Homeland Security officials barred famous British author Ian McEwan, a favorite of First Lady Laura Bush, from entering the United States from Canada for 36 hours this week because of a mix-up over his visitor’s visa. McEwan endured a day of questioning at the Vancouver airport, a night in a hotel and hours of waiting at a U.S. Consulate before officials allowed him to fly to Seattle on Wednesday evening–barely in time for a long-planned lecture to 2,500 people. At the lecture, he congratulated the Department of Homeland Security for “protecting the American public–from British novelists.” McEwan, 55, whose book “Atonement” won the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award, said in a telephone interview Thursday that Homeland Security officials questioned him “at great length” about his intentions. “I was caught in the middle trying to be as polite as I could to everybody, and trying not to feel like a criminal,” he said. Full Story
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