Seriously, Who Wants to Travel to the United States?
The United States Department of Homeland Security scares the hell out of me. What is really bad is I am a United States citizen and it scares the hell out of me. It really has to be scary to someone that isn't a citizen of the United States.
Think of this scenario. You fly back into the United States after visiting some friends in Europe. A Homeland Security Officer, specifically a Transportation Security Agent hands you a pair of pliers and tells you to remove your nipple ring.
The Transportation Security Administration said Friday its officers at a Texas airport appear to have properly followed procedures when they allegedly forced a woman to remove her nipple rings -- one with pliers -- but acknowledged the procedures should be changed.
Congratulations TSA. You're brilliant. Forcing someone to remove a piercing, in a rather personal spot, with pliers kind of does scream that procedures should be changed. If there were any damn procedures in the first place and they aren't just running this security thing by the seat of their pants.
That's old news. Now onto the new news. This is the type of thing where I strongly believe that any government official should have at least a general knowledge of current technology.
Back in April of this year, the Ninth Circuit Court decided that searching laptops without reason is well within the law, and does not violate any Fourth Amendment Rights.
So wait. Now I am confused. The Ninth Circuit says that TSA Agents can search my papers, effects, laptops, iPods, iPhones and other electronic devices without probable cause, but the Fourth Amendment says that they cannot. Unless the probable cause is "Everyone is a Terrorist". Then it kind of makes sense.
The judges noted that precedent already allows searches of 1) briefcases and luggage, 2) a purse, wallet, or pocket, 3) papers found in pockets, and 4) pictures, films, and other graphic material. In fact, the Supreme Court allows border agents wide latitude, only drawing the line at searching the "alimentary canal" of a suspect without reasonable suspicion (seriously).
Well, at least they have to have reasonable suspicion to check my large intestines, that is comforting.
Don't worry though! Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) introduced a new bill to help with this! Well, not so much help, but at least you will get a receipt for the expensive piece of electronic equipment that the TSA Agent, who makes just more than minimum wage, is illegally seizing from you.
(5) A requirement that an individual subjected to a border security search of an electronic device shall receive a receipt for such device if such device is removed from the possession of such individual.
Basically, what Rep Sanchez is trying to do is bring more accountability to the TSA and Homeland Security. She is trying to create paper trails so we can figure out what they are doing.
Sanchez's bill would bring more routine to the search process. The bill requires the government to draft additional rules regarding information security, the number of days a device can be retained, receipts that must be issued when devices are taken, ways to report abuses, and it requires the completion of both a privacy impact study and a civil liberties impact study. Travelers would also have the explicit right to watch as the search is conducted.
Sanchez also wants data about the searches, which would have to be turned over to Congress once per quarter. Specifically, she wants to know how many searches are being done, where they take place, and the race and nationality of those being searched.
So what does all this boil down to? The TSA can illegally (in my opinion) search your laptops, iPods, iPhones and Blackberries. They can also seize these devices if they deem it necessary. Rather than fix this problem, they are trying to pass legislation in order to make the TSA accountable for the electronic devices they are seizing. It seems like legislation we really shouldn't need in the first place.
Here is an idea. Let's not treat every single person that is entering the United States as a potential terrorist. Let's not presume that every single person entering the United States is guilty rather than innocent.
I cannot even begin to imagine what this is doing for business travel in the United States. What practical business person would want to travel to the United States and have their legitimate business files searched and possibly their laptop seized? For that matter, who would want to leisurely travel to the United States and suffer the same outcome? This has to be affecting our business and tourism trade.
What makes this even worse is that most terrorists probably know more technologically than what the TSA or Homeland Security is giving them credit for. It leads me to believe that the TSA Agents are searching for someone who is wearing a shirt that says "I R A TEAROREST!".
I would have to go ahead and assume that most terrorists know there are multiple ways around specifically having information stored to the hard drive of an electronic device. Things like peer-to-peer connections, online repositories and this internet thing, can walk right around security in an airport or at a border. This is the point where technology is an important knowledge to have if you are a public official.
Something needs to be changed. The system we are currently dealing with is greatly flawed. These issues are obviously big reasons not to visit the United States for business or for pleasure. With our economy the way it is now, we shouldn't be doing anything that will prevent money from flowing into our country.
I am tired, as a citizen of the United States, of being afraid to leave the country and return, even though I have done nothing wrong. I don't deserve to have my personal items seized on behalf of National Security.
We need to have officials in charge of things like the Security of the Nation, that are educated in technology so that processes like this can be eliminated or streamlined to make more sense. Accountability of the TSA and Homeland Security is a good idea on paper and in legislation, but in application we are making them accountable for something they shouldn't be doing in the first place.
DevilsReject just chooses not to leave the country anymore and sits in his basement with his 77 ferrets. Alone.
Fence Creates Environmental Roadkill
You gotta love a government that not only ignores logic, intelligence, and big fucking holes while wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a worthless project.
Well, they've topped themselves for despicability in building the most worthless wall in history.
Environmental laws don't apply to Bush's pet projects.
In an aggressive move to finish building 670 miles of border fence by the end of this year, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it will waive federal environmental laws to meet that goal.
It is like someone made a sarcastic list of the worst ways to build a border security fence, but forgot the smiley emoticon and Bush took it seriously: Make it too short, put lots of holes in it, build it to last just a few decades, and choose the building sites based on if the property owner is an old family friend or not. The only thing left to complete the foul-up is to endanger the environment.
. . . opponents are concerned that it could increase the danger of extinction for endangered animals, such as the ocelot, a wild cat whose mating habits may be affected.
Bush, whoever gave you that list was JOKING!
(Homeland Security Secretary Michael) Chertoff has called the waivers a last resort, and department officials say the agency is committed to minimizing the impacts to the environment and wildlife.
Yes, of course, a last resort. Which is why the first environmental waiver under the mandate given to Homeland Security came in September, 2005, over a year before The Secure Fence Act was passed. Good to have that precedent set up nice and early, before any major complaints could be raised.
Congratulations to Bush, Chertoff, and all their little friends: you managed to take a thoroughly crappy idea and make it just that much worse.
Coyotemike tips his ocelot-skinned hat.
We Take A Small Step Closer To Fahrenheit 451
The book Fahrenheit 451 was originally a novella called The Fireman. It was written by Ray Bradbury and was meant as a critique of American society. In the book, critical thinking is suppressed and firemen are actually book burners. Bradbury explained what the book was about.
Fahrenheit 451 is a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature, which ultimately leads to ignorance of total facts.
Sounds pretty on target as far as where we are today, except for the role of firemen in our society. They are regarded as heroes, who sacrifice their lives to save what we hold dear. Firemen are the ultimate example of good in our society. But the Bush administration loves to ruin everything and they now have their sights set on firemen.
Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as American icons and infringing on people's privacy.
Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel don't need warrants to access hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, putting them in a position to spot behavior that could indicate terrorist activity or planning.
Uh, what? What the fuck is happening? The government is already monitoring our phone calls, our emails, where we fly, our purchases and can turn our cell phones into a listening device whenever they want and now they want to turn our firemen in spies and narcs. Fuck off.
The Homeland Security Department is now testing their new fireman as narcs program in New York City. Firemen are being taught how to identify material or behavior of terrorists. If things go well, it will be expanded across the United States of Creepy.
"They're really doing technical inspections, and if perchance they find something like, you know, a bunch of RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) rounds in somebody's basement, I think it's a no-brainer," said Jack Tomarchio, a senior official in Homeland Security's intelligence division.
Yeah, no shit, asshole. Now, why do I think that firemen dont actually need to be trained to turn someone in if they find RPGs in a basement? Nice try with the spin, but Im not a fucking moron. This program is about snooping and getting around warrants; using men who should be doing no such thing.
Even before the federal program began, New York firefighters and inspectors had been training to recognize materials and behavior the government identifies as "signs of planning and support for terrorism."
When going to private residences, for example, they are told to be alert for a person who is hostile, uncooperative or expressing hate or discontent with the United States; unusual chemicals or other materials that seem out of place; ammunition, firearms or weapons boxes; surveillance equipment; still and video cameras; night-vision goggles; maps, photos, blueprints; police manuals, training manuals, flight manuals; and little or no furniture other than a bed or mattress.
Huh, so they already do all that. What a surprise. Now, what exactly are firemen not doing that Homeland Security wants them to do? Heres a scenario: There is a call to 911 of a fire in a home. On there way there, firemen get a call over the radio telling them it is a possible terrorist home and to search the property. The firemen get there and tear the place up looking for information. Turns out the poor guy is not a terrorist, but his house has been ransacked. And hey, who made the 911 call in the first place? Because the guy who lives there didn't.
911 calls have been abused for years by police trying to get into a home, bringing firemen into the equation is bad fucking news. Although, some firemen seem to be okay with the idea.
D.C. firefighters and EMS providers are in 170,000 homes and businesses each year on routine calls, Schultz said.
"So we see things and observe things that may be useful to law enforcement," he said. "We can walk into your house. We don't need a search warrant." If an ambulance team shows up at a house and sees detailed maps of the District's public transit system on the wall, that's something the EMS provider would pass along, he said.
"It's the evolution of the fire service," said Bob Khan, the fire chief in Phoenix, which has created an information-sharing arrangement between the fire service and law enforcement through terrorism liaison officers.
Oh, good. Then dont be too upset if a dislike of firemen follows.
It's of particular concern for communities already under law enforcement scrutiny. "Do we want them to fear the fire department as well as the police?" German asked.
Yes, you do. And hopefully after this program is in place, we can get the cable guys going next.
U.S. One, Old Hippy Zero
Its no secret that the greatest threat to our national security is wizened, old grandpa hippies. Their patchouli oil and fair trade organic milk syndicates and stories about hanging out with Timothy Leary could render our nation asunder.
Thats why the bravery and web savvy of an unnamed United States border guard deserves applause. Without his nimble use of Google in a key crisis moment, 66-year-old Canadian psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar could be walking the streets of America right now, spreading his radical pro-LSD propaganda.
Sometime last summer, Feldmar, a Canadian Jew whose parents were interned at Auschwitz, tried to enter the U.S., allegedly to visit a friend in Seattle. The father of two adult children living in the States who holds degrees from several American universities, Feldmar typically invaded the United States about five or six times a year.
The border guard took Feldmars visa, and Googled Feldmars name. The search revealed a 2001 article Feldmar wrote about possible therapeutic benefits of LSD for the interdisciplinary journal Janus Head. In that article, Feldmar recounted an LSD trip he took himself in 1967.
The guard read that part with great interest, and led Feldmar into a bare room decorated only by an American flag. Explaining that because of his admission of drug use in the article, the guard informed Feldmar he was permanently denied entry into the U.S. under the Homeland Security Act. Feldmar protested, but the guard was like In your face, Wavy Gravy, and told him to contact the Department of Homeland Security to apply for a waiver.
The legal process and expense proved too much for the onetime psychedelic ranger.
He contacted the U.S. Consul in Vancouver to protest and was again told to apply for a waiver. When he consulted Seattle attorney Bob Free at MacDonald, Hoague and Bayless about going through this process, he learned that for $3,500 (U.S.) plus incidentals, he'd have a 90 per cent chance to get the waiver, but it would probably be just for a year, and the procedure would have to be initiated again, any time he wished to cross the border. Each time, he would have to produce a statement saying that he had been "rehabilitated."
So sleep well, America, knowing youre safe from the likes of Feldmar and his ilk. For now.
A Warning To The Punk In Guam Who Is Talking Shit
Get ready to be watched, no matter where you are in the world. Media across the world who have something negative to say about the good old United States of America better watch their ass. Homeland Security is coughing up cash to several major universities to develop software that will let the US monitor negative opinions of America or its leaders in newspapers and other publications around the world, and more specifically, Eastasia.
The Ministry of Truth hopes to identify potential threats to the US from countries like our enemy Eurasia. Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Utah will receive a combined 2.4 million to do research over three years. They will test the system on articles from 2001 and 2002 searching for topics such as axis of evil and the debate over global warming. Our enemy, Eastasia, has often used global warming as a topic to criticize the US.
Hopefully the program will not just identify threats but will also stifle criticism abroad as we have been able to do in the US. At that point we will be truly safe from out enemy, Eurasia.
The system is called natural language processing and has been under development for decades. The problem is interpreting and rating opinions as threats without making errors. In the future a US leader could make a statement, then the Ministry of Peace could use the system to track who our friends are and who our enemies our on the topic.
Currently Federal law prohibits intelligence agencies from creating such a database on American citizens but there are no such restrictions on foreign countries, such as our enemy Eastasia.