A Homer, Alaska couple, whose home was raided in April by federal agents who said they were looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop, have found they’ve been placed on a special security screening list by the Transportation Security Administration.
Their recent experiences traveling have left them feeling like their government is treating them like domestic terrorists.
Read: FBI breaks into Homer home, looking for Nancy Pelosi’s laptop
When Paul Hueper drove from Homer to Anchorage and returned to Homer on Ravn Air two weeks ago, he was pulled aside by airline personnel. His ticket had an SSSS designation, which means he’d been selected for secondary screening.
“They held me at the check-in for 45 minutes while they were conversing with TSA,” Hueper said. He was finally able to catch his flight home.
Last week, when he and his wife Marilyn tried to board a flight in Anchorage for Seattle and San Francisco, on their way to a memorial service in Sonoma, they were pulled aside for such extensive screening that they missed their flight. And then they missed their next flight out of Seattle.
“They went through every piece of clothing, every piece of paper, swabbed everything,” Paul said, of TSA at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. After going through the full-body scanner, the couple were physically patted down.
Missing their first flight, they booked the next one available. When they arrived at the gate to board, TSA was waiting for them again, and went through all of their belongings once more.
The couple arrived in Seattle, but then missed their flight out of Seattle due to their Anchorage experience and also because they were turned away at the gate and forced to submit to TSA baggage and personal searches again, and yet again at the gate.
Everything in their bags touched once again by TSA, everything swabbed for traces of explosives, full-body pat-downs. Again, TSA was waiting for them at the jetway and went through all their possessions one last time.
For their flight home on July 5, after all the pat downs, scans, and checks, there was even a last surprise mobile TSA checkpoint placed halfway down the jetway to their plane in order to intercept them again to swab their carryons and for agents to interrogate them.
The Huepers realize they’ve been singled out because they went to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, and, as far as the way the government is treating them, the Huepers think they’ve landed on some kind of domestic terrorist list.
The Huepers have concluded that any trip they take will need to have four hours built into it ahead of any flight or connecting flight, and they’ll need to ask the airlines for help to get them on their flights since they have been turned back whenever they try to board.
The drop into their Orwellian experiences started in late April, when 12 agents — FBI, Capitol Police, ATF, and even local law enforcement — broke down the door of the Huepers’ home. They held the Huepers at gunpoint and accused Marilyn of having stolen Pelosi’s laptop during the Jan. 6 protests inside the U.S. Capitol. They did not produce a search warrant until after they had searched the whole house and kept the Huepers and their houseguests in handcuffs for hours, not allowing them to even use the bathroom.
Marilyn says she never went inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, although Paul posted on Facebook photos of her on the steps of the Capitol. The couple had gone to D.C. to hear former President Donald Trump speak, along with tens of thousands of other Americans who attended that day. Some went into the Capitol and created dangerous conditions. One woman inside the Capitol was shot by Capitol Police or other unknown police officer.
A photo circulated by the Capitol Police and FBI led law enforcement to single out Marilyn as the person who had stolen the laptop from Pelosi’s office. The comparison between Marilyn, below left, and the unidentified woman sought by federal agents, right, shows numerous differences.
During the federal raid in April, the couple’s door was damaged and never repaired by the government, which took her and Paul’s laptops, the couple’s cell phones, and a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
That Pelosi laptop has never been found, but after weeks, the Huepers’ laptops were returned to them, although their laptops were compromised and unusable due to being bitlocked by the FBI.
That led to Rep. Jim Jordan interrogating FBI Director Christopher Wray in June about why the FBI had taken the pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution during the raid of the Huepers’ home. Wray dodged the question and said he could not talk about an active investigation.
Read: Rep. Jim Jordan asks FBI director why the agents took the Huepers’ copy of the Constitution
Obey, or else.
The Huepers need to talk to John Sturgeon’s lawyer… Senator Sullivan might be of assistance.
Senator Sullivan will be of no assisstance
And the response from our Alaskan Congressional delegation is..????? …or perhaps Rep. Jim Jordan is he only one in Congress interested in Justice and why the FBI is treating these American Citizens in this manner.
I think so
Memories of King George.
Soviet style harassment from Soviet style thugs. This makes me interested in reading about what happened to Soviet party thugs after the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Thanks for continuing to publicize the Heuepers’ dilemma at the hands of the government resulting from their free exercise of their rights as citizens. Their experience with TSA can only be attributed to a negative report from another government entity, most likely the FBI. Does our state not have the ability to intervene on their behalf? This persecution of Trump supporters must end!!
Further proof of the politicization and weaponization of the Airport Gestapo, and of our so-called “security” establishment in general.
Beijing Biden is ramping up the Fascist policies of Barack Obama. Welcome to the new, improved domestic surveillance state, comrades!
I hope to God they are suing the FBI, TSA and anyone else involved in this farce. This is wrong!!! So the FBI has turned into the Gestapo, the KGB all rolled into one! WTF has happened to our country???
Unbelievable. We, as a Country, are heading down a very evil road.
Wrong think will not be tolerated.
The FBI needs to be dissolved. It’s turned into the Stasi.
Corrupt from top to bottom.
Americans should had never put up with the amped up security screenings after 9/11/01.
I thought Americans will have learned a thing or two from such an experience not to comply with mandated masks, reduced travel, and closed business and church services.
I was wrong. Americans complied like they didn’t even remember how annoying the increased government intrusion was in 2002.
Thanks to the complying Americans! I have less freedoms than I did in 2019.
‘Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’ As I looked for this quote the first hit was NPR debunking the validity of it. And therein lies the issue, that NPR, MSNBC, CNN and many other outlets continuously bray dire warnings to keep the public shivering in basements for all the bogeymen out there: global warming, coming ice age, end of the world in 9.42 years, COVID, white supremacists, terrorists, alien invasion, or name your threat of the day from which only big government can save you. And sadly for too many people, so long as they have a Big Mac, football on Sunday, and Colin Kaepernick to tell them how to think, they live just fine and will get along. For these people, ‘give them bread and circuses and they will be happy’ (Juvenal). Or give them bread and circuses and they will continue to vote democrat.
Welcome to Uncle Joe’s and Aunt Kamala’s totalitarian state.
I called Sara Vance, not happy! Message to Gary Stevens, did nothing that I am aware of or Sarah’s staffer was aware of initially on first attack. Called Don Young, Dan Sullivan, both staff not aware. Demanded action and a follow-up. Called Lisa’s office and actually got a call back from her new Chief of Staff, he will call me this coming Wednesday with an update! That is a major change from her office! Called and left voice mail to the Governor and sent e-mail to the Governor.
What will happen? Will the AG, the Directors of FBI, DHS and Civil Rights Division of the DOJ, director is a huge Commie make this right? Not holding my breath! Will al the people I called do something? I believe most will. What, time will tell.
Every head of wheat that stands above the others, will be broken off … that’s their tactic, to control the rest.
Our congressional delegation should definitely get involved and there should be consequences for whoever has approved these tactics. And financial reparations to these folks. Delays come with costs.
My Latvian friend who fought during WWII said, “Don’t be the nail that sticks out of the board because everyone will hit You”. The partisans were compliant during the day; at night, it was a different story…………
This treatment may become more prevalent if you are not a Democrat party sheep. We will eventually all land on a special list for a post, tweet, association, or not being vaccinated. Be ready. I like how these people were tagged with S’s. I have read about a special police force in Germany in the previous century that went under the moniker “SS”
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Is it pre-crime inquisitions? In our republic, in America under the 1776 Constitution we don’t do precrime investigations. It’s not supposed to be happening.
I really hope this couple is suing the FBI. And where are our US senators and congressman in helping to clear up this mess?
Having drinks
I should think that holding them against their will while they were engaged in perfectly legal travel would constitute kidnapping. Have the offenders arrested and tried for unlawful restraint. Missing their flights made it clear what was going on.
Nothing will happen because of that facility in Utah that is documenting this comment. They got your number.
People on the left are beyond pathetic. They’ve become deplorable “creatures..”
Welcme to Amerika folks
You morons who voluntarily submit to a TSA search are now getting what you deserve.
When morons forfeit their Constitutional rights by submitting to a TSA search they get what they deserve.
It is really sad how they are being harassed and treated as guilty even when their name has been cleared.
Just a wanted to post a big thank you to the Huepers.
Until this happened I had impure thoughts about our government and its role in our lives. Luckily, the Huepers’ experience has helped me understand the importance of acting, and thinking exactly as I am instructed to do by my betters in D.C. Without the Huepers’ sacrifice, I would not be suffciently discouraged from thinking or speaking ill of those who are more important than me.
Paul and Marilyn, I know it is unfair and unjust, but as an American I am more than willing to have you pay that price.
Lastly, I want to get this on the record so that my benefactors in the government understand…Lesson learned and instructions received. I will comply.
Once again many MRAK readers are out of touch with reality! So let me explain it to you again, but this time as if you’re little children. “Liberty and justice for all” is a lie! For as long as I have been alive it has been a lie. Some of you have commented; “SUE”. In America the entity with the most money almost always wins…in this case; the FEDERAL government! Oh, that is if you could even find a lawyer that’s neither stupid or crazy, to take the case. You seem surprised that this is happening. Don’t you recall that Bush and the Republicans (YOU!) were all for the passage of the “Patriot Act” and the creation of the TSA? Now that it’s being used against you, you’re shocked! It was OK when it was being used against someone else? Well get used to it…what happened January 6th has gotten the FBI’s attention and there is no way to ‘unattention’ them! Another lack of reality on your part is that technically these people DID commit a crime by their presence at a place where felonies were being committed. There ARE plenty of people in prisons who didn’t know their friend was robbing the store! Luckily the FBI already has enough on their plate. Finally, I’m glad to see Suzanne acknowledge “local law enforcement” involvement…but you’re unwillingness to name the Alaska State Troopers by name, when you’re naming all the rest(!), is a sure sign of fear. Fighting corruption must start at home!
I would hold our Senators Murkowski and Sullivan and our Congressman Young as accomplices unless I hear that they are supporting these Alaskans. Where are they? Are they too, too afraid of the Intelligence Community? FEAR conquers almost all.
What happened to “due process?”
Noticed yet that Xiden is growing the cutest little toothbrush style upper lip decoration?
And our federal officials do what? Our Governor does what?
Same they they always do. Nothing
TSA must be incompetent if they must search more than once for a flight.
What’s Dunleavy doing about it? He should have had those FBI thugs arrested immediately.
Meanwhile Biden brings in planeloads of illegals without documentation or Covid screening and flies them all over America.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I’m SICK of these agencies going unchecked!!! I’ve been at the mercy of TSA employee’s unprofessional behaviors! They flaunt their power!
Now I see why so-called law enforcement are labeled jack booted thugs – they act like it and treat ordinary Americans with disgusting degradation. That’s Joe Biden for ya.
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