US Detains And Deports Two Britons For "Destroy America" Tweets

Well this was going to happen at some point for sure.  Brits Leigh Van Bryan and his friend Emily Bunting have been barred from America by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for two tweets about "diggin' up Marilyn Monroe" and "destroying America."

If anything, it shows the DHS' systems work in picking up possible 'social' terrorist threats; but we feel as if context may be missed somewhat.  According to the two, who claim complete innocence, it's innocent British slang, and the Miss Monroe comment was a Family Guy reference.  But, to be fair, in a country that has really stepped up it's security, saying “free this week for a quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America? x” is pretty damn stupid.

People (especially the Sun) say just how fascinatingly worrying it is that the DHS didn't check any contextual background to the conversations, and that if terrorists were going to be planning anything, chances are they wouldn't use the public forum that is social networking.  But we can't help but a) have every sympathy for the DHS doing their job, regardless of how 'twitchy' they may get in their line of work, and b) see these two characters as a right pair of wazzocks.

Source: The Sun (unfortunately)