New TSA Policy May Lead to Increased Scrutiny of Reading Material(aclu.org)
aclu.org
New TSA Policy May Lead to Increased Scrutiny of Reading Material
https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-future/new-tsa-policy-may-lead-increased-scrutiny-reading-material
69 comments
About 20yrs ago, I had a very different experience. While trying to leave Israel my traveling companion and I were detained and repeatedly questioned for 24 hours. The crossing by bus from Jordan into Israel was uneventful, however.
While detained, my journal was photocopied (including the contact information of a friend in Egypt who had only recently been released from prison (he was sent to prison because of his poetry), my 35mm camera was destroyed and the film exposed (but I didn't get it back to find this out until nearly a year later), some of our belongings were never returned, and they did not release our luggage to our next destination (Italy)-- we spent days in the airport in Rome before we finally found out that Israeli security had held our bags. When we finally got our backpacks, the Israelis had poured all the liquids-- shampoo, contact lens solution, etc. over everything inside).
I spoke with a Palestinian businessman while being detained who told me this treatment is the norm for him when he travels, "They are trying to humiliate you. Don't let them see that it is bothering you. It will only make it worse." (they were metal detecting my underwear at the time of this conversation).
The thing the Israelis obsessed the most about during the interrogations (so, I assume it was what made us suspicious after the initial cursory search of our things) was that we had US passports, but our guidebooks for the Middle East and North Africa were all in French (we left on this trip from Paris).
The rest of the middle east was truly amazing! Beautiful people!
While detained, my journal was photocopied (including the contact information of a friend in Egypt who had only recently been released from prison (he was sent to prison because of his poetry), my 35mm camera was destroyed and the film exposed (but I didn't get it back to find this out until nearly a year later), some of our belongings were never returned, and they did not release our luggage to our next destination (Italy)-- we spent days in the airport in Rome before we finally found out that Israeli security had held our bags. When we finally got our backpacks, the Israelis had poured all the liquids-- shampoo, contact lens solution, etc. over everything inside).
I spoke with a Palestinian businessman while being detained who told me this treatment is the norm for him when he travels, "They are trying to humiliate you. Don't let them see that it is bothering you. It will only make it worse." (they were metal detecting my underwear at the time of this conversation).
The thing the Israelis obsessed the most about during the interrogations (so, I assume it was what made us suspicious after the initial cursory search of our things) was that we had US passports, but our guidebooks for the Middle East and North Africa were all in French (we left on this trip from Paris).
The rest of the middle east was truly amazing! Beautiful people!
> Kazakhstan is generally about one of the most secular countries in Eurasia)
Presumably this is one reason why Sacha Baron Cohen chose Kazakhstan to be Borat's hometown - if he had picked an Islamic country he'd be risking a beheading in the streets of London.
Presumably this is one reason why Sacha Baron Cohen chose Kazakhstan to be Borat's hometown - if he had picked an Islamic country he'd be risking a beheading in the streets of London.
He chose Kazakhstan because he was unlikely to meet anyone who knew about Kazakhstan or was from Kazakhstan. Originally the Borat character was an Albanian named Christo, but there were too many Albanians coming to London by the late 1990s.
I wonder why he didn't use a fictional country? That would insure that he wouldn't meet anyone from there. He could even pick one that has been used before, and put a couple references to that prior use, to give fans a bit of trivia to notice.
For example, use Franistan, and have a reference to the Maharincess of Franistan's 1952 visit to New York.
For example, use Franistan, and have a reference to the Maharincess of Franistan's 1952 visit to New York.
You lose part of the comedy value. As with his latest "Brothers Grimsby" or with "Brüno" and all the way to Ali G, Baron-Cohen likes to root his comedy in geographically-defined stereotypes. Occasionally the result latches on somewhat universal figures, but from the beginning it relies on viewers sharing Sacha's prejudices on this or that geographically-defined subculture.
Yet the cow-inside-house scene was filmed in Romania and attributed to Kazakhstan. Borat hired some gypsies, told them to put the cow in the house - the gypsies are simple people and would do any silly thing for a little money. Later, when they saw the movie, they were furious, claimed they've been duped.
> claimed they've been duped.
They likely were; I doubt Cohen told them exactly what the actual scene was going to be like.
They likely were; I doubt Cohen told them exactly what the actual scene was going to be like.
TSA Top Ten books
1. Idiots Guide to Flying https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Flying-Gliding/...
2. The Qur'an https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Koran-John-Medows-Rodwell...
3. A Handbook on Modern Explosives https://archive.org/details/ahandbookonmode00eissgoog
4. Dabiq or Rumiyah (Daesh magazine) https://clarionproject.org/islamic-state-isis-isil-propagand... [Don't click this link! https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/the-islamic-state... ]
5. 1984 https://www.audible.com/pd/Classics/1984-Audiobook/B002V19RO...
Help me out with 6-10 people.
1. Idiots Guide to Flying https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Flying-Gliding/...
2. The Qur'an https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Koran-John-Medows-Rodwell...
3. A Handbook on Modern Explosives https://archive.org/details/ahandbookonmode00eissgoog
4. Dabiq or Rumiyah (Daesh magazine) https://clarionproject.org/islamic-state-isis-isil-propagand... [Don't click this link! https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/the-islamic-state... ]
5. 1984 https://www.audible.com/pd/Classics/1984-Audiobook/B002V19RO...
Help me out with 6-10 people.
All good suggestions. But, pthreads, they are unlikely to detect the satire in bringing Art of the Deal, and are more likely to be reassured than concerned. In fact, I expect all Jihadis to be carrying tAotD already.
Forgot to engage karma shields though and the anti-humor brigade is out in force! The book burners of HN!
Forgot to engage karma shields though and the anti-humor brigade is out in force! The book burners of HN!
The Anarchist's Cookbook?
The Poor Man's James Bond, Guerilla Warfare By Che Guevara.
PiHKAL
Thank you for this.
It was enlightening to go through the do not click link to see what this extreme viewpoint looks like first hand.
It was enlightening to go through the do not click link to see what this extreme viewpoint looks like first hand.
The art of the deal
6. Eclectic collection of gay porn
Anarchist's cookbook?
No fan of the TSA, but this is a reach. There was another (better) article about this explaining that tightly packed books appear on x-ray scans as big solid opaque blobs. This makes it difficult to distinguish them from chemical material.
The TSA has 1001 ways to harass you for whatever they want, and that sucks. This won't make that situation any better. That said, I'm tired of "speculative journalism" pieces that attempt to paint the worst possible scenario imaginable in order to raise people's fear level or (in this case perhaps) to gin up donations from supporters.
The TSA has 1001 ways to harass you for whatever they want, and that sucks. This won't make that situation any better. That said, I'm tired of "speculative journalism" pieces that attempt to paint the worst possible scenario imaginable in order to raise people's fear level or (in this case perhaps) to gin up donations from supporters.
The point is not that the TSA wants to or even ever will use your reading material against you in some way.
The point is the slow and steady erosion of privacy rights one tiny inch at a time.
In the far future when a government DOES decide to use these things against its people, they will have no defense against it because the practice has become a long accepted fact of life.
The point is the slow and steady erosion of privacy rights one tiny inch at a time.
In the far future when a government DOES decide to use these things against its people, they will have no defense against it because the practice has become a long accepted fact of life.
I do agree with the ACLU's mission and with the notion that privacy rights are being eroded. At the same time, I personally feel that this kind of polemic is becoming so common that its usage risks numbing us to the biggest risks. (If everything is an emergency, then nothing is.) Criticism is possible without relying on cheap speculation and exaggeration.
This post details two possible justifications for this action. It then offers civil liberties-friendly recommendations for conducting such screening. That seems directly in-line with the ACLU's mission. It's cheaper to have policies implemented correctly from the outset than to rely on lawsuits when they're overly broad.
I do appreciate that part of the article; I was just taking issue with the speculative, fearmongering aspect of it. Normally I wouldn't even say anything. I think I just hit some kind of limit. Maybe I need a break from media!
Here's a time saver: Any news article whose title contains the word "could" or "may", is probably speculative and not worth reading. If the article is about a cure for cancer, it's 99.9% probably not worth reading.
I read a similar time saver quite some time ago that posited that if an article headline is asking a question, the answer is usually "no".
A friend of mine had quite the adventure when she was detained for no reason even though she had entered before just fine and was a university student.
Even though I am a citizen of a "safe" "first-world" European country and having visited USA in the past with barely any issue, I now try to not visit friends there due to these policies and behavior, but rather I convince those that can to meet me either on Canada or Mexico.
It's really sad what it has come down to.
Even though I am a citizen of a "safe" "first-world" European country and having visited USA in the past with barely any issue, I now try to not visit friends there due to these policies and behavior, but rather I convince those that can to meet me either on Canada or Mexico.
It's really sad what it has come down to.
I think you have fallen victim to the news. Yes there are a lot of rumblings about things like the OP, but the vast majority of people pass through US customs with no issue. Even as you said. Last time I went to Mexico both my gf and I were searched. When I landed in Brussels last time the immigration officer was really rude to me for no reason. It's not unique to the United States. My view is that your comment, like many other similar comments, are more so about venting outrage at Trump and so this is a convenient straw man (despite the fact that these kinds of policies continued under Obamacare). I'm not saying there aren't horror stories, but they are very few and far between, and much more publicized than getting detained in Thailand for a day because you didn't pay off the customs officer (contrived example). The US is the big target, so everything is exaggerated. I've heard people from Europe say they wouldn't visit the US because they fear for their lives and other things like that too, but again that's because they heard about a school shooting and then assumed New York was a battleground.
> I think you have fallen victim to the news.
I've experienced these problems first hand. US immigration being incredibly rude to visitors for no reason at all, and know someone from London who was sent to secondary because they were the wrong skin color (their electronic devices searched, books read, and seemingly no clear answer as to why, it was a business trip with a return ticket to a conference they had a ticket for and hotel room booked for).
I genuinely wish Americans could experience US immigration as a foreigner; rather than get their special lines where they just get waved through. Then things would change, things would change rapidly.
How many times, online, do Americans need to read that US immigration is some of the worst in the world before you'll believe it? That your border feels like entering a police state? Seriously, what will it take? The fact that you guys are now attributing it to "fake news" says a lot.
News stories are fake, anecdotes are fake, it is all fake because you don't like to hear it...
PS - US immigration has been horrible since at least 9/11 (arguably it was bad before). This has nothing to do with Trump, it was horrible under Obama and W. Bush too.
I've experienced these problems first hand. US immigration being incredibly rude to visitors for no reason at all, and know someone from London who was sent to secondary because they were the wrong skin color (their electronic devices searched, books read, and seemingly no clear answer as to why, it was a business trip with a return ticket to a conference they had a ticket for and hotel room booked for).
I genuinely wish Americans could experience US immigration as a foreigner; rather than get their special lines where they just get waved through. Then things would change, things would change rapidly.
How many times, online, do Americans need to read that US immigration is some of the worst in the world before you'll believe it? That your border feels like entering a police state? Seriously, what will it take? The fact that you guys are now attributing it to "fake news" says a lot.
News stories are fake, anecdotes are fake, it is all fake because you don't like to hear it...
PS - US immigration has been horrible since at least 9/11 (arguably it was bad before). This has nothing to do with Trump, it was horrible under Obama and W. Bush too.
Yeah idk. Every country I've been to, customs has not been great. I'm. not saying the US immigration isn't bad, but people actively avoiding the entire country for anything bad? Not hardly.
I know a bunch of people who are no longer are interested in travelling to the USA due to bad experiences with the TSA.
> Every country I've been to, customs has not been great.
I've been to over thirty countries, including Russia.
The US was the worst and UK was the second worst out of all of them. Immigration always sucks just due to the nature of it, but there's a difference between the process sucking and the employees/policy going out of its way to make a bad situation much worse.
I've been to over thirty countries, including Russia.
The US was the worst and UK was the second worst out of all of them. Immigration always sucks just due to the nature of it, but there's a difference between the process sucking and the employees/policy going out of its way to make a bad situation much worse.
Sure, you have a great anecdote.
Well I have some anecdata for you. I personally know three people who have cancelled subsequent trips to the USA after their treatment on entry, and I personally will not be coming back after the way I was treated. I've travelled on business to over 30 countries, and thus is the first time I've decided that a particular one is just not worth the hassle.
So you keep believing everything is ok, I'm sure it makes you feel better, rather than actually listening to other people's stories.
So you keep believing everything is ok, I'm sure it makes you feel better, rather than actually listening to other people's stories.
And yet, many people I know who have immigrated here, whether on work or student visas, have had no issues at the border.
So.... I'm not sure what to tell you. What exact treatment happened? Somebody being rude to you at the border doesn't count, who cares about that? If you were detained, or interrogated, or something along those lines, then yeah you have a legitimate gripe. But I don't want to hear anything about "the security officer was rude".
So.... I'm not sure what to tell you. What exact treatment happened? Somebody being rude to you at the border doesn't count, who cares about that? If you were detained, or interrogated, or something along those lines, then yeah you have a legitimate gripe. But I don't want to hear anything about "the security officer was rude".
You claim that people are not avoiding the country because of treatment received at immigration. I'm telling you that I know people who are avoiding the country, and I'm one of them.
Don't tell me what I am and am not allowed to feel based on my experience.
Don't tell me what I am and am not allowed to feel based on my experience.
Nobody says you can't feel anything. And nobody says that some people aren't avoiding the US because of how they were treated at immigration. What I am saying is that the vast majority of people have no problem.
What was your poor experience?
What was your poor experience?
People have been decrying the dickishness of US entry since before 9/11.
I can see why having a President in office that celebrates such dickishness could be a final straw.
I can see why having a President in office that celebrates such dickishness could be a final straw.
The op actually knows someone who ran into problems. This is bound to affect their thoughts and actions.
Wait, what does this have to do with Obamacare?
I recently had TSA look at my carryon closely. I had a spiral notebook, folder thick with papers, and a paperback copy of Gravitys Rainbow.
The agent pointed out the scan and how the thickness of the paper, combined with all my charging cords, made it hard to detect what my bag contained.
He pulled the items out and looked thumbed the pages quickly; not reading just looking for anything obvious. Then I was on my way.
I hate TSA as much as the next guy, but sometimes there isn't some malicious infingement of privacy in mind.
The agent pointed out the scan and how the thickness of the paper, combined with all my charging cords, made it hard to detect what my bag contained.
He pulled the items out and looked thumbed the pages quickly; not reading just looking for anything obvious. Then I was on my way.
I hate TSA as much as the next guy, but sometimes there isn't some malicious infingement of privacy in mind.
Yes, there is just blatant, mindlessly ineffective infringement of privacy.
Well ... there it is, if there was a threshold to past between "security" and overreaching destruction of freedoms, it's been passed. They sortof had a case banning various things that can hold explosives but banning certain reading material for being "sensitive" is totally orwellian. I guess the time has come to preserve all information before they start the book burning in the not too distant future. (of course it will come under a different guise but it will be book burning)
Nothing of the sort is described, or even suggested, in the article.
Talk about your slippery slopes.
The USA is at the bottom of the slippery slope, has landed on it's arse and now rapidly sinks deeper in to the quagmire.
For example, in 2010 the ACLU sued on behalf of a man who was abusively interrogated, handcuffed, and detained for nearly five hours because he was carrying a set of Arabic-language flash cards and a book critical of U.S. foreign policy. We also know that the DHS database known as the “Automated Targeting System,” which tracks information on international travelers, has included notations in travelers’ permanent files about controversial books in their possession.
For example, in 2010 the ACLU sued on behalf of a man who was abusively interrogated, handcuffed, and detained for nearly five hours because he was carrying a set of Arabic-language flash cards and a book critical of U.S. foreign policy. We also know that the DHS database known as the “Automated Targeting System,” which tracks information on international travelers, has included notations in travelers’ permanent files about controversial books in their possession.
The flash cards case was not as clear cut as one would think:
> The flashcards included every day words and phrases such as “day before yesterday,” “fat,” “thin,” “really,” “nice,” “sad,” “cheap,” “summer,” “pink,” and “friendly.”
> However, they also contained such words as: “bomb,” “terrorist,” “explosion,” “attack,” “battle,” “kill,” “to target,” “to kidnap,” and “to wound.”
http://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/114292p.pdf
> The flashcards included every day words and phrases such as “day before yesterday,” “fat,” “thin,” “really,” “nice,” “sad,” “cheap,” “summer,” “pink,” and “friendly.”
> However, they also contained such words as: “bomb,” “terrorist,” “explosion,” “attack,” “battle,” “kill,” “to target,” “to kidnap,” and “to wound.”
http://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/114292p.pdf
Crikey! Remind me not to invite you to parties. They're just words. Probably pretty dumb ones to take through airport security, but then it would be hard to find an action / thriller novel that didn't contain some or all of those words many times over. Or as the sibling comment points out any newspaper.
You want a more egregious, what about detaining little old ladies in wheelchairs and children's book authors? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/28/in-tha...
You want a more egregious, what about detaining little old ladies in wheelchairs and children's book authors? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/28/in-tha...
I learned French in high school, but it is very rusty. The first thing I did last time I visited was to pick up a newspaper and try to read it, using a dictionary to look up the words I didn’t recognize.
Those word lists look like just the kind of vocabulary you would need to read the front page of a newspaper.
Those word lists look like just the kind of vocabulary you would need to read the front page of a newspaper.
What part of that is supposed to make it less clear cut?
Talking about slippery slopes, it is more like this (I understand that security is needed) :
1. Nobody over dangerous caught - there are no bad guys that many and we don't need that big agency, need to be reduced
2. Bad guys became smarter (our research says that there are 99% bad guys lurking and etc...) - we need to increase scrutiny never know what they can do
And now you are sitting in management, if you choose option 1 there are big probability that loose job, option 2 you can expect that you wage will be rising (bigger agency, more work). It is same as policeman catching all criminals and he will be not needed, of course if something happens government will be blamed...
I don't think my paperback is going to take down a plane
From the post:
> The second justification is to search for something called “sheet explosives,” which are apparently thin, flat explosives that can be hidden within sheafs of paper or photographs. In a case decided by the 9th Circuit in 2011, a man was arrested after TSA screeners found child pornography in his checked baggage, and while a district court ruled that the agency’s search of a stack of the man’s photographs was invalid, the 9th Circuit reversed, in the process accepting as justification the need to check for sheet explosives.
> The second justification is to search for something called “sheet explosives,” which are apparently thin, flat explosives that can be hidden within sheafs of paper or photographs. In a case decided by the 9th Circuit in 2011, a man was arrested after TSA screeners found child pornography in his checked baggage, and while a district court ruled that the agency’s search of a stack of the man’s photographs was invalid, the 9th Circuit reversed, in the process accepting as justification the need to check for sheet explosives.
An A4 sheet is like 5 grams.
Sure it's not impossible but I suspect the crooks can dream up something easier.
Sure it's not impossible but I suspect the crooks can dream up something easier.
I have consciously not carried "The Monkeywrench Gang" on a plane, even if I was in the middle of reading it at the time.
Ditto for a book on the history and manufacture of nitroglycerine. It's fascinating, but I didn't want to try to explain my interest in the subject. I've also worried about carrying printed material obviously related to malware (e.g., "The Big Black Book of <whatever>").
Chilling effects, yeah.
Chilling effects, yeah.
As they say... Knowledge is power!
petre(1)
But I doubt that most American officials would ever be so informed about the outside world and reasonable. The last time I visited the US, I was asked about a Kazakh visa in my passport in so harsh a tone it sounded like a reprimand for just having one at all (and in spite of the name ending in -stan, Kazakhstan is generally about one of the most secular countries in Eurasia). And if border control staff don't know anything, one can only expect the worst from the TSA, a job that requires almost no qualifications.