Unfortunately, we can only do this to foreign journalists

So far, anyway.

With or without the special visas, journalists are now scrutinized by the Department of Homeland Security, which questioned me in detail in Los Angeles, and by the State Department, which -- when I reapplied to travel back to the United States -- asked me whom I was going to interview in the United States, what the nature of my article was and even what fee I would be paid. There is a turf war between the two departments, usually won by the former. Even with a visa, one can be turned back at any port of entry.

American journalists working abroad, especially in free countries, are not accustomed to monitoring of this kind. By requiring foreign journalists to obtain special visas, the United States has aligned itself with the likes of Iran, North Korea and Cuba, places where reporters are treated as dangerous subversives and disseminators of uncomfortable truths.

In June 2003, for example, the State Department cabled all its diplomatic and consular posts, urging them to pay attention to ''an increasing number'' of journalists being denied entry. ''Aliens coming to practice journalism are not eligible on the visa waiver program or a business visa,'' it explained. ''Journalists who attempt to do so . . . are subject to removal.''

Ostensibly, this information is meant to apprise visa applicants of the rules of entry and spare them later distress. Still, the approach seems that of a police state with a repressive ideological agenda.