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JANUARY 2010
TSA CONSIDERING MIND READING SCANNERS
ACLU HITS EXCESSIVE COMPUTER SEARCHES
BY CUSTOMS POLICE
HOUSTON & HOMELAND POLICE
TEST DRONE TO SPY WITHOUT WARRANT ON CITIZENS
REPORT: TSA DECEIVED PUBLIC ABOUT
SCANNER PRIVACY
TSA CONSIDERING MIND READING SCANNERS
HOUSTON & HOMELAND POLICE
TEST DRONE TO SPY WITHOUT WARRANT ON CITIZENS
OCTOBER 2009
HOMELAND POLICE PAYING FOR LOCAL
TORTURE WEAPONS
APRIL 2009
HOMELAND POLICE SAY SUPPORT OF
SECOND OR TENTH AMENDMENT COULD BE SIGN OF POLITICAL EXTREMISM
OCTOBER 2008
HOMELAND POLICE PROCEEDING WITH NEW PLAN
TO SPY ON YOU
YOU CAN'T EVEN GO TO THE HOMELAND
SECURITY WEBSITE
WITHOUT THEM SPYING ON YOU
HOMELAND POLICE FIND NEW WAY TO
INSULT CONSTITUTION
AMERICAN ARTIST ARRESTED AT U.S.
BORDER
FOR DRAWNG THIS PICTURE
AUGUST 2008
HOMELAND POLICE ABUSE PASSENGERS
AT JFK AIRPORT
Emily Feder, AlterNet
- I arrived at JFK Airport two weeks ago after a short vacation
to Syria and presented my American passport for re-entry to the
United States. After 28 hours of traveling, I had settled into
a hazy awareness that this was the last, most familiar leg of
a long journey. I exchanged friendly words with the Homeland
Security official who was recording my name in his computer.
He scrolled through my passport, and when his thumb rested on
my Syrian visa, he paused. Jerking toward the door of his glass-enclosed
booth, he slid my passport into a dingy green plastic folder
and walked down the hallway, motioning for me to follow with
a flick of his wrist. Where was he taking me, I asked him. "You'll
find out," he said. . .
No one who had been detained
knew precisely why they were there. A few people were led into
private rooms; others were questioned out in the open at desks
a few feet from the crowd and then allowed to pass through customs.
Some were sent to another section of the holding area with large
computer screens and cameras, and then brought back. . .
There was one British
tourist in the group. Paul (also not his real name) was traveling
with three friends who had passed through customs soon after
their plane landed and were waiting for him on the other side
of the metal barrier; he suspected he had been detained because
of his dark skin. When he asked if he could go to the bathroom,
one of the guards said, "I wouldn't." "What if
someone has to?" I asked. "They will just have to hold
it," the guard responded with a smile. Paul began to cry.
I watched as he, over the course of four hours, went from feeling
exuberant about his trip to New York to despising the entire
country. "I speak the Queen's English," he said to
me. "I'm third-generation British. I came to America because
I've always wanted to come here, and now they've got me so scared
that all I want to do is go home. We're paying for your stupid
war anyway.". . .
Within a few hours of
my arrival, I saw at least 10 people denied the right to use
the bathroom or buy food and water. . .
After four hours, I finally
demanded to speak to the guards' supervisor, and he was called
down. I asked if the detainees could file a formal complaint.
He said there were complaint forms (which, in English and Spanish,
direct one to the Department of Homeland Security's Web site,
where one must enter extensive personal information in order
to file a "Trip Summary") but initially refused to
hand them out or to give me his telephone number. "The Department
of Homeland Security is understaffed, underfunded, and I have
men here who are doing 14-hour days." He tried to intimidate
me when I wrote down his name -- "So, you're writing down
our names. Well, we have more on you" -- and asked me questions
about my address and my profession in front of the rest of the
people detained. I pointed out a few of the families who had
missed their flights and had been waiting seven hours. His voice
barely controlled, his lip curled into a smirk. . .
JULY 2008
CUSTOMS OFFICIALS ROUTINELY SEIZING
5-10% OF LAPTOPS
WHY VIRTUAL STRIP SEARCHING AIRLINE
PASSENGERS IS WRONG
GREAT MOMENTS IN HOMELAND SECURITY
Colorado Springs Gazette - A bus service
that shuttles gamblers from Colorado Springs to nearby mountain-town
casinos has been awarded $382,000 in Homeland Security anti-terrorism
grants, according to a May report by the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Federal officials said the grants were part of the Infrastructure
Protection Activities program, with the money used for "vehicle
security," GPS systems, and training drivers, which means,
according to a bus company official, teaching them "to be
aware of their surroundings, of what's unusual and the people
on board."
APRIL 2008
MARCH 2008
HOMELAND POLICE BACK DOWN A BIT
ON REAL ID
CEMBER 2007
STUPID HOMELAND SECURITY TRICKS: YOU
CAN'T BE RESCUED WITHOUT A BACKGROUND CHECK
HOUSTON CHRONICLE - Texans seeking to escape
the next hurricane or state emergency by evacuation bus will
first be submitted to criminal background checks, the state's
emergency management director says. The idea, according to Jack
Colley, is to keep sex offenders and others who may be wanted
by police off the same buses used by the most vulnerable during
an evacuation: the elderly, disabled residents and children.
. .
Earlier this month, it was announced AT&T
Inc. has contracted with the Texas Governor's Division of Emergency
Management to provide electronic wristbands for those residents
wanting them, before they board an evacuation bus. The wristbands
would be scanned by emergency management officials and the person's
name would be added to a bus boarding log. That person's name
and their bus information would be sent wirelessly to the University
of Texas Center for Space Research data center.
When the evacuee arrives at a designated
shelter, the wristband would be scanned again to help state employees
respond to inquiries from the public about the safety and location
of evacuated family members.
The decision to wear a wristband is purely
voluntary. But anyone who boards an evacuation bus will have
to provide a name. There will be no requirement to show an identification
card, such as a driver's license, but officials may ask those
boarding for an ID. . .
"We're all entitled to privacy, but
we're not entitled to anonymity," Colley said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5380868.html
HOMELAND POLICE USING FIRE DEPARTMENTS
TO SPY ILLEGALLY ON CITIZENS
OCTOBER 2007
U.S. CUSTOMS OFFICIALS ABUSE TOP FINNISH
BAND
JEAN HOPFENSPERGER, STAR TRIBUNE - When
three of Finland's most popular musicians, including one described
as that country's Bruce Springsteen, arrived for a recent tour
in Minnesota, they expected a quick trip through airport customs.
Instead, immigration agents at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport subjected them to more than two hours of interrogation
that the musicians considered so harsh and demeaning that they
filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki.
"It was almost three hours of screaming, door-slamming and
accusations, according to the report I received," said Marianne
Wargelin, honorary Finnish consul for the Dakotas and most of
Minnesota, which has the second largest Finnish-American population
in the nation.
Erkki Maattanen, a filmmaker for Finnish
Public Television who accompanied the musicians on the September
trip, said his questioners seemed to think the entourage was
smuggling drugs or intending to work without a permit. "I
kept trying to tell them why we were here, but they'd just yell,
'Shut up!"' he said. . .
"They threatened us with severe punishments
if we talk to each other," according to the complaint signed
by musicians Ninni Poijärvi and Mika Kuokkanen, "Through
the walls, I can hear officers yelling, screaming. They ask about
the purpose of our trip -- except we are only allowed to give
yes-or-no answers. I try to talk about our plans to meet with
Finnish-American folk musicians. Nobody listens. They interrupt
me constantly and they yell, 'You are a liar!"'. . .
The four were eventually released with
no explanation and no apology, the complaint said.
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1513926.html
SEPTEMBER 2007
HOMELAND POLICE STORING WHAT AIR PASSENGERS
READ IN THEIR FILES
RYAN SINGEL, WIRED - International travelers
concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret
Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books
they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government
is storing such information for years.
Privacy advocates obtained database records
showing that the government routinely records the race of people
pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along
with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their
purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic
Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading
material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd
packed for the trip.
The breadth of the information obtained
by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request)
shows the government's screening program at the border is actually
a "surveillance dragnet," according to the group's
spokesman Bill Scannell.
"There is so much sensitive information
in the documents that it is clear that Homeland Security is not
playing straight with the American people," Scannell said.
. .
One report about Gilmore notes: "PAX
(passenger) has many small flashlights with pot leaves on them.
He had a book entitled 'Drugs and Your Rights.'" Gilmore
is an advocate for marijuana legalization.
Another inspection entry noted that Gilmore
had "attended computer conference in Berlin and then traveled
around Europe and Asia to visit friends. 100% baggage exam negative.
Resides 554 Clay Street , San Francisco, CA. PAX is self employed
'Entrepreneur' in computer software business."
"They are noting people's race and
they are writing down what people read," Scannell said.
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/09/flight_tracking
AUGUST 2007
IF YOU'RE AFRAID OR DISGUSTED AT THE
AIRPORT, HOMELAND SECURITY WANTS TO QUESTION YOU
KAITLIN DIRRIG, MCCLATCHY - Next time you
go to the airport, there may be more eyes on you than you notice.
Specially trained security personnel are watching body language
and facial cues of passengers for signs of bad intentions. The
watcher could be the attendant who hands you the tray for your
laptop or the one standing behind the ticket-checker. Or the
one next to the curbside baggage attendant.
They're called behavior detection officers,
and they're part of several recent security upgrades, Transportation
Security Administrator Kip Hawley told an aviation industry group
in Washington last month. He described them as "a wonderful
tool to be able to identify and do risk management prior to somebody
coming into the airport or approaching the crowded checkpoint."
The officers are working in more than a
dozen airports already, according to Paul Ekman, a former professor
at the University of California at San Francisco who has advised
Hawley's agency on the program. . . .
At the heart of the new screening system
is a theory that when people try to conceal their emotions, they
reveal their feelings in flashes that Ekman, a pioneer in the
field, calls "micro-expressions." Fear and disgust
are the key ones, he said, because they're associated with deception.
Behavior detection officers work in pairs.
Typically, one officer sizes up passengers openly while the other
seems to be performing a routine security duty. A passenger who
arouses suspicion, whether by micro-expressions, social interaction
or body language gets subtle but more serious scrutiny.
A behavior specialist may decide to move
in to help the suspicious passenger recover belongings that have
passed through the baggage X-ray. Or he may ask where the traveler's
going. If more alarms go off, officers will "refer"
the person to law enforcement officials for further questioning.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/18923.html
POLL: 78% APPROVE OF AIRPORT STRIP
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