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Thursday, July 18, 2002
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Magaw forced out as security chief. Less than six months after he was given the task of making U.S. airports and airlines safe, John Magaw was forced out Wednesday as head of the new Transportation Security Administration. [MSNBC]
This is great news. Magaw was the head of the BATF under Clinton, and putting a terrorist in charge of stopping terrorists is a pretty foolish idea. Hopefully his replacement, a former commandant of the Coast Guard, will be an improvement.
12:50:02 PM 
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Nelson Mandela: a terrorist's best friend. Quite why so many people write about Nelson Mandela in such a hagiographic manner baffles me. This is a man who is going out of his way to give aid and succor to Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man convicted of murdering 270 people in the air and on the ground when he blew up a Pan Am Jumbo Jet full of people over Lockerbie, Scotland. [Samizdata.net]
Let's not forget that Mandela used to be the head of the ANC, which was a terrorist organization until it took over South Africa. Perhaps this is just a form of professional courtesy--like cops not giving each other speeding tickets.
10:15:33 AM
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An American Stasi. Brian Doherty at Reason -
An American Stasi - more commentary on TIPS. [brianf]
These TIPS soldiers have been given the mission to go where the police can't necessarily go, see what the police can't necessarily see, and then report findings to the Justice Department, which will maintain a database of tips.Ê It remains to be seen whether this will save the country from attack, or simply bury bureaucrats in thousands of vague, frightened, meaningless reports that sully the reputations of the innocent. But we have already seen the effects of creating a system of omnipresent government informants who treat all fellow citizens as potential enemies.Ê It used to be called "living behind the Iron Curtain." [End the War on Freedom]
No doubt Los Angeles Housing Inspectors will be among the people recruited by the new KGB.
10:01:05 AM
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US Postal Service will not take part in TIPS program.. According to this AP article, the US Postal Service has released a statement stating that it will not be participating in the recently inaugurated Terrorism Information and Prevention System. The USPS was approached by what the article describes as homeland security officials, in order to explore the possibilities of involving the service in TIPS. [kuro5hin.org]
They probably don't want people to start thinking of mail carriers as KGB informants--which could be really unhealthy for the mail carriers. It wouldn't surprise me if they quietly change their minds in a few months, when the media attention dies down and nobody is watching.
9:57:20 AM
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Request for help on documentary film on civil liberties after 9-11 [Politech]
People (preferably students, preferably in the DC or SF Bay Areas) who who have been directly affected by the "New McCarthyism." Specifically, we are looking for people who have been affected by technology surveillance...someone who may have experienced serious repercussions for going to a given web site or expressing a certain view on line.
We are also looking for a college student (or recent grad) who might be willing and able to speak more generally about the new threats to on-line privacy post-Sept. 11th.
Given who they want to hear from, it seems pretty obvious the people making the film are really just interested in hearing from liberals. Too bad, it might actually do some good if they talked to people with actual jobs and from other political viewpoints.
9:52:50 AM
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Gilmore v. Ashcroft -- FAA ID Challenge. "United States courts have recognized for more than a century that honest citizens have the right to travel throughout America without government restrictions.Ê Some people say that everything changed on 9/11, but patriots have stood by our Constitution through centuries of conflict and uncertainty.Ê Any government that tracks its citizens' movements and associations, or restricts their travel using secret decrees, is violating that Constitution," said Gilmore.Ê "With this case, I hope to redirect government anti-terrorism efforts away from intrusive yet useless measures such as ID checks, confiscation of tweezers, and database surveillance of every traveler's life." [Cryptome]
I don't think much of his chances of success, but I'm glad someone is doing this.
9:13:05 AM
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© Copyright
2006
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
2/14/2006; 6:51:08 PM.
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