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Tuesday, February 28th, 2017

U.S. detains and nearly deports French Holocaust historian

Author:     James McAuley
Source:     The Washington Post
Publication Date:     February 26 2017
 Link: U.S. detains and nearly deports French Holocaust historian
Stephan:   I see stories like this every day; and feel as if I moved into an alternative U.S. time line in a parallel universe. You probably know that Mohammad Ali's American born son of the same name was detained for hours, and I did a piece on the British children's author. There is also a teacher who came with a class of children. And that's not the end of it. Here is another one, involving an internationally known French-Egyptian scholar. It is being taken as a national slight in France. It is all so vulgar and ham-handed. So anti-wellbeing. It is causing permanent damage to the world's perception of America. The unintended consequences are rippling out.

Credit: Mike Blake/Reuters

PARIS — Henry Rousso is one of France’s most preeminent scholars and public intellectuals. Last week, as the historian attempted to enter the United States to attend an academic symposium, he was detained for more than 10 hours — for no clear reason.

On Wednesday, Rousso arrived at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport after an 11-hour flight from Paris, en route to Texas A&M University in College Station. There, he was to speak Friday afternoon at the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.

But things did not go according to plan: Rousso — an Egyptian-born French citizen — was “mistakenly detained” by U.S. immigration authorities, according to Richard Golsan, director of the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M.