Hey, remember when President Obama said that information was a bad thing?
"And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy."
- President Obama (ObamaFailBlog May 9, 2010)
Looks like Janet "Big Sis" Napolitano agrees:
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from the federal agency's computers, is blocking certain websitesincluding halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.
So think of this as another baby step in limiting freedom of speech. Hopefully, the Obama administration will be too incompetent to take this any further.
President Barack Obama's second nominee for transportation security chief withdrew from consideration Friday because of questions over his background as a defense contractor.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Harding took himself out of the running as head of the Transportation Security Administration, another setback for Obama after his first choice withdrew in January because he faced a tough confirmation struggle in Congress. The Obama administration has called the job the most important unfilled position on Obama's team.
The previous "setback" refers to the saga of Erroll Southers - the previous Obama-nee who withdrew his nomination because he illegally accessed a federal database to dig up information on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend. Nice...
Yes, yes... Of course you remember. Well, do you remember when we were assured that body scanners could not possibly store or transmit photos of your scanned body?
Well, you're not going to believe this, but that was a falsehood:
A privacy group says the Transportation Security Administration is misleading the public with claims that full-body scanners at airports cannot store or send their graphic images.
EPIC, a public-interest group focused on privacy and civil rights, obtained the technical specifications and vendor contracts through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The written requirements also appear to contradict numerous assurances the TSA has given the public about the machines' privacy protections.
"The machines have zero storage capability," the TSA Web site says.
A TSA video assures passengers "the system has no way to save, transmit or print the image."
CNN is right - take a look at this screenshot from the TSA website (taken on Jan. 11, 2010):
And watch the response of this TSA agent when asked "What happens to this image now? Is that stored anywhere?"
It's bad enough that tuberculosis patients on no-fly lists are somehow able to board airliners - less than two weeks after the Christmas terror attack - but blatantly lying to the public about the capabilities of our airport security system is icing on a really awful cake.
Kathleen Sebelius isn't going to like this one bit...
Another homeland security failure, brought to you by President Obama, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and an administration hell-bent on making Erroll Southers the head of the TSA. But this time, it isn't terrorism, it is a new flavor of failure - and it tastes like sneezes!
A passenger with tuberculosis was allowed to board a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco Saturday and fly cross-country, despite being on a "do-not-board" list.
CBS Station KYW in Philadelphia reports that the unidentified male passenger was apparently placed on a "do-not-board" list submitted to the TSA and CDC on January 8, 2010.
Investigators are trying to determine how the noticeably-ill man made it through security checkpoints and onto the plane.
Hmm... How about organizational incompetence, from the top down?
The damage had been done, however. Hundreds of unsuspecting passengers were needlessly exposed to the highly contagious fatal disease that primarily affects the lungs and can spread to the kidneys and spinal column. The infected male passenger slipped through even though he appeared on a do-not-board list submitted to both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
This can only mean one thing - it is time to pass comprehensive healthcare reform! If ObamaCare can eliminate TB, then there would be no one getting on a plane with TB. Easy enough!
Now, additional information is shedding light on exactly how TSA agents pressured blogger Steven Frischling into turning over his laptop. For starters, the agents were armed and they appeared at his door at 7pm:
“They were indicating there would be significant ramifications if I didn’t cooperate,” said Frischling, who was home alone with his three children when the agents arrived. “It’s not hard to intimidate someone when they’re holding a 3-year-old [child] in their hands. My wife works at night. I go to jail, and my kids are here with nobody.”
Frischling, who described some of the details of the visit on his personal blog, told Threat Level that the two agents drove to his house in Connecticut from DHS offices in Massachusetts and New Jersey and didn’t mention a subpoena until an hour into their visit.
“They came to the door and immediately were asking, ‘Who gave you this document?, Why did you publish the document?’ and ‘I don’t think you know how much trouble you’re in.’ It was very much a hardball tactic,” he says.
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.
In other words, while Frischling's wife worked at night to offset the effects of President Obama's failed economic policies, Frischling was being bullied by armed agents while he tried to watch his children. Of course, this is the Obama administration - so you know there will be ample servings of incompetence to wash down all that ugly thuggery:
The agents searched through Frischling’s BlackBerry and iPhone and questioned him about a number of phone numbers and messages in the devices. One number listed in his phone under “ICEMOM” was a quick dial to his mother, in case of emergency. The agents misunderstood the acronym and became suspicious that it was code for his anonymous source and asked if his source worked for ICE — the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The agents then said they wanted to take an image of his hard drive. Frischling said they had to go to WalMart to buy a hard drive, but when they returned were unable to get it to work.Frischling said the keyboard on his laptop was no longer working after they tried to copy his files. The agents left around 11 p.m. but came back Wednesday morning and, with Frischling’s consent, seized his laptop, which they promised to return after copying the hard drive.
Last week two bloggers, Steven Frischling and Chris Elliot, were visited by TSA agents and threatened with jail time if they did not reveal their source of the TSA Travel Directive that they each published shortly after the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas day. Frischling caved immediately and handed over his computer. Elliot did not. Since then the Department of Homeland Security has dropped the subpoenas, but there is a bigger issue here. The protection of sources is a cornerstone of our freedom of speech.
...
I’ll never be surprised by a tyrannical government. In a sense, it’s their job. It’s our job as bloggers to stand up to that tyranny, even if our liberty has been threatened. Journalists have gone to jail rather than disclose their sources. If bloggers want the same level of respect, and protection from government by the courts, they need to stand up for what’s right.
The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
Good God! Can this administration do ANYTHING right?
At issue is the nomination of former FBI agent Erroll Southers to head up the TSA. Why did Southers inappropriately access a federal database? Maybe for reasons related to national security? Maybe he pulled some kind of Jack Bauer stunt that was illegal but totally necessary to save the free world? Maybe it was something like that?
Um, no. It wasn't like that at all:
He said in a Nov. 20 letter to key senators obtained by The Post that he had accepted full responsibility long ago for a "grave error in judgment" in accessing confidential criminal records about his then-estranged wife's new boyfriend.
That's a bit of a red flag, no? Philadelphia Weekly seems to think so:
“Grave error in judgment” is correct. I’d go so far as to say a “disqualifying error in judgment.” Granted, this was 20 years ago and perhaps Erroll Southers has matured since then — I’d say, in fact, that it’s likely. But given that we’re likely to have increasing concerns and debate over the balance of security versus privacy in TSA procedures, I can say with some certainty I’d rather not see the agency run by official with a documented history of abusing his power to casually invade somebody’s privacy.
And question: How much did Obama’s vetters know about this?
Well at least he didn't lie about it while being questioned by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). He was very upfront about his past misconduct:
In questioning before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Southers has said he understands the need to balance security and privacy. Said Collins: "You have taken responsibility for your actions. You've acknowledged your mistake in the personal conversation that we had in my office. It is important that the public have confidence that government officials will not misuse the authority that they have."
She added: "If you're confirmed, you're going to have the access to databases that have personal information on many, many individuals, such as through the secure flight program, and it's going to be important for the public to have confidence that you would not, in any way, misuse your access to the personal information in those databases. So, let me first ask you: Have you ever in the past misused your access to databases that the government maintains, other than this one incident that led to this censure?"
One day later, Southers wrote to Lieberman and Collins saying his first account was incorrect. After reviewing documents, he wrote, he recalled that he had twice conducted the database searches himself, downloaded confidential law enforcement records about his wife's boyfriend and passed information on to the police department employee, the letter said.
Too many failures in a week... Had to find a new photo...
Remember last year when TSA agents - operating under the watchful, yet incompetent eyes of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and President Obama - threatened bloggers who reported leaked information about new security procedures?
Yeah, that was yesterday.
Today, the TSA has backpeddled, just like Napolitano backpeddled from her initial "the system worked" comment:
The Transportation Security Administration on Thursday dropped its subpoenas it had issued to two Internet writers in its effort to find the leaker of an airline security directive.
The subpoenas were criticized by a leading journalism organization.
...
The administrative subpoena - a demand for information issued without a judge's approval - is a civil, not a criminal document.
Administrative subpoena sounds very neat, legal and bureaucratic, but don't forget that the subpoena was backed up by Chicago thug-style threats:
TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.
Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.
One of the bloggers - Chris Elliot - is being represented by a group called the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP). RCFP executive director Lucy Dalglish claims that the DHS/TSA has taken unprecendented actions to threaten the bloggers:
Dalglish said she could not remember the last time an administrative subpoena had been served on a reporter in last decade.
This calls for a video of one of the great underrated TV shows of all-time, "Get a Life" (starring a DIFFERENT Chris Elliot). The theme of the show was hilarious incompetence - similar to what we've come to expect from the Obama administration:
The fact that the TSA - which operates as part of the DHS - can't keep a secret for more than a few hours is bad news, no matter how you slice it. What is even more troubling is the zeal with which the TSA/DHS is going after these bloggers:
TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.
Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.
It remains to be seen if Frishling was reporting classified information and if he knew the information was classified. But it is telling that the TSA special agents immediately threatened the bloggers' free speech and business agreements in exchange for cooperation. This tactic is straight out of the Saul Alinsky rules for Chicago thug politicians.
Keep in mind, the attempted bombing of the airliner - the incident that set off this entire chain of events - took place on Friday, December 25. The TSA agents arrived at Frishling's house and made threats on Tuesday, December 29. It took roughly the same amount of time for President Obama to stop golfing and make his first statement about the terrorist incident. This administration certainly has its priorities...
