US Terror Rules Thwart Cigar Imports

Customs Seizes Massive Numbers of Cigars, Citing Terrorism

Citing new rules put in place in the wake of the attempted “printer cartridge” bombing story from October, the US is reporting a massive number of Cuban cigars being seized from people trying to import them from Europe.

Apparently large numbers of cigars have been flowing through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport from Europe for years, and customs had been regularly seizing about 2,000 cigars in the average two week span. That number is now more than 100,000 in a similar period, according to the Customs and Border Protection agency.

A spokesman for the agency said the anti-terror rules were making the nominally illegal trade much more difficult, and local cigar shop owners praised the mass seizures, as it was expected to dramatically increase their business.

It once again leaves unanswered, however, the question of whether the anti-terror law is doing anything remotely terror related, or if, as with so many other laws, evidence that it is restricting something totally unrelated is being passed off as proof of its effectiveness simply because no real evidence exists.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.