Computer security expert (and US citizen) Jacob Appelbaum, who is well known for his work on Tor, had been having some issues lately concerning his involvement as a volunteer with Wikileaks. He was among those who had their info requested by the Feds via Twitter. And he’s been having issues traveling to and from the US lately. Last July, he was detained upon flying into the country and it looks like something similar has happened again, where he was detained, searched and questioned after flying into Seattle from a vacation in Icleand.
He was careful to travel with no computers or gadgets whatsoever, other than some USB keys with encrypted versions of the Bill of Rights. He noted that the initial customs agent, to whom he handed over the declaration form was friendly until she pulled up his account, and from there things went sour. He asked to speak to a lawyer, which was denied on the grounds that he wasn’t being arrested.
Found by ECA.
If he’s not being arrested, he’s free to go, right? That’s what “arrested” means, after all.
Is there anything our government does that isn’t hamfisted? Our government has all of the delicacy of a block of C4.
#1. Not really… He’s free to go back where he came from. He’s still in customs. He hasn’t actually re-entered the United States yet. Requesting a lawyer, IMO, was just a stupid move on his part.
Keep in mind, that I’m a bleeding heart liberal who believes he should, if he had any involvement with leaked military or State Department documents at all, be charged with treason, given a fair trial and executed humanely, either by hanging or firing squad.
#3: I guess all those laws we have to protect whistle blowers should be executed with him, huh?
Anyone who helps expose government or corporate wrongdoing should receive the highest awards their country can give.
Conversely anyone who seeks to intimidate or harm said whistleblowers should immediately be put on trial for treason.
Why is it treason? If any country has a legal system or constitution, criminal actions by those in power go against it. Exposing them is the highest civic duty. Working against the exposure of crime is criminal activity that seeks to perpetuate those unconstitutional actions.
#3 – where he came from is the US.
His treason was reading about somebody else reporting leaked documents – that’s quite a crime.
Whats next searching people because they haven’t subscribed to Glenn Beck’s site ?
#1 – I wonder if there is a limit to how long you can be detained? After all you have no rights in a border zone.
Could be a convenient way of dealing with these enemies of the state – simply detain them for 20years when they cross the border.
I am sure that when Chinese President Hu Jintao is here next week he will raise human rights abuses with President Nobama.
“How can I help you Officer?”
“Am I being Detained?”
“So I am free to go if I am not being detained?”
“If I am being detained, I would like to speak to council, and until then, I will have to keep asking why I am being detained.”
Simple.
scan him AND LET HIM GO..
DUH!!
The main point is RANDOM CHECKS..and being pulled out 2+ times..for QUESTIONS
A very poorly written article but there is one interesting point:
He was traveling with USB keys that had encrypted copies of the Bill of Rights. This sounds to me like someone who was intending to tweak the noses of the ICE agents. Therefore the rest of the story becomes suspect. Nobody searched the USB keys or I’m sure the story would have included the details of how they coerced him into giving them the encryption keys, etc.
“after about half an hour’s detention and search, they did let him go” “About” half an hour? What is that? Ten minutes? Twenty? All you knee jerkers try reading the FA and thinking critically for a second. Here was a guy looking for trouble and he didn’t find it.
The reason he had the USB key was that on the occasion of his previous return to the US, customs stole, er, seized his laptop, cell phone, and digital camera and have yet to give them back, nor give him any idea when he might get them back, if ever. Sort of an extrajudicial punishment, if you will. He had to give them the Bill of Rights to remind them why summary punishments are wrong, I guess.
What it amounts to is he’s on an enemies of the state list and they are using the power of the state to harass him.
Since that is unconstitutional it is illegal.
#3 You would turn this nation into a stalag. If that is false you need to moderate your words.
I like the review that everything was ok unti the official discovered he was on some list then she got sour. People are still people, even in the land of the free, what with poor training and standardization and hiring at the lowest pay grades and what not.
I’m reminded of the Arab Med School student who got swept up right after 911. Seems his name was Mohamed and he subscribe to Muslim Newspapers while finishing his course work.
A student, in class all the time, year 3, no record. Obvious a deep plant for Osama so the FBI renditioned him to Cleveland or some place and he was unheard of for 3-4 months. Finally, when the FBI could not pin him for anything except his name and reading his native tongue, they let him go.
Of my note: the guy said everyone was basically nice except for a few like the one agent who punched him in the kidneys on his discharge “because we didn’t catch you this time.”
Ha, ha. Any amount of power will stand up against any amount of evidence.
I suppose the Bill of Rights wasn’t in the encrypted part, otherwise what would be the point. As an obvious patriot, I would have let him pass speedily after being detained “for processing.”
Easy Peasy, as most things are.
# 14 bobbo said, “I like the review that everything was ok unti the official discovered he was on some list then she got sour.”
Oh, Bobbie. You are a better thinker than that. That was his opinion. Not necessarily what happened. As he was traveling with “encrypted versions of the Bill of Rights” he was expecting to be searched. I would not be surprised to learn he said something to encourage a search. Anyone who has read my posts here knows I’m not a fan of the crap going on at the airports but, this is just too pat. “…the agents mentioned his pre-flight Twitter activity…” Yeah, right. LEA are always mentioning such prejudicial things just to give people a reason to sue them. “…those detaining him were disappointed that he wasn’t traveling with computers…” Again – an unsubstantiated accusation that, on examination, would probably turn out to be an opinion.
They did not search his USB drives, he was “detained” for only a few minutes and why, exactly, did he think he should speak to a lawyer? Nothing was reported that indicated he might need one. I’ve been searched at Customs (in several countries) many times, and I never felt the need for legal advice.
Let’s face it, if any unreasonable action had occurred, the article would have been a lot longer than four poorly written paragraphs. The links in the article mostly don;t work for some reason so I can’t follow up his version. But, again, I say, this sounds very much like someone looking for trouble and being disappointed when he didn’t find it.
Yea, wikileaks just released hundred thousand classified documents. Why not search people involved if they have another trove of documents they are planning to release?
Animby–none of us knows what “really” happened. Obviously, the retelling of the tale acted MAINLY to remind me of Mohamed the 3rd Year Doc. But then, I suppose his story was cooked up as well also? I could pull the taffy farther. So you think a security officer will treat someone “the same” before and after finding out that person is on a watch list for possible treason? You prefer your factless based assumption over a first person witness?
Heh, heh. well, none of us really knows. Your post would be much more relevant if you would tell us one of your stories or recollections. How about the time you were trapped in an urban jungle with no furry rabbits and no bananna leaves and no local currency, no books, and no toilet paper? “They call me, Mr Lefty!” Ha, ha.
My one week travail with viruses leading to screen freesing, then bsod, then finally black screen appears to have actually been failed RAM modules. How can no moving parts “break?” But you are right Animby–it was probably some abuse on my part.
Ain’t life too short?
Bobbo – Sorry about your RAM. Hope Mrs Bobbo is being patient with your limp SIMMs.
You are absolutely right. I do not know what happened. It all just sounds too pat with no apparent adverse result for the reporter. The encrypted USB drives with BoR on them makes me think of the other reports we’ve seen where people are trying to provoke the border personnel. I’m betting he drops it immediately because if he makes a deal of it, ICE will release their video surveillance.
Damn, it hurts me to defend these people but, in this case, I just don’t believe what the reporter is saying.
BTW, I don’t Twitter. (I might if they hadn’t given it such a stupid name. Nah. Probably not.) But, don’t you have to give people permission to follow your random chain of thoughts?
If that’s right, then a big problem is being missed here. If he is right and they read his pre-flight posts then either he’s given them permission or they have access without permission. They wouldn’t have had time to get a court order. OR, maybe the NSA has access to all private posts and THAT would be BIG news…
I was in an urban jungle one time in Luanda. Walking past a couple of police officers, I mumbled good evening in Portuguese but they stopped me. Seems I’d forgotten to take my hand out of my pocket and this was disrespecting them.
At 750,000 kwanzas to the US dollar and the largest note being 10,000 K, that was toilet paper and I didn’t have any to speak of. I was marched at the point of two AK-47s (passing many banana leaves) about a mile where a friend coughed up the ten million they wanted for the offense. There were no fuzzy bunnies nearby. Does that story meet your requirements?
Animby==well, if you think of this “in another way” its only obnoxious assh*oles who do demand their rights be respected? Yes, the dude that doesn’t fit is the point of the spear protecting us all. I give them a lot of respect, leeway, and the caution to wear a helmet whenever possible.
Yes, your brave tales of Luanda is EXACTLY what I want to hear. So, if I ever travel to Luanda==hands out of pocket. Check!!
See–real experience wins over arguments and conjecture in a vacuum every time.
Looks like I’ll be building my I-7 rig now pursuant to some Tom’s Hardware Review in the next few weeks. Damn–right now I have three machines with the same ram and bios which means I can swap operating hard drives between them without issue and thats been fun and totally diagnostic in this latest failure. Looks like out of 6 sticks of ram, only two are “known good.” I might buy DDR ram even with it being more expensive than DDR3 right now just to get that multiple machine backup BUT with every faster machine, I’ve gotten better reliability, less problems. I do want quad core for my multi-tasking.
Or, also considering junking all tech and just reading books. That would be a change. Change is good in and of itself, at least for a little while?
These machines really are more like toasters than capital equipment==although, I’ve got a very old toaster that is great!
Damn obsolescence! Did ya hear France just started requiring CME for the first time? Must be all the consultants from Big Ins Co’s in the USA. If McDonalds doesn’t get the Frenchies, Big Bus will.
I did not know the French did not require CME. Pretty amazing. When I first got into medicine, I met an ancient French doctor – Jacques Raul Something or other. He’d been in Viet Nam before most Americans had even heard of the place. He used to say that doctors today have it so easy. They no longer have to wait for a body to start decomposing before they can be certain the patient is dead. He was scary. But we got to be good friends and, when he died, he left me all his old text books. I still have them all carefully wrapped and stored in my sister’s house. Amazing stuff. Also amazing is that, at 2 a.m., I’m posting on this blog. Good luck with your rebuild. Might be time to upgrade. Or you can head over to my sister’s house and pick a good book. I’ll call sis and warn her you might be dropping by. Bring your own coffee. She drinks instant!
US Customs being used as a political tool, or as intelligence enforcement? What a shock. This isn’t the USSR. It’s America. Where we do the exact same things as the USSR, but hide it better.
Secretly, the US Gov. must really be pissed at the country of Tunisia being overthrown by it own people. The result of some WikiLeak documents, that pointed out the Tunisian president’s greed and over-opulent living conditions, in the face of national poverty. For some reason, the US was very friendly with the Tunisian leader, while knowing all this. Is there no level of despotism that America doesn’t tolerate of its political allies?
“… after flying into Seattle from a vacation in Iceland.”
Yeah, right. The ever popular Iceland vacation. Iceland, America’s most popular tourist destination. See the penis museum. See where “Journey to the Center of the Earth – 3D” was filmed.