Tag Archives: Security Theater

CBP Agents Demand ID Before Allowing Domestic Flyers to Disembark

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“Passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) began reporting Wednesday that immigration agents were insisting on checking travelers’ papers before allowing them to deplane.  It seemed possible that brand new federal travel policies might now be in place; the US Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP), however, called the unusual inspection procedure ‘routine’ in press reports following a growing public outcry.”

Read more: http://www.flyertalk.com/articles/cbp-agents-demand-id-before-domestic-passengers-allowed-to-disembark-at-jfk.html

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TSA Releases Data on Air Marshal Misconduct — 7 Years After Request

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“Dozens of air marshals had been arrested for crimes ranging from aiding a human trafficking ring to attempted murder. One air marshal used his badge to smuggle drugs past airport security while another used his to lure a young boy to his hotel room, where he sexually abused him.  Air marshals had hired prostitutes in Barcelona and gotten into a fight with security guards after patronizing a brothel in Frankfurt.  Another marshal’s in-air behavior concerned flight attendants so much that they reported it to the agency, saying ‘I can’t believe he is able to carry a gun!’ (That officer was later convicted of bank fraud for trying to cash a $10.9 million check that he said was a settlement after he was a scratched by a friend’s cat.)  As time passed, the problems continued.”

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/tsa-releases-data-on-air-marshal-misconduct-7-years-after-we-asked

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US Marshals Now Performing Retinal Scans At Airport Gates

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“It’s one thing to control who comes into a country. But surveilling and permissioning American citizens as they leave their own country, even as they are about to board, is something else.  Where is the toggle switch that would have told the machine not to let me board, and who controls it? How prone is it to bureaucratic error? What happens to my scan now and who has access to it?  The scene reminded me of movies I’ve seen, like Hunger Games or 1984. It’s chilling and strange, even deeply alarming to anyone who has ever dreamed of what freedom might be like. It doesn’t look like this.”

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/welcome-aboard-but-first-us-marshals-will-scan-your-retina/

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Border guards force US citizen to unlock his work phone

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“Should this have happened? Bikkannavar is, after all, a natural-born US citizen. He’s also enrolled in the CBP’s Global Entry program, which allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the US.”

Read more: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/02/14/border-guards-force-us-citizen-to-unlock-his-nasa-owned-work-phone/

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DHS Inspector General: TSA uses secrecy to avoid embarrassment

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“The OIG report found a pervasive lack of basic security measures and consciousness at TSA airport facilities: doors propped open or with locks taped off, unmonitored entrances, lack of logs of physical access to communication nodes and servers, lack of redundancy, etc.   But the TSA tried to keep the OIG from reporting on even those problems that at already been publicly reported, after TSA review and permission, in earlier OIG reports or other pages of the same report. The real point of the TSA’s censorship is not security but avoidance of public and Congressional debate and oversight.”

Read more: https://papersplease.org/wp/2017/01/20/inspector-general-tsa-uses-secrecy-to-avoid-embarrassment/

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Disabled cancer patient slammed to the ground by TSA, then jailed

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“A disabled teenage cancer patient was injured during a violent arrest by security agents at Memphis international airport, her family has alleged in a lawsuit filed against the Transport Security Administration.   Hannah Cohen, 18, at the time of her arrest on 30 June 2015, and her mother had been on their way home to Chattanooga from St Jude’s hospital in Memphis, where Hannah underwent her final treatment for a brain tumor.  Hannah and her mother, Shirley, told the Guardian that the pair had made the trip hundreds of times, and knew the airport security routine well.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/02/disabled-cancer-patient-tsa-lawsuit-memphis-airport

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Bruce Schneier: Economist Detained for Doing Math on an Airplane

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“Economics professor Guido Menzio (yes, he’s Italian) was taken off the plane, questioned, cleared, and allowed to board with the rest of his passengers two hours later.  This is a result of our stupid ‘see something, say something’ culture. As I repeatedly say: ‘If you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn’t be surprised when you get amateur security.’  On the other hand, ‘Algebra, of course, does have Arabic origins plus math is used to make bombs.'”

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/05/economist_detai.html

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The ‘No Fly List’ operates in secret, and its power to exclude is vast

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“It operates in secrecy, from an undisclosed location, administered by an office – the Terrorist Screening Center – that doesn’t accept public inquiries.  Few realize how many watchlists already exist until they find themselves in their crushing grip. There is, of course, a watchlist for maritime travel. And this month President Obama urged the use of the No Fly List to deny access to firearms.  Whatever one’s views of the second amendment to the constitution, the evidence is unmistakable. A list once confined to stopping hijackers and 9/11 style bombers has grown into the go-to tool for government officials who don’t like their predictive judgments questioned by lawyers and judges.”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/23/no-fly-list-operates-in-secret-power-to-exclude

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TSA Can Now Refuse Travelers Who Opt Out Of Airport Body Scanners

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“Quietly, on December 18, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a change of the rules for the use of body scanning technology at airport security systems across the country. Now, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can opt out of letting you opt out of using the body scanners. That is to say, they can decide—for reasons!—that you must go through the body scanners.  The report does not indicate what sort of ‘security considerations’ may prompt the TSA to decide who may or may not opt out of screenings, so add yet another element of pure randomness to your adventures through security theater.”

https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/23/ho-ho-ho-get-your-ass-in-that-body-scann

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TSA Will Stop Accepting Driver’s Licenses From Nine States On Jan. 10

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“A decade ago, Congress passed The Real ID Act which was supposed to make it easier for law enforcement to share information on driver’s licenses issued by the states and territories. Even during a period of heightened fear of terrorism, there was massive and continuing pushback because everyone realized that when the federal government (or any other centralized authority) concentrates information, it just makes it that much easier for it to get hacked or misused (here are 22.1 million examples of the former and one representative example of the latter).  A dozen states actually have laws banning their divisions of motor vehicles from complying with Real ID requirements.”

https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/29/tsa-says-it-will-stop-accepting-drivers

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