Hossein Derakhshan – better known by his online handle "Hoder" – who sparked a wave of blog activity in his Iranian homeland over the last couple years by developing Persian-language computer script while perched in Toronto, has been banned from the United States for six months. Hoder has recently been staying in New York City, but on a bus ride routed through Buffalo, he disclosed to a border guard that he was headed to a blog conference, and a search ensued: "He was ecstatic," writes Hoder. "My blog made his day, or in this case, his night." The red flag was raised when the Homeland Security employee happened upon a somewhat sardonic post explaining to readers what actions they chould take if he ended up being detained by authorities during his June trip back to Iran; Hoder’s reference to getting money from the CIA was then understood to be a joke, but the guard’s discovery of an issue of Newsweek on his person with an NYC address label prompted a refusal of entry. The guy who earned global attention for inspiring thousands of Iranians to circumvent the Mullahs being arbitrarily prevented from visiting the U.S.A. has riled the Committee to Protect Bloggers, for which Hoder is an advisor, adding one of their own to the list of those hamstrung due to online expression.
Goodbye to America [Hoder.com]
1 response so far ↓
matt // November 25, 2005 at 4:38 am
Well - I’m afraid that the ‘long arm of US so called common intelligence’ reached finally even his blog.
I’ve read it and wanted to share my critical view about the USA (and their histeria re: ‘terrorists’).
BUT this is what I get whatever I wanted to write: ‘Your comment was denied for questionable content’
This is quite funny… I mean the USA and Americans are really ludicrous….
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