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canmark
So much for homeland security. A man with a highly drug-resistant, potentially fatal and contagious strain of TB who was supposedly on a no-fly list, travelled from Atlanta to Greece to Czech Republic to Montreal and then entered the US by car despite a warning which should have notified the US custom agent at the border to "hold the traveler, don a protective mask in dealing with him, and telephone health authorities." The agent supposedly thought the man looked healthy and let him through. rolleyes.gif

USAToday: Border agent allowed TB patient in U.S.

Ironically, the man's father-in-law is an expert in TB and infectious diseases and works at the CDC.

CNN: Patient at low risk for spreading TB, doctor says

ABC News: to feature exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer

Fox News: TB Patient's Father-in-Law Is Top Tuberculosis Researcher at Centers for Disease Control

QUOTE
Speaker had flown to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385, also listed as Delta Air Lines codeshare Flight 8517, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He and his bride also took four shorter flights while in Europe — Paris to Athens on May 14; Athens to Thira Island May 16; Mykonos Island to Athens May 21; and Athens to Rome May 21 — but CDC officials said there was less risk of infection during the shorter hops compared to the trans-Atlantic flights, which each lasted eight hours or more.

It was while they were in Rome that he learned further U.S. tests had determined his TB was the rare, extensively drug-resistant form, far more dangerous than he knew. Officials told him turn himself over to Italian health officials and not to fly on any commercial airlines.

Instead, on May 24, he flew from Rome to Prague on Czech Air Flight 0727, then flew to Montreal aboard Czech Air Flight 0104 and drove into the U.S., according to CDC officials.
George Twins fan
No doubt this will be an episode of Law & Order next season.
UCLAfan
QUOTE(canmark @ May 31 2007, 06:16 PM) *

So much for homeland security. A man with a highly drug-resistant, potentially fatal and contagious strain of TB who was supposedly on a no-fly list, travelled from Atlanta to Greece to Czech Republic to Montreal and then entered the US by car despite a warning which should have notified the US custom agent at the border to "hold the traveler, don a protective mask in dealing with him, and telephone health authorities." The agent supposedly thought the man looked healthy and let him through. rolleyes.gif


You've really got to hand it to Homeland Security. For all the billions of tax dollars going into their coffers, you'd think they'd be able to put a stop to one person travelling around the world to spread his sickness. More importantly, you'd assume they'd be able to keep him from re-entering at the Canadian border at the worst. But, alas, for all of Bush's trumpeting of "We're secure because I've made it secure.", we see that we are secure more by luck than by actual effort.

Now, imagine for just a moment that this guy isn't merely a traveler returning home. Imagine he's an al Qaeda operative with plans to set off a series of bombs in a major American city. If you can, then you can probably share my concern over just how secure America's borders aren't. huh.gif
Baxion
Somehow I always knew the end of the world would start with an attorney. unsure.gif
ITJock
QUOTE(canmark @ Jun 1 2007, 01:16 AM) *

...Ironically, the man's father-in-law is an expert in TB and infectious diseases and works at the CDC.
Fox News: TB Patient's Father-in-Law Is Top Tuberculosis Researcher at Centers for Disease Control


Yeah Right.

Otherwise healthy young athletic male - who hasn't been to Africa or Asia, and isn't an IV drug user - mysteriously gets an incredibly rare and mostly fatal disease.

Where did he get it? How?

Surprise, his Father in Law happens to work at CDC in Atlanta as a specialist on that disease.

Odds anyone???

Call me a nasty minded, suspicious, paranoid old pessimist …

R
George Twins fan
Next we'll hear that the wife and/or father in law have a multi million dollar life insurance policy of the guy.
SteelResolve
.....hmmmm.....not sure how this fits in with the father-in-law conspiracy story, but if this guy was such a threat to passengers on all of those flights -- what about his new bride who was obviously in intimate contact with him all throughout the honeymoon ??? Wouldn't she be most likely to catch it ?
fantomas
QUOTE(SteelResolve @ Jun 1 2007, 01:44 PM) *

.....hmmmm.....not sure how this fits in with the father-in-law conspiracy story, but if this guy was such a threat to passengers on all of those flights -- what about his new bride who was obviously in intimate contact with him all throughout the honeymoon ??? Wouldn't she be most likely to catch it ?


What about his new bride, all the people he was in contact with at the wedding, others in the various airports he passed through, others he's been working with in Atlanta...I mean, I don't think we're getting HALF this story!

But now you know, if a highly diseased person on a watch list can cross into and out of the country at will, God help us if someone with more nefarious plans decides or has decided to target us....
jay original
What I found interesting besides the father-in-law angle was the travel aspect. Being on a plane with recycled air for ten hours while you have a disease transmitted through saliva and phelgm when you cough...Does anyone recall the Bruce Willis-Brad Pitt film "Twelve Monkeys"? The end of the world came about because some sinister insurance people helped release a virus that wiped out most of the human population of the world and forced the survivors to live underground. And the way they did it was by releasing the virus on transcontinental flights. Paranoia aside, it is a great movie to watch.

You Tube has a clip but it kind of gives away a lot so you might not want to watch it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuCXPiLvcS8
Baxion
From what I seen, this man as been globe trotting in the past few years including Africa and India. So , if in fact, his father-in-law wasn't trying to off him to keep him from marrying his daughter, where did he contract this strain of TB?
And that's what scares me. Everyone in that region is at risk. Along with a risk of a major outbreak. What is the story on this end?
To many strange loose ends with this story. CDC? CIA? Third world countries? Paris Hilton? Drug resistant strain of TB?
canmark
From what I've read/seen on TV, the man had traveled to places like Viet Nam (for a charitable organization), so he may have acquired TB in Asia.

But when he was informed in Rome that he had the drug-resistant strain, that he should turn himself in to Italian Health Authorities (in Rome, not like some Third World village), and that he wouldn't be allowed to fly back to the U.S., that's when he hatched his plans to fly to Prague, fly to Montreal, and then drive back to the U.S. During this time, would he have called his father-in-law (the TB expert) to ask him how serious his condition was, and if this (sneaking into the country by the back door) was a viable plan? Wouldn't the TB expert would have, at the very least, told him to wear a mask? The father-in-law (TB expert, CDC employee) may bear some culpability if he knew his son-in-law was violating no-fly rules and endangering public health, no?

New twist: Greek officials say wedding not legit

QUOTE
Rejecting earlier claims made by a local Greek official, tuberculosis patient Andrew Speaker said he did marry his fiancee in a small Greek town during his trans-Atlantic trip.

"I know we went over and had a ceremony and that local officials (in Greece) had me sign all these documents. I know we exchanged rings," said the 31-year-old Atlanta attorney in a Newsweek magazine interview conducted on late Friday.
* * *
Speaker's comments followed an earlier statement by Mayor Angelos Roussos of Santorini, Greece -- where the couple were believed to have recently wed -- that there had been no wedding at all.

Roussos said a clerk from the municipality office informed him that Speaker and his fiancee, Sarah Cooksey, did not have the necessary paperwork for a civil marriage.

"He made no previous contact with the town hall about arranging a civil marriage," Roussos said. "So the wedding never happened. He stayed instead at a hotel for two days, the Majestic Hotel, before setting back for the United States. It was his first time here."
Baxion
For me, it hard to believe that someone can be so selfish and self-centered. I mean, if the worst parts of this story are absolutely correct, he put this entire planet at risk. And the fact that security failed at its' job is even more frightening.
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