Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe'.

Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.

The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: 'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America'.



Leigh was also quizzed about another tweet which quoted hit US comedy Family Guy which read: '3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p****** people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!

The Department of Homeland Security was recently criticised over false accounts it set up on Twitter.

These are then used to scan networks for 'sensitive' words and then for tracking the people who use them.

Online privacy group, the Electronic Privacy Information Centre requested information on the DHS's scans, which it says the agency announced in February last year.

The group claims that a request under the Freedom of Information Act to access the documentation has gone unanswered.

The words deemed as being sensitive by the DHS include:

Illegal immigrant
Outbreak
Drill
Strain
Virus
Recovery
Deaths
Collapse
Human to animal
Trojan

Federal agents even searched his suitcase looking for spades and shovels, claiming Emily was planning to act as Leigh's 'look out' while he raided Marilyn's tomb.

Bar manager Leigh, from Coventry, and Emily, 24, from Birmingham, were then quizzed for five hours at LAX before they were handcuffed and put into a van with illegal immigrants and locked up overnight.

They spent 12 hours in separate holding cells before being driven back to the airport where they were put on a plane home via Paris.



Reasons I have no sympathy;

1) Stupid name
2) Stupid hair cut
3) Sandy chinos
4) Fucking ugly shoes

What a total joke.

Works for me.

I saw this earlier - ridiculous!

eh?

Gay best friend.

Deserved locking up.

Passing semen from human to?

oppressive

Fuck you America!

(that's my next Visa sorted)

You'll probably find out their passports were flagged at the airport automatically by the computer - the guards wanted to do a quick interview/procedure when this happens but being

A) British
B) From the Midlands

they probably went ape shit and started shouting/causing a scene/being cunts about it rather than just being co-operative.

You're ape shit.

Nice.

I don't think you have spent that much time traveling through american air ports Wub, you don't need to be guilty of anything or have your name flag up on a computer to get a serious grilling from some extremely rude people. In my experience they seem to WANT you to be a terrorist or some sort of criminal!

Only time I've ever had trouble was flying into New York post-911 and having the rentacop security man decide that steaming drunk me needed to answer 20mins of questions.

I was in the US recently (Boston) and the airport was a breeze, stright through with no issue - security everywhere but didnt get bothered or stopped. No queues, no questions, no nuttin' !

I was stopped after taking my suitcase off the carousel when I arrived back in the UK from a heavy weekend in Madrid and in hindsight I think I know the exact reason why I was stopped. While I was waiting for my mate to claim his baggage I stopped and petted the sniffer dog and it sat down in front of me while I rubbed its ears. When I went to exit the lady minding the dog started pointing at me and I was then pulled to one side and had my suitcase searched and another woman holding a piece of paper (which I think was a stupid attempt at a prop) said I’d been pulled up because my suitcase had “come up positive for cocaine on their machine,” according to this print out blah blah blah. They found nothing but I was worried because we’d had such a massive weekend on it and my mates were smoked green while I had my suitcase laying open on the living room floor for two days. I started to worry if anything had fallen in while we were mash up but they found nothing. The nimrod then started saying to me have you been taking drugs, and then suggested that I knew people who had been taking drugs and that I muuuust have seen people in the clubs taking drugs when I was out, like it even had any relevance to their situation. Like I was ever going to say “yes”, so I just denied it. They let me go but I couldn’t believe the blatant attempt at fishing for anything that might resemble contact with drugs. Personally I think they only stopped me because the dog sat down and even working sniffer dogs like to sit down on occasion, especially if someone is stroking their ears, the dog was enjoying it. I reckon the bird at the carousel got excited and thought they’d give it a go. Has anyone ever heard of a machine that detects cocaine traces on a suitcase? As I haven’t.

At most it might have been because the dog sat down and I’ve heard sniffer dogs are trained to detect and signal through techniques such as this so as not to excite / scare the target. SO it could be possible my clothes had a skunk smell on them that the dog reacted to but I still think it was because I was rubbing it’s ears and it enjoyed it.

Yes. At Belfast International airport I was walking through with my mother and she got stopped and her handbag was swabbed with a white cotton pad type thing, it was then put in a machine. It detects Cocaine and heroin. Obviously came up negative. Why they stopped her I have no idea. If they'd have tested my wallet or even pockets I'd have been well done!

I was on a party coach coming back from Amsterdam that got stopped in Dover. We all got turfed off and ushered into the holding building. They swabbed my manbag and then x-rayed it and it all came up clear.

Somehow the 3 bags of weed inside the manbag went undetected and I was told to go back on the coach and enjoy the rest of my journey home!

So it was a good thing I'd denied all accusations as perhaps they’d have tried to nab my cards off me or something do you think?