Posts Tagged ‘homeland security’
Virtual Airport Body Searches Topic On Paltalk
New body scanning technology slowly being introduced into airports in the United States and elsewhere in the world is causing some to raise concerns of privacy. And once again the issue of how to balance security and civil liberties is being raised.
Publications such as Germany’s Der Spiegel have published photographs depicting what security officers see as people pass through the scanners. Virtually everyone I’ve shown those pictures to say the scanners, which clearly show genitalia and even details of a person’s buttocks is way too intrusive.
In the United States, the technology, which basically is tantamount to virtual body searches, is being employed at airports in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Miami and elsewhere.
Reporter Sean O’Neill, who has reported about the full-body scanners for Newsweek’s Budget Travel site will be my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com tomorrow, November 7.
O’Neill’s article questions if the TSA is violating the privacy rights of those who go through the scanners.
O’Neill reports that Germany has banned the scanners because of privacy concerns. But the TSA argues that they aren’t invasive at all. Here in the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union opposes their use.
On its Evolution of Security website, the TSA says the millimeter wave devices produce a, “three-dimensional image of the body, with facial features blurred for privacy” which is displayed on a remote monitor for analysis.
“The image,” the TSA says, “is not saved – once it’s off the screen it’s gone forever.”
To talk to O’Neill about the virtual strip searches at 5 PM New York time tomorrow, Friday November 7 CLICK HERE. There is no charge.
Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.
News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.
Can We Protect Our Borders And Our Rights At The Same Time?
Sometimes I feel like I’m speaking a different language than some of my fellow Americans.
Today was one such day.
The discussion on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com was about a government policy, kept hidden until it was revealed through a Freedom Of Information Act request, authorizing Customs agents to peruse the personal and business documents of any person entering the United States. And to make copies as well. In the name, of course, of national security.
Even my own online producer and show screener, Boaz Frankel, didn’t seem to get it when I suggested this is an invasive policy. One that takes away rights under the guise of protecting us from those who would, if they could, well, take away our rights.
The fear mongering over terrorism is becoming a bit frightening in and of itself.
Not that we shouldn’t be vigilant. Of course we should. Not that the threat isn’t real. Of course it is. But let’s just not willingly and voluntarily give up our rights in the name of protecting them.
One caller, Malik from Indianapolis, an attorney, points out that all persons in the United States are afforded Constitutional rights. That includes foreign nationals suspected of being terrorists.
No Border Crossing Privacy
Privacy concerns
Now, in addition to being able to scan your laptops when you enter the United States, Customs agents are being permitted to read and even copy your personal documents.
Details of the relaxed regulations are contained in documents procured in a Freedom Of Information Act request filed by the Asian Law Caucus and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The rules, according to the obtained documents, were actually relaxed last summer without public debate.
“For more than 20 years, the government implicitly recognized that reading and copying the letters, diaries, and personal papers of travelers without reason would chill Americans’ rights to free speech and free expression,” Shirin Sinnar, ALC staff attorney, said in a press release. “But now customs officials can probe into the thoughts and lives of ordinary travelers without any suspicion at all.”
In February, ALC and EFF sued the Department of Homeland Security for failing to disclose its policies on searching and questioning travelers at U.S. borders. ALC, a San Francisco-based civil rights organization, received more than two dozen complaints since last year from U.S. travelers, mostly of Muslim, South Asian, or Middle Eastern origin, who said they were grilled about their families, religious practices, volunteer activities, political beliefs, or associations when returning to the United States from travels abroad.
The travelers said that CBP agents examined their books, handwritten notes, personal photos, laptop computer files, and cell phone directories, and sometimes made copies of this information.
While it is, of course, important, for Homeland Security to fight terrorism in the United States, the personal and business documents of U.S. citizens ought not become the domain of law enforcement without sufficient reason. And there should be public checks and balances to ensure that abuses don’t take place.
The fact that Homeland Security relaxed these rules under the radar, with no announcement nor opportunity for public comment or congressional review makes the decision suspicious.
Chertoff Returns To Texas
National Guard in Galveston
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is back in Texas today observing recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
His first stop was Houston to meet with local officials at the emergency operations center. He was then due to travel to Galveston to meet with local officials and also visit with evacuees in Harris County.
Galveston’s mayor has been critical of what he believes is a poor response by FEMA, reminiscent of the criticism leveled at the agency, which is part of Homeland Security, following Hurricane Katrina.
Homeland Security Response To Hurricane Ike
Cinco Ranch, TX damage
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says, while Hurricane Ike has truck the coast of Texas and the west coast of Louisiana, an “exceptionally broad storm surge” has affected eastern Louisiana, Mississippi and down the Texas coast.
Chertoff says, as example, there have been “very, very significant surges” in Beaumont and in Cameron Parrish and Lake Charles. However, the impact in Galveston and in the Houston ship channel was not as great as had been anticipated.
Storm surges, he says, reached 16-feet in some areas.
Now that the hurricane has made landfall, Chertoff says sustained winds are down to tropical storm levels. But he says rain will cause flooding in Texas and further into the United States.
“This is still,” Chertoff warns, “a dangerous storm.”
The primary search and rescue focus, he says, is concentrated in Orange County and Cameron Parrish, Louisiana, Galveston and the eastern part of Harris County.
He says Coast Guard and National Guard assets are being pressed into service.
Other areas that aren’t experiencing flooding problems still have their problems, he says, with downed trees and power lines. He is urging people in those areas to be cautious when they venture outside.
“There is a systematic plan to conduct search and rescue ground, water, and air,” he says.
Chertoff says more than 2 million people have been evacuated in Texas. About 130,000 more in Louisiana. It’s still too early, he says, for them to return home.
