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Brit pair deported from US for 'destroy America' tweet
Also intended to disinter Marilyn Monroe, Homeland Security claims
A couple of Brits were unceremoniously ejected from the US last week after one of them ill-advisedly tweeted he was off to "destroy America".

Leigh Van Bryan, 26, and pal Emily Bunting, 24, jetted into Los Angeles last Monday ahead of what they hoped would be a lively Stateside holiday. Their shorter-than-expected trip certainly delivered, although the pair weren't expecting to be arrested, internally probed and thrown in a cell for 12 hours with hungry Mexican narcos.

The Department of Homeland Security had already earmarked Van Bryan and Bunting for a warm welcome before they even touched down at LAX. The agency had picked up on a couple of Van Bryan's tweets, which suggested they intended to wipe out the US and disinter Marilyn Monroe.

The first, posted on 3 January, said: "3 weeks today, we're totally in LA pissing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!"

The second, written on 16 January, declared: "Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America."

Van Bryan and Bunting had their collars felt after clearing passport control. They were first quizzed for five hours, during which they failed to convince the authorities of the innocent nature of the tweets.

According to the Daily Mail, Bunting said: "The officials told us we were not allowed in to the country because of Leigh's tweet. They wanted to know what we were going to do. They asked why we wanted to destroy America and we tried to explain it meant to get trashed and party.

"I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh's lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe. I couldn't believe it because it was a quote from the comedy Family Guy which is an American show."

She added: "It got even more ridiculous because the officials searched our suitcases and said they were looking for spades and shovels. They did a full body search on me too."

Van Bryan described the ordeal as "almost funny" but "really scary". He said: "The Homeland Security agents were treating me like some kind of terrorist. I kept saying to them they had got the wrong meaning from my tweet but they just told me 'you've really fucked up with that tweet boy'."

The two then spent the night in jail, where the Mexican drug cartels put Van Bryan on involuntary hunger strike. He explained: "When we arrived at the prison I was shoved in a cell on my own but after an hour two huge Mexican men covered in tattoos came in and started asking me who I was.

"They told me they'd been arrested for taking cocaine over the border. When the food arrived on the tray they took it all and just left me with a carton of apple juice."

Van Bryan and Bunting were deported back to the UK the next day. Van Bryan's rap sheet, explaining why he was refused entry, says: "Mr Bryan confirmed that he had posted on his Tweeter [sic] website account that he was coming to the United States to dig up the grave of Marilyn Monroe. Also on his tweeter account Mr Bryan posted that he was coming to destroy America."

Do the agencies dealing with sort of 'threat' actually think that this is effective? Do they really not understand that security is already done better and less intrusively in other riskier to live in places? Or is this yet another make a show of making people uncomfortable and then claim to be 'tough' on terror?

Undoubtedly it was intended to be a show of "cracking down" on suspicious characters.

That said, I wonder if the unusually specific reference to Marilyn Monroe was what set off the alarm bells. Lots of people rant about America on the internet, I wonder if some search turned up the twitter posts and someone raised the flags not simply at blah blah Murica is bad but at seeing the part about disinterring a body and thinking "huh, this nutjob may actually mean that part." I mean, it's not like every American watches Family Guy (a fucking boneheaded thing for the guy to say).

At the same time it's easy to do a google search and find out that it is indeed a quote from a popular TV show. Also, Americans have some interesting views of their closest neighbor let alone the UK, so it's only fair for some cynical Brits to poke some fun back at a nation that has an unrealistic view of their nation. These people also obviously don't have anybody moderately young in their social loop or they would know that 'destroy' has a different meaning when related to partying and having a good time doing so.

Sure, but by the time you float the excuse the flags are already up and you're in detainment, at which point the DHSmen have a pretty strong interest in proving themselves right. None of them are going to want to admit they fell for a joke from a cartoon show.

I'm not on any level excusing the DHSmen here, but the guy doesn't really strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed. Why would you put that kind of comment up on the net for anyone to see when you're about to travel to a nation that has established quite a reputation for taking itself way too damn seriously and rough-housing foreigners?

Why would you even think they would bother looking? As an extension of that why would you think a harmless bunch of quotes would be taken so far out of context like this?

I'd be willing to bet many people think that some of the stuff they here about how crazy America is a joke, because a lot of things they do these days sure would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Because DHS has a rod up its ass to rival the CN Tower, why would you ever make such brain-dead comments in a forum that can be easily searched by the men providing the security for the country that runs Guantanamo Bay?

It would be like if I planned on going to France and made jokes about how I'm going to piss on the Mona Lisa. It's a needlessly antagonistic quote that some security officer with a bad attitude can pin to my ass, and a stupid joke besides.

Because DHS has a rod up its ass to rival the CN Tower, why would you ever make such brain-dead comments in a forum that can be easily searched by the men providing the security for the country that runs Guantanamo Bay?

It would be like if I planned on going to France and made jokes about how I'm going to piss on the Mona Lisa. It's a needlessly antagonistic quote that some security officer with a bad attitude can pin to my ass, and a stupid joke besides.

The tipline makes you wonder if there isn't some subset of paranoid nuts scanning the internet for things to report.

Possible. But figuring out arrival dates and calling the correct airport is a little unusual. Not impossible, but starting to stretch it for a random occurrence.

Either that or DHS is lying through its teeth about the source.

I don't care so much for taking them aside to speak with them but that's where it should have ended.

Also, it wouldn't surprise me to find DHS or TSA employees absolutely desperate to justify the very existence of either organization when laid against the statistical near-vacuum of actual threats to, in this case, American airports. Imagine if the cells that made up your appendix were sentient and scrambling to find a way to prove that they were Doing Something Important to avoid an appendectomy.