wissel.net

The ground staff at Frankfurt Airport had a small shock ready for me: "Mr. Wissel you are on the US travel blacklist". How cool it that. I'm now officially dangerous. It turned out it wasn't the blackest of the black lists. The check-in staff had to subject me to a set of additional questions like: When where you in the US the last time? How long are you going to stay in the US? Where will you stay in the US? Why are you going there? Can I see your return ticket confirmation?
I asked myself how did I get onto this list? Conclusion after chatting with the ground staff: I'm entering the US from one country (Germany) and leaving it towards another (Singapore). I don't live in my country of birth and I have visited Muslim (Indonesia, Malaysia) and communist (China, Vietnam) countries before. That seems to be sufficient for the list.
The immigration officer in NYC asked the same questions again. I was wondering if that's a check for consistency. At the end everything turned out OK and I'm now waiting in NYC for boarding the last leg. I should be just in time for the Gonzo ESP party.
Update: The joy continued on the way back. The friendly staff of the TSA subjected me to special attention in New York again. They hat a device where they analyzed swipes from my shoes and inside my bag for... they wouldn't tell. At least the guy had a sense of humor and smiled on my remark, that I didn't knew that TSA is offering free shoe shine when he swiped my shoes.