French Farmer-Activist Denied Entry to USA for 'Speaking Out'

[Clara T]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - French farmer Jose Bove, a prominent protester against globalization and junk food, said on Thursday he was denied entry to the United States and speculated large corporations were behind the move. Bove told Reuters he arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport with a valid U.S. entry visa on Wednesday afternoon but was detained for several hours and later returned to Paris. "They took my passport from me and said 'You're not allowed to come in for all the things you've done over the years, for speaking out,"' Bove said from France in a telephone interview.

He had been scheduled to speak Thursday and Friday in New York at an international conference of academics and trade unionists. Organizers of the conference, on globalization and labor, included Cornell University's Global Labor Institute.

U.S. immigration officials did not return calls seeking comment, but the French foreign ministry said he had been refused for a mistaken response to a question about his criminal record. Bove said he was surprised at being turned back because he has visited the United States several times, most recently in 2005.

The Frenchman rose to fame in the late 1990s for denouncing agricultural free trade and genetically-modified food, and spent six weeks in jail in early 2003 for smashing up a McDonald's restaurant. He was sentenced to four months in prison in November for destroying a field of genetically modified corn in southern France.

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-09T183841Z_01_N09375002_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-BOVE-COL.XML&archived=False

[Kagemusha]

1. As explained in an earlier DU thread....

He's actually denied entry because he's been convicted of a felony (minor as it may be) for destroying property. That's why the 'Speaking Out' has the quotation marks. Because it's actually for the felony, Bove just CALLS it speaking out.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. So why would they use that excuse?

Why not just tell about that?

[Clara T]

3. The real story here

is that Bove was going to speak at Cornell which is one of the leading, if not THE, research institutes on biotech in the US. (Currently building a $140 million biotech center funded in part by Monsanto.)

Bove is very eloquent and outspoken about his rejection of GMO's and all fabrications aside he, like Vandana Shiva, is a threat to the Gene Giants here in Never-Never land. As one of the worlds' premier spokespersons against the crime of GMO's he must be silenced and it is easy to silence him, don't let him speak-lock him out.
And terribly important to prevent him from speaking in one of the central points of Biotech proliferation.

[cyclezealot]

4. Bush lets his brands of hard core criminals in

all the time. South American mass killers, as we recall from the Colombian terrorist who downed the Cuban plane. His intent is to deny American's access to certain type of thought. This being globialization.
My question. Since we are the one's being censored. What can be done to give us access to Bove's commentary. Might as well plan of such actions by Bush and do some kind of mass video appearances.
Seems Bove's first trip to the US was in 1999 to march in Seattle.
Bove took retaliatory actions because the US several years ago victimized Rodequefort cheese , seems because of US steel dumping. Bove has been a producer of Rodequefort cheese.