Years ago, Saadiq Long — an American citizen born in Oklahoma — served in our Air Force with distinction. For a time, he even provided technical support to military aircraft destined for combat. Who could have guessed that such a man would be deemed too dangerous to board commercial aircraft?

But that is what the FBI has done to Saadiq. Earlier this month, the FBI prevented him from boarding his flight from Oklahoma to Qatar where he lives with his wife and daughter. Last year, the FBI twice prevented Saadiq from flying to Oklahoma from Qatar to visit his gravely ill mother.

It was only after a flurry of media attention, a petition with thousands of signatures and the intervention of Department of Justice officials that the FBI relented. Saadiq finally flew home to Oklahoma in November, just in time to spend what may be the final Thanksgiving he shares with his sick mother.

But his return to Oklahoma only marked the beginning of a campaign of FBI harassment. Unmarked vehicles followed him. FBI agents approached family in intimidating fashion. On one occasion, the FBI misled local authorities into believing that Saadiq and his sister were felons evading arrest, which they are not. Predictably, this last episode caused Saadiq and his sister to be yanked from their vehicle at gunpoint, handcuffed and tossed to the ground.