If it is really to enforce export laws, why dont they check that at the airport when people are actually leaving the US ? This store should apologize and teach its employees to behave better.
I get it, but it's still a stupid law that punishes the average iranian citizen that has nothing to do with the iranian government. I recently lost a job offer in a semiconductor company because of the deemed export law. And by "a foreign person" they actually mean chinese, iranian, syrians and cubans. Most technologies aren't restricted to most of the world including Saudia Arabia and Pakistan the origins of almost all terrorists.
Then using this logic, why only ban iPad purchase. Why not laptops, PDA etc. Point is that it is stupid to do what this particular apple store did. They assumed that just because the person spoke foreign, they are foreigners and not US citizens.
I was twice "randomly selected" (read: I was nearby when they were finished with whoever they were inspecting) by TSA officials before check-in, who went systematically through my to-be-checked luggage looking for things unspecified. I have also several times received rather serious-looking notes in my checked luggage stating that they had gone through my luggage behind the scenes without my consent. They also demand to see at the very least an x-ray of any carry-on luggage that I take -- including special processing for shoes, anything in my pockets, and the laptop in my bag. The last time I went to the states they took a naked photograph of me with a machine that had "X-ray vision" (though I don't know whether it was Safe Microwave or Cancer-causing X-ray style). Nominally nobody actually saw the photograph, and it identified that my ponytail (I had one at the time) was a Serious Risk worthy of further investigation.
Generally speaking one tries to be several hours early to their flight.
You're being quite dramatic with your description of the security process.
-I've been randomly selected too and questioned. They do this in most countries. It happened for me in Germany as well.
-The notes are a good thing. I'd rather the TSA or whomever tell me when they search my luggage.
-X-raying is probably the most efficient way to search through all luggage going on a flight. It's also been around for a loooong time, way before TSA.
-Shoes is a direct result of the shoebomber incident. I think it's a little silly though.
-You have to empty your pockets/take off belt to go through the metal detector and not set it off.
-The full body scanners are opt out. I have always opted out. Recently that means you get a pat down. Fine with me, given the two choices.
-You sure it was your ponytail?
-Several hours is overkill. 2 at most for international, 1.25 domestic just in case.
Domestic flights in the US are much better, yes. The other thing that's better is getting out of the US. I'm actually often heavily questioned on my way into the US. (And never on my way out.) That happens twice: once at the airport, once at customs. The airport one is much more cursory and they appear to be looking for whether you sweat. The customs one appears to be about telling a coherent story about who you are and where you've been. I actually don't mind this so much, although the customs queues are pretty horribly dull and long.
I'm not so much objecting to the notes. Rather, I'm saying, "not only did manual inspections of bags happen, they still happen -- just no longer in front of your face." Metal detectors are pretty nice, and probably worth their security, if they were the only factor -- but if they're going to pat you down / naked-photograph you anyway, the metal detector just seems redundant.
Nobody told me that I could opt out of the body scanners, and I was certainly being pushed through them. I am 80% sure that it was my ponytail: I saw the Risky Business circle drawn on a schematic of my torso about my shoulders I felt someone grope between them, and I heard them say, "oh, it's just your ponytail." The other 20% is just because I have no idea what the hell triggered their algorithm or how their algorithm worked or what its false-positive rate.
US CBP routinely inspects people leaving the USA by car (entering Canada). Many items that are unregulated in the US itself (e.g. firearms accessories) are illegal to export under ITAR.
How do they do that? I've driven from the US to Canada dozens of times, and at every port I've been to the road goes directly past US customs up to Canadian customs. US customs has no opportunity to stop me coming into Canada, unless there are CBT officers in the Canadian customs booth?
You may not interact with them usually but that doesn't mean they can't stop you. They do it before you pass them. I've had it happen in both the US and Canada.
Yes they can stop you - but to say it's routine sounds wrong - I will admit I haven't driven across the border in a long time, but when you head to the US, you don't normally deal with canadian border authorities, and vice-versa - you juts deal with the authorities of the country you are entering, not the one you are leaving.
