 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?
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.
#21 You dumb or you play one? The extra security is since the latest attack (Dec 25) not before.
#24 Right. If this happened on Dunbya’s time, you’d be yelling & crying foul. Sheeple!
#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
#28 Well, in your first post you said: “most recently during Thanksgiving”
Thanksgiving was over a month ago. Had you said in #21 that bit you said on #28, I wouldn’t have written what I wrote.
#30 Hail the defender of lost causes. The more you do it, the more a sheeple you show yourself.
#31 Again, how long until you can feel any change, 6 more years? Plu-eeze!
#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?
#35, Wow! That’s right! I forgot it was you who kept spouting that line. I guess I hit a nerve there.
Why you would sacrifice others to save your wife?
Pedro, I have seen change in the past 11 months. Some good, some bad.
FYI I voted for McCain in spite of Palin as VP.
“When bloggers are acting like journalists, should they have the same few legal protections?”
Forget about journalists. The whole point of the first amendment is so that ALL of the people (the one who pay for and suffer for the deciders) have a right to know what their government is doing and to question it.
A journalist is (and should be) nothing more than a citizen with no special privileges who goes the extra mile to speak out to others. The only reason journalists get certain privileges of access is because it is easier to deal with a few than with the entire population.
If we ever have government approval for journalists then we have total government control.
If official journalists or professional journalists think they are in a separate, even elevated, class, then we lose the whole point of journalism, which isn’t journalism, the point is about all of us having a right to know about and participate in the life and death decisions imposed on us from on high.
It is not an official job. That is what makes it valuable.
From the article:
Of course they are — they don’t fly, they drive. (See full story — the two agents each drove to Connecticut, one from Massachusetts, one from New Jersey.) A planeload of people fall out of the sky, that much less work for them. But someone publicly posts a memo sent out to ten thousand recipients in twenty-five countries and they might be seriously, personally inconvenienced…
#30 I can blame Barney Frank for Fannie May and Freddie Mac because he is and has been the head of the finance committee for some years and has been and is recorded stating that what was going on was a good idea and would not cause any problems. He personally helped block the efforts of others that might have prevented those two from melting down.
When called on it Barney Frank is also on record as saying he had the power. He was telling the truth that time. He clearly, because of the office he held in Congress and still holds, had and still has more to say about those two than any other human being.
As for for the head of homeland security. Even some of the liberal papers seem to think she needs replaced but if you like the job she’s doing go with it.
Got that Mr. Melt down.