Saadiq Long, a U.S. Air Force veteran and convert to Islam who was touted by leftist media as the poster boy for proof the "no-fly" list is Islamophobic, has been arrested with his family near the Turkey-Syria as part of an Islamic State (ISIS) cell,
PJ Media reports.
Long's story began in 2012 when he was living in Qatar, but was unable to fly to his native Oklahoma to visit his sick mother because he was on the no-fly list. His case was taken up by MSNBC's Chris Hayes, Glenn Greenwald, then of The Guardian, and Mother Jones.
He was temporarily removed from the list and flew to Oklahoma, but said he was followed there by the FBI and put back on the no-fly list after an incident with local police, making it impossible for him to return to Qatar.
Long's media champions again took up his cause, but to no avail.
He eventually got back to Qatar by taking a bus to Mexico and flying from there.
Long says he converted to Islam while stationed in Turkey during his Air Force career.
Long and his wife and daughter have been detained,
The Daily Caller reports. PJ Media reports Long was arrested along with seven others.
Adam Soltani, The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) representative who helped Long in his previous efforts to get media attention for his cause, did not respond to requests for comment, according to The Daily Caller and PJ Media. An email to his attorney Gadeir Abbas was returned undeliverable, PJ Media reported.
Greenwald, one of the journalists who has championed Long's cause, did tweet about the arrest.
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