Just wanted to vent that I went thru Keflavik airport in Reykjavik twice this year. And twice, when returning to the US, I got stopped for a deeper check.
For one, I am a Global Entry customer, so the US gov’t already knows who I am. Obviously, having Global Entry is meaningless to the algorithms that picked me out.
For two, whatever picked me out is NOT random. There’s something in my profile that the US gov’t does not like. And as they don’t see my Known Traveller number, they treat me like anyone else.
For three, I always apologize to foreign workers who have to go through all this faux security theatre. I find it embarrassing the US assumes that foreign countries are less secure (really, even Iceland?). And then forces them to do some imitation of security to appease the US. That seems like imperialism to me – dominating another culture and government to do your bidding.
For four, if the US is going to go thru the effort of demanding added security at foreign airports, then at least share info on known travelers. I know I’ll be thru KEF soon enough, and I’ll get picked up again and have to go thru more security than I usually do here at home. 🙄
BTW, this isn’t a new rant for me. I’ve been ranting about this for decades. Check out this cheeky short story I wrote in 2006.
Image from, yeah, you guessed it, DALL-E. Based on the short story.
