee as soon as practicable to investigate ACORN’s activities in providing tax advice and tax preparation services, as well as whether ACORN has conducted activities inconsistent with the requirements for retaining tax-exempt status under Code section 501(c)(3),” Boustany said. “These serious allegations involve the administration and enforcement of our Federal tax laws, which fall directly under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Oversight.”

Boustany, Ranking Member of the Oversight Subcommittee for the House Ways and Means Committee, has jurisdiction over tax policy and the Internal Revenue Service.

The full letter follows: (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, BigGovernment, BigGovernment.com, Charles W. Boustany, child
Posted Sep 11th 2009 at 11:59 am in ACORN | 105888 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/11/rep-boustany-r-la-calls-for-acorn-investigation/Rep.+Boustany+%28R-LA%29+Calls+for+ACORN+Investigation2009-09-11+18%3A59%3A54Publius

On Why I Don’t Return Phone Calls from an Intrepid CNN Producer

As read on “The Rush Limbaugh Show”:

So far CNN has only reported on the breaking story on blatant ACORN CORRUPTION from angles that attempt to extricate the government funded “community organizing”  enterprise from the extreme crime we caught on videotape.

First CNN pushed the false ACORN line that “[t]his film crew tried to pull this sham at other offices and failed.”

To set that record straight please check the Washington D.C. tape we dropped today at BigGovernment.com, which is also being aired on your cable news competitor with curiously higher ratings.

Now that ACORN lied to you, Jonathan Klein, what are you going to do?

Here’s what I have noticed from your coverage: You brought in the damage control crowd to FRAME the story. Before even airing our damning Baltimore video. You know your audience would turn on ACORN if you showed them the evidence. So instead you put your competitors in journalism in the crosshairs instead of airing a blockbuster report making massive waves elsewhere.

You even trotted out shameless Clinton era apologist Joe Conason to challenge the ETHICS of our expose. Unreal.

What about the ethics of those at ACORN caught on tape trying to help create a brothel featuring illegal immigrant age range 13-15 from El Salvador? (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, acorn prostitute, acorn prostitute video, acorn prostitution
Posted Sep 11th 2009 at 11:25 am in ACORN, Exclusives, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 1018599 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jokeefe/2009/09/11/on-why-i-dont-return-phone-calls-from-an-intrepid-cnn-producer/On+Why+I+Don%27t+Return+Phone+Calls+from+an+Intrepid+CNN+Producer+2009-09-11+18%3A25%3A14James+O%26%2339%3BKeefe

Limbaugh Makes ACORN/Obama Connection

From the transcript of today’s “Rush Limbaugh Show” show:

RUSH: Now, this is incredible.  Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, started a new website recently, BigGovernment.com.  And filmmaker James O’Keefe, 25-year-old independent filmmaker, has his own theory about how to expose people on the left and he’s using Alinsky rules.  One of the Saul Alinsky rules in dealing with your enemies is making your enemies live by their own rules will destroy them.  So O’Keefe’s theory is, hey, just calling attention to their corruption and disagreeing with it and demanding that it stop isn’t going to accomplish anything.  We’ve got to go encourage the corruption and illustrate how it happens.  So what happened was, James O’Keefe posed as a pimp with a 20-year-old woman named Kenya who posed as a prostitute while visiting ACORN’s office in Baltimore.  The couple told ACORN staffers that they wanted to secure housing where the woman could continue to maintain a prostitution business.

Now, ACORN advised the woman on two things:  how to avoid being caught paying taxis, how to avoid paying taxes on her business, how to cheat the IRS, and how to get away with running a prostitution business in Baltimore.  We have couple sound bites that illustrate this.  There’s video of this.  The whole video runs about an hour.  They got two long segments of it on O’Keefe’s site at BigGovernment.com.  This is your tax dollars at work, by the way.  ACORN employees, ACORN, four to five billion dollars in the stimulus package directly to them.  Remember, ACORN is Barack Obama’s training ground.  When he got to Chicago he became a community organizer with ACORN.  He taught them how to do things; they taught him how to do things.  We now have an ACORN-type community agitator as president of the United States.  So in this bite, this is the videotape, James O Keefe is posing as the pimp, his woman, Kenya, posing as the prostitute at the ACORN Baltimore office, and in this bite the ACORN employee advises the cameraman on how to hide a prostitution business.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, Andrew Breitbart, Big Hollywood, BigGovernment.com
Posted Sep 10th 2009 at 5:11 pm in ACORN, News, Obama, Politics | 882248 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/10/limbaugh-makes-acornobama-connection/Limbaugh+Makes+ACORN%2FObama+Connection2009-09-11+00%3A11%3A29Publius