 TSA agent John Enright, left, returns Steven Frischling’s laptop |
The document, which two bloggers published within minutes of each other Dec. 27, was sent by TSA to airlines and airports around the world and described temporary new requirements for screening passengers through Dec. 30, including conducting “pat-downs” of legs and torsos. The document, which was not classified, was posted by numerous bloggers. Information from it was also published on some airline websites.
“They’re saying it’s a security document but it was sent to every airport and airline,” says Steven Frischling, one of the bloggers. “It was sent to Islamabad, to Riyadh and to Nigeria. So they’re looking for information about a security document sent to 10,000-plus people internationally. You can’t have a right to expect privacy after that…”
Frischling, a freelance travel writer and photographer in Connecticut who writes a blog for the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, said the two agents who visited him arrived around 7 p.m. Tuesday, were armed and threatened him with a criminal search warrant if he didn’t provide the name of his source. They also threatened to get him fired from his KLM job and indicated they could get him designated a security risk, which would make it difficult for him to travel and do his job…
When they pulled a subpoena from their briefcase and told him he was legally required to provide the information they requested, he said he needed to contact a lawyer. The agents said they’d sit outside his house until he gave them the information they wanted.
Frischling says he received the document anonymously from someone using a Gmail account and determined, after speaking with an attorney, that he might as well cooperate with the agents since he had little information about the source and there was no federal shield law to protect him.
RTFA. They screwed up his laptop, they dashed to WalMart to buy a standalone hard drive – which they couldn’t get to work, and on and on.
When bloggers are acting like journalists, should they have the same few legal protections?
Why thanks for giving us all our morning non-sequitur, Pedro.
Surely we can expect more of the same in the new year.
my country has become pathetic
#2 Try reading his comment as “Vote carefully liberty is very difficult to reclaim”
and ” Be aware of false promises.”
In his eagerness to blog TSA security policy, he did not verify the information from an independent source and he did not check that there was a security embargo on the information. Not much of a journalist, is he? TSA could have him fitted for orange overalls, but they haven’t.
#4 MPL, I read it as “I’m a whiner who’s gal lost the election.”
Anyway, the “forensics” performed on this laptop have already rendered it largely inadmissable in court, these guys f-ed it up royally. Any good lawyer versed in IT forensics will make sure that is known. If it ever gets that far, which seems unlikely.
The FBI has plenty of pros who do this sort of thing properly, all the time.
You go to WalMart and buy the cheapest hard drive on the shelf and then can’t get it to work!
Sounds like a Republikan copper to me.
You guys assume somebody is flying the airplane here, but in reality decisions like this are made by much lower level career bureaucrats and staffers who are mostly worried about keeping their jobs and benefits.
The bloggers post something embarrassing to them (doesn’t matter that they did it to themselves) so they had to do something to look like they were actually in charge. Basically clueless, this is all they could think of to do and hope the smoke and noise would draw the media attention over there.
You should never try to explain this kind of thing as some nefarious evil plan from the top when it is much more easily explained as incompetent, ham-fisted, mindless bureaucracy reacting to a stimulus. What would *you* do if you got called on the carpet for stupidly sending “secret” plans to thousands of people?
Shoot the messenger, of course!! Find a scapegoat and punish them. Duck, Distract, Deceive and Dissemble — survival skills for any middle manager.
Barny Frank the TSA… What are they trying to do compete with Bush for Incompetence?! Barny may have taken the lead recently.
It is incredible how this whole blunder is handled… The Crotch Bomber case is a CIA/FBI/HS/TSA misery from start to finnish, and it does not seem to stop: No more blankets, no dimmed light, no toilet 1 hour before landing, one piece of hand luggage (not too bad, I hate the people dragging all their stuff into the cabin…), pat down. All of it total nonsense as security concerns. It is such a knee jerk ‘we do something’ stupidity only found in ‘good old’ East Europe in the old times. What the hell is going on in the US? Is amateurs in control of everything???
Pedro, you’re projecting.
Again.
Now Pedro: you do only have about another 16 hours to form and follow a New Year’s Resolution. Continue in a knee-jerk anti-Obama mode or step it up a notch?
I for one will enjoy whatever choice you make. In the current exemplar, you actually are criticizing Obama for NOT CHANGING the dumbass Bush policies. Thats fair enough. The notch up would be to save such a comment for “an actual change” Obama makes that is actually for the worse?===Like uping the troop levels in Afghanistan for instance?
Happy New Year, lets have some change?
“When bloggers are acting like journalists, should they have the same few legal protections?” /// Not to get too technical but since when was ZERO equal to “few?”
I suppose a few states have shield laws, but this is a federal case where the press has NO RIGHTS as the press.
Lets not abuse the blogoverse.
#5: Apparently, you even didn’t read this article. It isn’t much of an embargo if the airlines publish parts of it on their websites. Or should agents have appeared at their doors to confiscate their servers and slap orange suits on their CEOs?
There has been a real presidential candidate since the 1950s. Who here is expecting change?
Presidency platforms are based on the four following phrases; ‘The need for change’, ‘I am an outsider’, ‘I am a rebel’ and ‘Bring back the true America’. Needless to say these phrases get a lot of votes but no action.
The best bet would be to vote in who would be the best entertainer. I think we missed the boat this past election. McCain/Palin would have been more entertaining than Obama/Biden.
Bloggers don’t get journalists protections and journalism is already gone. They all sign NDA’s now as far as I’m concerned journalism died a long time ago.
More change you can believe in eh?
#15 Uncle Dave Why bother an airline who has as much, if not more, lawyerly horsepower as any government agency? So much easier to intimidate lone individuals.
Pardon me… I have to eat a lot of beans before boarding a flight to Nigeria. I will let loose with the biggest stink bomb this side of the planet on the plane, and make everyone choke.
Point being, they can do any kind of strip search, or whatever… What about what people carry INSIDE of their bodies. The terrorists will ALWAYS think of something, no matter how far they attempt to take away our liberties.
Dr_Wally is on target.
ZBgor, I flew 5000 miles yesterday, and was not subject to any new restrictions or security procedures. I fly several times a year, most recently during Thanksgiving. I’m white, blondish, tall. YMMV.
“What the hell is going on in the US? Is amateurs in control of everything???”
Nope, just Democrats.
#5 Sargasso,
TSA could have him fitted for orange overalls, but they haven’t.
For what? Apparently you missed the First Amendment of the US Constitution. He published a memo he received. That was legal.
Look up Danial Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.
#22, Mr. Diesel,
“What the hell is going on in the US? Is amateurs in control of everything???”
Nope, just Democrats.
Now that was intelligent. Definitely one of the least thought provoking posts, other than pedro’s, I have read in some time. Two police agents subpoena a laptop and you blame the Democrats. Ya, right.
#24. When the people in charge look look like Three Stooges want a be’s who else are you going to blame than the people in charge?
I can’t blame the Republicans for this because they haven’t had any more authority than Winnie the Pooh since Obama was sworn in over a year ago.
The people in charge at the moment are Democrats and they have performed like complete incompetents. They have all the authority and there people bleeped this case high wide and handsome which leaves me with two Truman sayings:
The buck stops here.
If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.
The President and his supporters might as well suck it up and get on with it because whining about botching their responsibilities just makes them look like a bunch of lame losers.
That kind of bleep didn’t work for the Republicans and it isn’t going to work for the Democrats.
On this case it was another lame loser move by the TSA as well as an abuse of power. Just what Obama needs to make his administration look worse.
Pedro, I flew over Thanksgiving (Nov 21-Dec 1) AND I flew home yesterday (Dec 18-30). YMMV.
Change you can believe in!
#26, doill,
I can’t blame the Republicans for this because they haven’t had any more authority than Winnie the Pooh since Obama was sworn in over a year ago.
That concept never stopped you for blaming Barney Frank for causing the Housing crises. It also appears the Republicans have done everything in their power to delay and obstruct ALL legislation. Include the confirmation of Obama’s choice to lead Homeland Security.
#26″..since Obama was sworn in over a year ago.”
Less than a year. Sworn in 01/20/2009
#32, I’m still waiting for that “breath of fresh air.”
Anyone who blames one person for massively complex problems like “the housing crisis” is a stooge.
#33, Loser,
Why do you hate America?