US Composer Says Feds Are After Him

One of the most famous composers in America insists that Homeland Security has targeted him for his liberal views, the Guardian reports. John Adams, who achieved fame with his Nixon in China opera 20 years ago, says airport immigration grills him whenever he comes home. "I'm perfectly aware that I, like many artists and many thoughtful people in the country, am being followed," Adams says.

Adams made headlines by criticizing Henry Kissinger in Nixon and China and writing an opera, The Death of Klinghoffer, depicting a PLO hijacking of a cruise ship in 1985. He also wrote a choral piece commemorating the victims of Sept. 11. But he criticizes the US for glamorizing the attacks—"in the scale of human tragedy it's very small," he says—"and then, of course, we struck out by invading the wrong country." (More John Adams stories.)