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WikiLeaks figure detained at Sea-Tac

SEATTLE, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A founding member of WikiLeaks confirmed he was detained by U.S. agents after arriving in Seattle on a flight from Iceland.

ABC News said Saturday Jacob Appelbaum said in a series of Twitter messages this week the feds searched his belongings and questioned him for about 30 minutes Monday at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

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Appelbaum told ABC the agents from Customs and Border Protection demanded his cellphones and laptops and "were visibly unhappy when they discovered nothing of the sort."

He said he did turn over a few USB thumb drives that contained an encoded copy of the Bill of Rights that the agents were unable to copy.

Appelbaum is a U.S. citizen and computer security expert who invented Tor Project, a software program that allows anonymous Web surfing. He also advised WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who based his controversial site in Iceland.

Appelbaum did not reveal details of his Icelandic visit, but he said he expects to be detained again in the near future when he returns from a pending business trip to Toronto.

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