On the left, Moreno Veloso currently. On the right, photo from 1993reproduction
Published 04/18/2024 20:46
Rio – Musician Moreno Veloso, son of Caetano Veloso, recalled when he was mistaken for a terrorist by the FBI, the United States federal investigation service, on a flight to New York, where he was attending college. The story, which happened in 1993, was told during the artist’s participation in the program “Que História é Essa, Porchat?”.
“There was no internet or cell phones. Not for us. It was just at the Pentagon. I heard the pilot saying something I didn’t understand and there was a commotion. Instead of landing in New York, we landed in Washington. When I went to get my suitcase, a The FBI girl asked me to follow her. When I arrived in a room, two huge guys came in and lifted me off the floor without using force”, commented the artist from Bahia, who didn’t speak English well.
He said that the agents asked direct questions, with prior knowledge about the Brazilian: “The first question was: ‘what is the name of your advisor at the Physics faculty?’ I was studying Physics at the time. But I asked myself: ‘how did he know?’ I was more nervous than I already was. There was no Google. I said I didn’t understand. ‘Why did you study Russian in physics?’ he asked.”
The musician, then a physics student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, explained why he studied Russian: “It was mandatory to study a foreign language. English was full, Spanish was much more so. Even Greek was full. All that was left was Russian.” He revealed that the Americans asked him to take off his clothes.
Then, they ordered him to take the physicist’s oath: “We swear that we will not use our knowledge to destroy the world, that we will use it responsibly. I had to swear in English. Their oath had one more. ‘I will not destroy the world and the United States.’ schoolbag”.
Later, Moreno realized what really happened: “I took everything later, they took me to the airport. I went to New York, there were flight attendants who were Brazilians and they explained to me that Iranians threatened to blow up the airport. ‘There was a threat of terrorism. And you were the guy,’ they told me.”
