Wednesday, January 12, 2011

America, Land of the Free, So Long as You Toe Party Line

Most Americans don't realize how far the "rights" extend. They think the government abides by the implicit guarantees of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Well... not quite. You do have Constitutional "rights" but only so long as you are doing things that the authorities approve of. If you are suspect, then suddenly you may find that you "have" rights, but you aren't allowed to exercise them.

Here's an example from BoingBoing...
Jacob Appelbaum, a security researcher, Tor developer, and volunteer with Wikileaks, reported today on his Twitter feed that he was detained, searched, and questioned by the US Customs and Border Patrol agents at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on January 10, upon re-entering the US after a vacation in Iceland.

He experienced a similar incident last year at Newark airport.

An archive of his tweeted account from today follows.

• It's very frustrating that I have to put so much consideration into talking about the kind of harassment that I am subjected to in airports.

• I was detained, searched, and CPB did attempt to question me about the nature of my vacation upon landing in Seattle.

• The CPB specifically wanted laptops and cell phones and were visibly unhappy when they discovered nothing of the sort.

• I did however have a few USB thumb drives with a copy of the Bill of Rights encoded into the block device. They were unable to copy it.

• The forensic specialist (who was friendly) explained that EnCase and FTK, with a write-blocker inline were unable to see the Bill of Rights.

• I requested access my lawyer and was again denied. They stated I was I wasn't under arrest and so I was not able to contact my lawyer.

• The CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) agent was waiting for me at the exit gate. Remember when it was our family and loved ones?

• When I handed over my customs declaration form, the female agent was initially friendly. After pulling my record, she had a sour face.

• She attempted to trick me by putting words into my mouth. She marked my card with a large box with the number 1 inside, sent me on my way.

• While waiting for my baggage, I noticed the CBP agent watching me and of course after my bag arrived, I was "randomly" selected for search.

• Only US customs has random number generator worse than a mid-2007 Debian random number generator. Random? Hardly.

• During the search, I made it quite clear that I had no laptop and no cell phone. Only USB drives with the Bill of Rights.

• The CBP agent stated that I had posted on Twitter before my flight and that slip ended the debate about their random selection process.

• The CBP agents in Seattle were nicer than ones in Newark. None of them implied I would be raped in prison for the rest of my life this time.

• The CBP agent asked if the ACLU was really waiting. I confirmed the ACLU was waiting and they again denied me contact with legal help.

• All in all, the detainment was around thirty minutes long. They all seemed quite distressed that I had no computer and no phone.

• They were quite surprised to learn that Iceland had computers and that I didn't have to bring my own.

• There were of course the same lies and threats that I received last time. They even complemented me on work done regarding China and Iran.

• I think there's a major disconnect required to do that job and to also complement me on what they consider to be work against police states.

• While it's true that Communist China has never treated me as badly as CBP, I know this isn't true for everyone who travels to China.

• All in all, if you're going to be detained, searched, and harassed at the border in an extra-legal manner, I guess it's Seattle over Newark.

• It took a great deal of thought before I posted about my experience because it honestly appears to make things worse for me in the future.

• Even if it makes things worse for me, I refuse to be silent about state sponsored systematic detainment, searching, and harassment.

• In case it is not abundantly clear: I have not been arrested, nor charged with any crime, nor indicted in any way. Land of the free? Hardly.

• I'm only counting from the time that we opened my luggage until it was closed. The airport was basically empty when I left.

• It's funny that the forensics guy uses EnCase. As it, like CBP, apparently couldn't find a copy of the Bill of Rights I dd'ed into the disk.

• The forensics guy apparently enjoyed the photo with my homeboy Knuth and he was really quite kind. The forensics guy in Newark? Not so much.

• The CBP agent asked me for data - was I bringing data into the country? Where was all my data from the trip? Names, numbers, receipts, etc.

• The mental environment that this creates for traveling is intense. Nothing is assured, nothing is secure, and nothing provides escape.

• I resisted the temptation to give them a disk filled with /dev/random because I knew that reading them the Bill of Rights was enough hassle.

• I'm flying to Toronto, Canada for work on Sunday and back through Seattle again a few days later. Should be a joy to meet these guys again.

• All of this impacts my ability to work and takes a serious emotional toll on me. It's absolutely unacceptable.

• What happens if I take a device they can't image? They take it. What about the stuff they give back? Back doored? Who knows?

• Does it void a warranty if your government inserts a backdoor into your computer or phone? It certainly voids the trust I have in all of it.

• I dread US Customs more than I dreaded walking across the border from Turkey to Iraq in 2005. That's something worth noting.

• I will probably never feel safe about traveling internationally with a computer or phones again.

• None the less, safe or not, I won't stop working on Tor. Nor will I cease traveling. I will adapt and I will win. A hard road worth taking.
Go to the original post to get embedded links.

I'm not implying that the US is a police state and -- like the idiot right in the US -- that you take up arms as your "2nd Amendment remedy". That is nutty.

What I am saying is that a people is free only so long as they insist on their freedoms. Liberty requires eternal vigilance. It is too easy to let government authorities define your "rights". Sadly, they will keep narrowing them for you because it is convenient for them. They forget that they are working for you and not the other way around. So you have to continually exercise your right and demand your right to exercise your rights. Not by doing the idiotic so-called "leftist" thing of putting on a hoodie and wearing a mask and trashing a downtown. That is purely a criminal act. You have to stand up to authority in a quiet and determined way and insist on your rights. Think of the "soft revolutions" in Eastern Europe that brought the end of Communism. No guns. No idiotic claims of "watering the tree of liberty with blood" and no "blood libel" nonsense. Those people simply went onto the street and held candle light vigils and insisted on their rights. They silently let authorities know that they had had enough of the police state repression. You can win by quietly insisting on your rights within the law.

You can certainly let your representatives know that you don't appreciate border "security" which strips people of their rights. You can write to insist that your police stay within the limits of the law and not try to bully or threaten people. You should insist that your police, like the military, must stay outside the arena of politics. These are instruments of the state which should never be co-opted by a political party or a political ideology. It is too easy for fanatics to wrap themselves in a flag and call on the police or military to "suppress" some free expression or lawful behaviour which they find unpleasant or threatening. In a democracy, debate can be vigorous, but bullying and threats have no place in the debate. And the uniformed services must stay out of the debate.

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