The latest TSA Follies . . .
August 20, 2008, 10:46 am
Filed under:
ACLU,
Bruce Schneier,
Civil Rights,
Constitution,
Daily Kos,
Failure,
General Musings,
Government,
Guns,
MetaFilter,
Society,
Terrorism,
Travel So, you’re a retired brigadier general in the Air National Guard, and even certified to carry a pistol as a pilot of a commercial airliner, under the program designed to provide last-chance security against terrorists seizing control of a jet. What does the TSA do? Put you on the terror watch list, of course:
But there’s one problem: James Robinson, the pilot, has difficulty even getting to his plane because his name is on the government’s terrorist “watch list.”
That means he can’t use an airport kiosk to check in; he can’t do it online; he can’t do it curbside. Instead, like thousands of Americans whose names match a name or alias used by a suspected terrorist on the list, he must go to the ticket counter and have an agent verify that he is James Robinson, the pilot, and not James Robinson, the terrorist.
“Shocking’s a good word; frustrating,” Robinson — the pilot — said. “I’m carrying a weapon, flying a multimillion-dollar jet with passengers, but I’m still screened as, you know, on the terrorist watch list.”
Along with about a million other people.
OK, that’s good, but this is even better:
Commuter Flights Grounded Thanks To Bumbling TSA Inspector
They’re the government… and remember, they’re here to help. A bumbling inspector with the Transportation Safety Administration apparently has some explaining to do, after nine American Eagle regional jets were grounded at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday.
Citing sources within the aviation industry, ABC News reports an overzealous TSA employee attempted to gain access to the parked aircraft by climbing up the fuselage… reportedly using the Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes mounted to the planes’ noses as handholds.
“The brilliant employees used an instrument located just below the cockpit window that is critical to the operation of the onboard computers,” one pilot wrote on an American Eagle internet forum. “They decided this instrument, the TAT probe, would be adequate to use as a ladder.”
Sweet! As noted in a further comment on ANN:
E-I-C Note: This was an extraordinarily dangerous incident, folks. The TSA has neither the mandate nor the knowledge to inspect any aircraft for any reason. The stupidity of this matter is nearly unbelievable… until you hear that the TSA is involved… then it becomes understandable, though still tragic. And I can not tell you how frustrating it is, to see them continue to hurt an indsutry that they were created to protect.
The TSA has NO BUSINESS putting untrained personnel in a position to damage aircraft. Their bizarre games, in the name of security, do NOTHING to enhance security and do much to inhibit safety. Aviation personnel — pilots, A&P’s, ground personnel — are all either licensed or supervised by licensed personnel and this kind of tampering, had it been accomplished by anyone else, would have subjected that person to criminal charges.
But hey, they can do what they want. They’re the TSA.
Well, *maybe* there’s a chance to fight back, at least on some things:
Court: Passengers can challenge no-fly list
Critics of the government’s secret no-fly list scored a potentially important victory Monday when a federal appeals court ruled that would-be passengers can ask a judge and jury to decide whether their inclusion on the list violates their rights.
In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a suit by a former Stanford University student who was detained and handcuffed in 2005 as she was about to board a plane to her native Malaysia.
The ruling is apparently the first to allow a challenge to the no-fly list to proceed in a federal trial court, said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Marwa Elzankaly.
The decision would allow individuals to demand information from the government, present evidence on why they should not have been on the list, and take the case to a jury, Elzankaly said.
Of course, it’d take time, money, and the willingness to suffer further hassle from the TSA, for standing up for your rights. Because, you know, that’d mark you as a troublemaker. Hell, just writing about these issues has probably flagged my name – we’ll see what happens the next time I need to fly somewhere, coming up in about two months.
I swear, just about the biggest thing a presidential candidate could do in my book would be to promise to get rid of the whole security theater nonsense, to reconsider whether we need the TSA as it currently exists, to revamp the Department of Homeland Security, and to return us some semblance of our rights under the Constitution. Sheesh.
Jim Downey
(Via MeFi and ML, cross posted to UTI and Daily Kos.)
Surreal.
I’m not a big fan of the Olympics, but Chris Cope has a good take on things. An American living in Cardiff (Wales, you twit, part of the UK), he has an interesting perspective. And he certainly is right here:
That said, the BBC is certainly giving it its best effort. We are promised wall-to-wall coverage via TV, radio, online and mobile phones. Huge television screens have been erected in a number of city centers across the country. And a terrifying animated kung-fu monkey has been unveiled to promote the event.
In Britain, we are required by law to pay $275 a year for the privilege of watching television. This is where our money goes.
I’m particularly amused by the kung-fu monkey, whose name is … Monkey. A two-minute cartoon of his traveling to the Bird’s Nest with a pig and strange water zombie has been airing with increasing frequency over the past few weeks. It is surreal every time I see it.
Surreal is right. Wow. You’ve gotta see that to believe it.
Jim Downey
(Hat tip to Alix. Cross posted to UTI.)
For no reason at all.
August 1, 2008, 10:28 am
Filed under:
BoingBoing,
Bruce Schneier,
Civil Rights,
Constitution,
Cory Doctorow,
Daily Kos,
General Musings,
Government,
MetaFilter,
N. Am. Welsh Choir,
Predictions,
Privacy,
Science Fiction,
Society,
tech,
Terrorism,
Travel In May, Bruce Schneier wrote this:
Crossing Borders with Laptops and PDAs
Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you’re entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days. Customs and Border Patrol has not published any rules regarding this practice, and I and others have written a letter to Congress urging it to investigate and regulate this practice.
Well, we now know the response:
Travelers’ Laptops May Be Detained At Border
No Suspicion Required Under DHS Policies
Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Basically, they can take any electronic or other device capable of storing data for as long as they want, for no reason at all. Yes, I said “other device”. From the Washington Post article cited above:
The policies cover “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,” including hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover “all papers and other written documentation,” including books, pamphlets and “written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter.’ “
Think about that for just a moment. They have to right to take anything of yours which could contain data, and keep it for as long as they think they need it. Furthermore, they can share it with others as they see fit. Will the data be secure? Will it be destroyed if not needed? Will your laptop (etc) be returned to you unmolested and intact, or will it have some spyware installed to record your keystrokes? (This last item plays a pivotal plot point in Communion of Dreams, so I tend to think of such things).
What to do?
Accept that the authorities will do this, and not worry about it? Don’t cross the boarder? Try and hide your data? Simply don’t take any such devices with you?
We’re going to Patagonia in about 10 weeks. My wife has been considering taking her laptop, since she is part of the organizing team for the tour we’ll be on. I told her that I don’t recommend it. But it’s her call. At the very least, I hope that she – and anyone else who has to do this – will take the time to consider Schneier’s advice on how to do so safely. Here’s a bit:
So your best defence is to clean up your laptop. A customs agent can’t read what you don’t have. You don’t need five years’ worth of email and client data. You don’t need your old love letters and those photos (you know the ones I’m talking about). Delete everything you don’t absolutely need. And use a secure file erasure program to do it. While you’re at it, delete your browser’s cookies, cache and browsing history. It’s nobody’s business what websites you’ve visited. And turn your computer off – don’t just put it to sleep – before you go through customs; that deletes other things. Think of all this as the last thing to do before you stow your electronic devices for landing. Some companies now give their employees forensically clean laptops for travel, and have them download any sensitive data over a virtual private network once they’ve entered the country. They send any work back the same way, and delete everything again before crossing the border to go home. This is a good idea if you can do it.
If you can’t, consider putting your sensitive data on a USB drive or even a camera memory card: even 16GB cards are reasonably priced these days. Encrypt it, of course, because it’s easy to lose something that small. Slip it in your pocket, and it’s likely to remain unnoticed even if the customs agent pokes through your laptop. If someone does discover it, you can try saying: “I don’t know what’s on there. My boss told me to give it to the head of the New York office.” If you’ve chosen a strong encryption password, you won’t care if he confiscates it.
There’s also advice (and links) in that essay on how to partition your hard drive to include hidden material, how to encrypt your data safely, and so forth. Use according to how valuable your data is. But keep in mind that showing up at the boarder (or Customs) with such encryption evident is a sure way to attract attention and make your day more difficult. Not fun.
What I find astonishing, and extremely insightful, is this quote from that WaPo piece:
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote in an opinion piece published last month in USA Today that “the most dangerous contraband is often contained in laptop computers or other electronic devices.” Searches have uncovered “violent jihadist materials” as well as images of child pornography, he wrote.
With about 400 million travelers entering the country each year, “as a practical matter, travelers only go to secondary [for a more thorough examination] when there is some level of suspicion,” Chertoff wrote. “Yet legislation locking in a particular standard for searches would have a dangerous, chilling effect as officers’ often split-second assessments are second-guessed.”
A “chilling effect”, Mr. Chertoff? Funny, that term is more commonly used and understood in how government can infringe on the civil rights of law-abiding Americans. To make the claim that the government’s agents are the ones suffering such an infringement in their duties is to turn the entire notion of governmental authority coming *from* the people on its head, and says rather that those public employees are something more akin to our rulers than servants.
But I suppose that this is hardly surprising in this day and age.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI. Also see further discussion at MetaFilter, Daily Kos, and BoingBoing.)
OK, so it isn’t exactly The Rocketeer . . .
July 29, 2008, 9:34 am
Filed under:
Comics,
General Musings,
movies,
NYT,
Paleo-Future,
Predictions,
Science,
Science Fiction,
tech,
Travel . . . but the announcement that there is a functional personal flying device to be revealed today is still pretty cool.
Why do I call it a ‘personal flying device’? Because it isn’t really a classic ‘jetpack‘ as we’ve seen in plenty of cartoons and movies. It is a large beast, weighing about 250 pounds, with twin fans each the size of a garbage can cut about in half. And for safety purposes, there is a support frame which allows the pilot to climb under the thing and strap himself to it. Hardly the ‘engine’ of The Rocketeer. But all in all, not a bad start – this is functional, will fly for about 30 minutes (the longest classic jetpack such as James Bond flew could go for about 30 seconds), and is fairly stable. From here significant improvements will be made. And Glenn Martin, the inventor of the device, understands this:
Only 12 people have flown the jetpack, and no one has gained more than three hours of experience in the air. Mr. Martin plans to take it up to 500 feet within six months. This time, he said with a smile, he will be the first.
Mr. Martin said he had no idea how his invention might ultimately be used, but he is not a man of small hopes. He repeated the story of Benjamin Franklin, on first seeing a hot-air balloon, being asked, “What good is it?” He answered, “What good is a newborn baby?”
Exactly.
Jim Downey
Oh, *this* is good.
July 11, 2008, 9:05 am
Filed under:
Civil Rights,
Daily Kos,
Government,
Politics,
Predictions,
Society,
Terrorism,
Travel,
Violence The Washington Times ran an interesting story last week:
Want some torture with your peanuts?
Just when you thought you’ve heard it all…
A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers (video also shown below).
This bracelet would:
• Take the place of an airline boarding pass
• Contain personal information about the traveler
• Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage
• Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes
The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if the passenger got out of line.
“Just when you thought you’ve heard it all… ” indeed.
Now, I’m not a big fan of the Washington Times, so I checked the website mentioned in the article. Where I found this statement:
The bracelets remain inactive until a hijacking situation has been identified. At such time a designated crew member will activate the bracelets making them capable of delivering the punitive measure – but only to those that need to be restrained. We believe that all passengers will welcome deliverance from a hijacking, as will the families, carriers, insurance providers etc. The F-16 on the wingtip is not to reassure the passengers during a hijacking but rather to shoot them down. Besides activation using the grid screen, the steward / stewardess will have a laser activator that can activate any bracelet as needed by simply pointing the laser at the bracelet – that laser dot only needs to be within 10 inches of the bracelet to activate it.
Got that? “This is for your own good”.
Never mind that there are dozens of potential problems I can see how this technology could be abused, inadvertently misused, or accidentally triggered. Never mind that Tasers use a similar type of electro-muscular disruption technology and have been suspect in the deaths of perhaps hundreds. Never mind that it is likely that someone wanting to hijack a jet would figure out a way to disable such a bracelet (it’s activated by a laser pointer? Just wrap something around the bracelet when you move to act.) Consider solely what this does to you: makes you someone else’s pet or slaughter animal.
Airline travel is grim and degrading enough as it is, and most of the airlines are struggling to avoid bankruptcy. If they decide to go forward and implement the use of this kind of technology, a significant percentage of travelers will give up on flying altogether (it’s actually a shame that likely a majority would probably play along, thanks to the conditioning we’ve already received).
I know I sure as hell would give up flying under those conditions.
Sheesh.
Jim Downey
(Via dKos. Cross posted to UTI.)
Ever been a tourist?
June 30, 2008, 6:42 am
Filed under:
Civil Rights,
Government,
MetaFilter,
Predictions,
Privacy,
Society,
Terrorism,
Travel,
Writing stuff Have you ever been a tourist, and taken pictures of your trip? Have an interest in architecture or large engineering projects? Perhaps like to draw or paint plein air? Or maybe you’re a writer wanting to make notes about a particular location you want to use in a book or story?
Welcome to the Terror List:
Terror watch uses local eyes
Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as “Terrorism Liaison Officers” in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for “suspicious activity” — and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.
It’s a tactic intended to feed better data into terrorism early-warning systems and uncover intelligence that could help fight anti-U.S. forces. But the vague nature of the TLOs’ mission, and their focus on reporting both legal and illegal activity, has generated objections from privacy advocates and civil libertarians.
* * *
Here are examples of specific behaviors that terrorism liaison officers deployed in Colorado and a handful of other states are told to watch for and report.
• Engages in suspected pre-operational surveillance (uses binoculars or cameras, takes measurements, draws diagrams, etc.)
• Appears to engage in counter-surveillance efforts (doubles back, changes appearance, drives evasively, etc.)
• Engages security personnel in questions focusing on sensitive subjects (security information, hours of operation, shift changes, what security cameras film, etc.)
• Takes pictures or video footage (with no apparent aesthetic value, for example, camera angles, security equipment, security personnel, traffic lights, building entrances, etc.)
• Draws diagrams or takes notes (building plans, location of security cameras or security personnel, security shift changes, notes of weak security points, etc.)
Depending on how someone wanted to perceive it, either my wife or I have done every single thing on that list on our vacations in this country and abroad. Yeah, even the ‘counter-surveillance efforts’ – in trying to find a given location in unfamiliar territory, we’ve often taken wrong turns or had to double back to a missed road. I’ll talk to watchmen or cops, because they usually know the most about a particular location. My wife is an architect, so is interested in structures. I like big engineering projects. We use binoculars. I’ll often make notes about places I think might fit in good with a story idea.
If I’m not already, I’ll probably wind up on someone’s terror watch list. Not because I am the slightest bit of a threat. Not because I am doing anything in the least bit illegal. Because of stupid, pointless paranoia.
Man, I can’t wait for Friday to get here so we can celebrate living in the land of the free.
Jim Downey
(Via MeFi. Cross posted to UTI.)
“Just lie there, sir, it won’t take a minute.”*
June 12, 2008, 8:37 am
Filed under:
Babylon 5,
Emergency,
General Musings,
Health,
J. Michael Straczynski,
JMS,
movies,
Predictions,
Science,
Science Fiction,
Society,
Survival,
Travel This is disturbing:
‘Back from dead’ case stuns doctors
THE case of a man whose heart stopped beating for 1-1/2 hours only to revive just as doctors were preparing to remove his organs for transplants is fuelling ethical debates in France about when a person is dead.
The 45-year-old man suffered a massive heart attack and rescuers used cardiac massage to try and revive him without success before transferring him to a nearby hospital.
Due to a series of complex circumstances, revival efforts continued for longer than usual for a patient whose heart was not responding to treatment, until doctors started preparations to remove organs.
It was at that point that the astonished surgeons noticed the man was beginning to breathe unaided again, his pupils were active, he was giving signs that he could feel pain – and finally, his heart started beating again.
Several weeks later, the man can walk and talk.
As John Sheridan might say: “Death? Been there, done that.”
Deciding on when someone is irrevocably dead is actually a very difficult thing to do, and through the ages there have been many instances where people thought to be dead have either spontaneously revived, or been re-animated through the use of medical technology. The Victorians had something of a phobia about premature burial, but the concept of a lych gate has existed for centuries (my first encounter with such can be found here, towards the bottom).
When you add in a legitimate need for organs appropriate for transplantation, which need to be ‘harvested’ quickly, then you’re pushing two conflicting timelines. This is evidently part of the problem which has led to the ethical debate mentioned above. Add in new research into ‘suspended animation‘, and things are going to get even more confused.
Welcome to the future.
Jim Downey
*recognize the quote?
Some quickies.
June 10, 2008, 8:03 am
Filed under:
Art,
BoingBoing,
Bruce Schneier,
Civil Rights,
CNET,
Constitution,
Cory Doctorow,
Emergency,
Government,
MetaFilter,
Preparedness,
Privacy,
Science Fiction,
Society,
Survival,
Terrorism,
Travel Because who doesn’t enjoy a quickie now and then?
Both MeFi and Schneier report on the Subivor:
Whether it is a train fire, a highrise building fire or worse. People should have more protection than a necktie, their shirt or paper towel to cover their mouth, nose and eyes. As you know an emergency can happen at anytime and in anyplace, leaving one vulnerable. Don’t be a sitting duck. The Subivor® Subway Emergency Kit can aid you in seeing and breathing while exiting . This all-in-one compact, portable and easy to use subway emergency kit contains some items never seen before in a kit.
Well, unless you make your own, of course.
* * *
Via BoingBoing, this news:
Your papers please: TSA bans ID-less flight
In a major change of policy, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that passengers refusing to show ID will no longer be able to fly. The policy change, announced on Thursday afternoon, will go into force on June 21, and will only affect passengers who refuse to produce ID. Passengers who claim to have lost or forgotten their proof of identity will still be able to fly.
Because no terrorist would *ever* lie to the TSA and claim that they had lost or forgotten their ID.
*sigh*
More security theater. Forcing people to submit to showing ID has nothing to do with airline security, and everything to do with just forcing them to submit to the government’s authoritah.
* * *
And speaking of your civil rights:
Split Panel Affirms Warrantless Use of GPS Device
The warrantless use of a global positioning device on a vehicle by police does not violate a driver’s right to privacy under either the U.S. Constitution or the New York state Constitution, an upstate appeals panel decided last week.
* * *
As to the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the panel found that nothing prevents the use of technology, such as the satellite-aided positioning devices, to “surveil that which is already public.”
“Inasmuch as constant visual surveillance by police officers of defendant’s vehicle in plain view would have revealed the same information [as the GPS device] and been just as intrusive, and no warrant would have been necessary to do so, the use of the GPS device did not infringe on any reasonable expectation of privacy and did not violate defendant’s Fourth Amendment protections,” Justice Robert S. Rose wrote for the majority.
The dissenter, Justice Leslie E. Stein, argued that global positioning system devices are considerably more intrusive than traditional surveillance methods.
“While the citizens of this state may not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place at any particular moment, they do have a reasonable expectation that their every move will not be continuously and indefinitely monitored by a technical device without their knowledge, except where a warrant has been issued based on probable cause,” Stein wrote.
Gee, a ‘warrant‘, based on ‘probable cause’. What a concept.
* * *
And just so we don’t end on that depressing note, here’s a fun T-shirt site with a SF theme, thanks to Cory Doctorow. A bit pricey at $32, but there are some very nice designs.
Jim Downey
Gee, like this is a surprise.
May 30, 2008, 7:07 am
Filed under:
Alzheimer's,
BoingBoing,
Bruce Schneier,
Civil Rights,
Cory Doctorow,
General Musings,
Government,
Privacy,
Society,
Travel Survey: Americans make 41M fewer air trips
WASHINGTON – Nearly half of American air travelers would fly more if it were easier, and more than one-fourth said they skipped at least one air trip in the past 12 months because of the hassles involved, according to an industry survey.
The Travel Industry Association, which commissioned the survey released Thursday, estimated that the 41 million forgone trips cost the travel industry $18.1 billion — including $9.4 billion to airlines, $5.6 billion to hotels and $3.1 billion — and it cost federal, state and local authorities $4.2 billion in taxes in the past 12 months.
When 28 percent of air travelers avoided an average of 1.3 trips each, that resulted in 29 million leisure trips and 12 million business trips not being taken, the researchers estimated.
Gee, like this is a surprise. Between the airlines doing everything possible to squeeze each and every last penny out of their customers to cover increasing fuel costs and their own ineptitude, to absurd security theater practices, to idiotic behaviour by TSA personnel, travel by air has become such a pain in the ass that it is hardly news that people avoid unnecessary air travel whenever possible. But it is good to see some solid numbers on the impact these factors are having, and perhaps it will prompt some changes. I can hope, can’t I?
How about you? Have you changed travel plans in the last couple of years to avoid air travel? Because we were 24-hour care providers for someone with Alzheimer’s until early this year, my wife and I have had limited opportunities to travel recently. But I certainly would not have flown anywhere if I could avoid it. And we’re planning a trip out to Denver to visit friends this summer, and are going to drive the 12 hours rather than fly (as we did some years back when we last went out there) in order to avoid all the hassles. So yeah, the air travel environment has definitely changed *my* behaviour.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI.)
Coming back online.
May 27, 2008, 12:15 pm
Filed under:
Ballistics,
Gardening,
General Musings,
Guns,
Health,
Patagonia,
Predictions,
Publishing,
Richard Matheson,
Science Fiction,
Sleep,
Travel,
Writing stuff You may have noticed that some of my posts have gotten a little longer over time, at least in the last couple of months. I haven’t been doing word counts or anything, but that is my sense of it, looking back over the archives. This is because I am emerging from the exhaustion of caring for Martha Sr, slowly but surely.
And as this progresses, it is interesting to see how certain aspects of my life are starting to come back to me. My wife and I have started to resume something that can be called a social life, getting together with friends for lunch or dinner, having people over. I finally got that book review of the Matheson Companion done – that had been hanging over my head for a while. I’m putting together the stuff for the ballistics testing, and figure that we’ll have the website for that up next month some time. I got my garden in, and am harvesting strawberries. This is good.
And I’m starting to get a creative itch again. No, not the low-level sort of creativity that goes with this blog and my conservation work. I’m thinking about the next novel. I’ll probably toss out what I have written of St. Cybi’s Well, and just start fresh – those first couple of chapters were so long ago that I barely remember what I intended to do with them. It takes (me, anyway) a lot of mental energy to juggle all the various threads in a decent novel, and I’m not ready just yet to tackle that. But I am thinking about it, and that is a very good sign.
And I have another idea for something completely and totally unrelated, which would also be a lot of fun. But I have to wait to get a new computer system for that – this old thing just doesn’t have the capabilities which would be required. I would also need to learn some new software programs. From these facts you can guess that this idea would have something to do with the ‘net, and you would be right, but that’s all I’ll say for now.
Oh, yeah, and I need to learn survival Spanish sometime before going to Patagonia in October.
It’s nice to feel this way again.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 