Border agent ignored warning for TB traveler

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/AP

A globe-trotting Atlanta lawyer with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis was allowed back into the U.S. by a border inspector who disregarded a computer warning to stop him and don protective gear, officials said Thursday.

The inspector has been removed from border duty.

The unidentified inspector explained that he was no doctor but that the infected man seemed perfectly healthy and that he thought the warning was merely “discretionary,” officials briefed on the case told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is still under investigation.

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The inspector ran Speaker’s passport through a computer, and a warning — including instructions to hold the traveler, don a protective mask in dealing with him, and telephone health authorities — popped up, officials said. About a minute later, Speaker was instead cleared to continue on his journey, according to officials familiar with the records.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18960857/

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Do we have a bunch of Brownies in Federal Service?

[youngdem]

1. My only question is what award the Chimperor will bestow on this moron

[HeeBGBz]

2. This story gets stinkier by the minute. n/t

[Ecumenist]

3. Why all the fuss?

He wasn't a brown skinned foreigner and ya can't expect him to stop a white anglo saxon protestant..:sarcasm:

[tanyev]

4. Are we safer yet?

[Warpy]

5. No, we apparently have a bunch of pig ignorant Republics

in those jobs who firmly believe a nice looking white guy in an expensive suit can't possibly be a danger to other people.

[Kagemusha]

6. And that no one who isn't 'sick' can possibly be contagious.

Well isn't that reassuring.

[Screwfly]

7. This is one creepy story.

The guy's father just happens to work for the CDC and specializes on the TB, and I wonder if they were using this guy as some kind of TB guinea pig. The infected guy and the CDC also have wildly different versions of events leading up to this incident, and I'm kind of suspicious of the CDC version since they haven't offered up any documents to prove they told the guy he had drug resistant TB.

You know this whole TB incident is like a dry run terrorists make at a target to test the viability of an attack plan. I wonder if the infected guy taking off, and sneaking back into the U.S. like something out of Mission Impossible was part of the original plan.

[LisaL]

8. Oh yea, conspiracy theories. The guy traveled to Asia

and visited the hospital there. Isn't it much more likely he contracted TB during his travels rather than some crazy conspiracy theory?

[anotherdrew]

9. `wait - they've got this system working fine, right now, for TB? scrap 'Real ID'

isn't this exactly the kind of thing they want to spend hundreds of millions on so that a warning will pop up when a suspected terrorist enters the country? and they tell us they can't do it today, yet they've got just that, working right now, for TB (and other things no doubt) and they scanned his passport? Of course they can scan a paper passport, no need for RFID chips, etc...

Damn administration of ignorant lairs.

[Occulus]

10. According to a news snip I heard in line at a convenience store tonigt

the man has a close relative who is or was an EXPERT on TB.

It was TV "news" on some MSM network, so there's no telling how reliable that information is, but that's what the talking head said.

[LisaL]

11. It's not his relative, it's his father in law.

And it's all over the news, so no need to listen to some rumors.

[mitchum]

12. Gimme a B Gimme an R Gimme an I Gimme a B Gimme an E

[burrowowl]

13. Since he is a US citizen the US

is responsible for him. The Inspector shuld have called the quarantiners to come and quarantine him.