back to article Virtualisation blog 'of interest to Interpol'

VMware employee William Lam appears to have been denied entry to Europe. Lam touched down in Paris en route to VMworld Europe in Barcelona, but soon after landing Tweeted the following. *sigh* Apparently Interpol has an interest in virtuallyGhetto, not the good kind :( There's chance I might not make #VMworld — William Lam (@ …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow. I wish we could find out which State Department official said that about a foreign country and its airport.

    Since I use ghettoVCB, does this mean that I can't fly to the EU either?

    1. Warm Braw

      >does this mean that I can't fly to the EU

      If it were Interpol that put the kybosh on the trip, your chances of flying anywhere would be poor (Interpol has 190 member countries). If it were Europol, perhaps it would just be the EU. That's what makes this all sound a bit odd.

  2. streaky

    This is..

    Essentially why I don't fly anywhere, especially to the USA.

    There are large databases of technical people who they think might have access to interesting things and it's been proven the likes of GCHQ are directly targeting them so you're basically unsafe flying through any airport due to that's where governments have essentially carte blanche over you and your gear; and you have essentially no rights (even in your own country's airports)

    And no I don't know the solution to any of this.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is..

      > you're basically unsafe flying through any airport due to that's where governments have essentially carte blanche over you and your gear; and you have essentially no rights

      That, my dear Sir, is utterly incorrect. You do have the full set of rights granted to any other person in the land.

      What happens is the opposition will try to capitalise on your ignorance, or inability to defend those rights. Which is why you need to be prepared, particularly tenacious, and of course know the various tricks the opposition will try to use on you. An expensive, ferocious lawyer also helps lots.

      I speak from personal experience and industry knowledge.

      1. streaky

        Re: This is..

        You do have the full set of rights granted to any other person in the land

        Except you're not generally in the land which is how you can be in a airport and stateless. You have some rights and once you get back there may or may not be hell to pay and expensive lawyers are great, but it's not useful if they prise keys out of you or similar and nobody knows and the damage is done.

        Airports aren't worth the risk imho.

        If one had rights one surely couldn't be on some secret security list where one didn't have any right of reply nor even be told why they were stopped and thrown in a cell in the first place.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: This is..

          > Except you're not generally in the land

          Yes you are. If they tell you otherwise, guess what, they're lying. Police in particular do that a lot, and quite legally too. That's one of their tactics, of which you should be aware.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I thought it was only the TSA that employed dumb fucks. Apparently not...

    1. Efros

      You pay peanuts and you get dumb fucks...

  4. Spaceman Spiff

    I wonder if it could have just been some name confusion. That happened to me in Chicago when I was returning from a trip to Mexico. I had to go sit for awhile in a border control room until they figured out I wasn't the person that they were looking for. My name is Irish and it's possible some former IRA person has the same name I do.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You really should change your name, Gerry. And get rid of that beard.

      1. Desidero

        His name is Eamon, and he was innocently carrying a cake.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Must be some mistake. I know antigovernment hacker types who run their mouths online and still have no trouble traveling, even in the US... so far.

  6. Teiwaz
    Coat

    Is it just me?

    Or does the Interpol logo kinda look like the Terran Empire logo from 'Mirror, Mirror' and 'through a mirror darkly'. http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Terran_Empire

    The sword plunged down through the earth is kind of dominating, conquest symbolically. More appropriately, sword upright is more defensive, like in the Babylon5 (sword and shield) logo.

    To me, anyway.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      Re: Is it just me?

      Or did Star Trek 'borrow' the logo and made the appropiate alterations - who knows? Still I think you are right about the symbolisim it feels that way to me.

  7. O RLY

    Why Interpol and not French Immigration? I wonder if Lam will write about it once he's back in the States.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is a first..

    .. isn't it normally the other way around?

    Normal people not allowed into the US because some system screwed up?

  9. Cincinnataroo

    If it's a mistake...

    Thought Experiment:

    If this is a mistake by somebody, does the person who screwed up get successfully sued to make restitution (let's say to speaker and all who wanted to hear him)?

  10. The Vociferous Time Waster

    Twit

    Man uses social media to make big deal of clerical error.

    He could tweet so was probably just sat in a queue while they checked his passport a bit more thoroughly than usual.

  11. Terry Cloth
    Big Brother

    It's quite a ``clerical error''...

    ...that sends him back whence he came.

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