A 2010 Boston U. alumnus said he was detained and questioned by government officials at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport this month for what he said was because of his involvement with the soldier suspected of releasing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to the whistleblower website Wikileaks.

David House, 23, said his laptop, cell phone, USB flash drive and other electronics were searched and seized, under the guise of a customs search, by two officials claiming to be Department of Homeland Security agents after he returned from a short vacation in Mexico with his girlfriend on Nov. 3. His electronics were not returned at press time.

House said the agents’ questions led him to believe the seizure had to do with his involvement in the Bradley Manning Support Network, an organization working to fund the legal defense of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is accused of leaking classified information detailing the U.S. military’s involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The moment that it’s perceived that the government is violating the civil liberties of legitimate activists working within the USA that are U.S. citizens, something is very wrong with this country,” said House, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an interview with The Daily Free Press.

House is a web developer for the BMSN, and has visited Manning in prison three times to show his support.

“[T]hese two agents, Darin Louck and Marcial Santiago, had a series of questions for me, mostly revolving around my support for Bradley Manning, why I visited him in prison so much, who else was involved in the Bradley Manning Support Network, what the goal was of the network and things of that sort,” House said.

“I did not get the impression that they thought I was carrying something harmful in my laptop,” he later added. “I got the impression that my laptop was being seized because they thought I was suspicious merely because I’m an open government advocate that supports Bradley Manning.

House said he was told that one of the agents was with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, despite previously referring to himself as a Department of Homeland Security Agent. A spokesman with the Chicago branch of the FBI denied any involvement.

“The FBI does not have any jurisdiction to do screens of customs,” said Ross Rice, a spokesman and special agent for the FBI.

“Maybe he was confused,” Rice added.

Spokespeople from U.S. Customs and the O’Hare Airport declined to comment.

House said he is not the first Bradley Manning supporter to receive such treatment; in July, Jacob Appelbaum, a Wikileaks volunteer, was detained and had his electronics seized at the Newark International Airport after returning from Holland.

“I am not, as far as I know, under investigation, neither is Jake Appelbaum,” House said. “I have not been told that the information acquired is being used for any purpose – it seems that the government is just kind of, I don’t know, securing the computers of people they think are dissidents in hopes of finding something. And that strikes me as being a little bit odd.”