Free Republic

Oppression At the Airport Still Think You Are Free? The first thing you lose when you walk into an airport is freedom of speech, according to Walter Williams article "Airport tyranny". You do not even have to say any particular thing to find yourself arrested. Even if you say something totally innocent (in a country with free speech everything is innocent), if some TSA thug claims it distracted him or her. Quoting James Bovard, Williams wrote: "According to the February 2002 Federal Register, people can be arrested if they act in a way that 'might distract or inhibit a screener...

Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan's luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? "Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop," says Hogan, a freelance investigative reporter whose recent stories have ranged from the origins of the Iraq war to the impact of money in presidential politics. Shaken by the encounter, Hogan says he left the airport and examined his bags, finding that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court rejected on Monday a legal challenge by two environmental groups to the U.S. Homeland Security secretary's decision to waive 19 federal laws so a fence could be built on the Arizona-Mexico border. The high court refused to hear an appeal by Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club challenging a 2005 law that Secretary Michael Chertoff invoked on the grounds that it violated the constitutional separation of powers principles. The Republican-led Congress in 2005 gave Chertoff the power to waive environmental and other laws to build fences and other border barriers in an effort...

After a year of border fence protests in Brownsville, a meeting Saturday at a home that will soon be bisected by the barrier might be among the last opposition efforts before construction starts. Approximately 15 people gathered in the Pamela Taylor's front yard in rural Southmost, including several area residents who spoke publicly for the first time about the fence and its impact on their properties. "It's unfortunate that we even have to have a gathering like this," Diana Lucio said. "Because we're listening to each other, but I don't know if the government is listening to its own citizens."...

It was as frightening as a Halloween trick can be: It happened in broad daylight. It was caught on camera. The government says it really happened. On Oct. 31, 2006, a covert agent of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) pulled to the side of a Canadian highway that runs along the U.S. border. Greg Kutz, GAO's managing director of forensic audits and special investigations, explained what happened in a May 16, 2008, report to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus. The report summarized GAO's efforts (from 2003 to 2007) to covertly test the effectiveness of U.S. border security. The covert agent...

When the border fence is constructed along the Rio Grande, Fermin Leal will watch as the barrier slices through the backyards of his neighbors, bypassing his 500-acre farm in San Pedro. The fence's trajectory, incontiguous and largely unexplained, has left many border residents suspicious of the federal government's plans. "I'm still not sure how my land is different than theirs," Leal said. "They still haven't given us any answers." The fence will run nearly unabated through Brownsville before stopping at River Bend Resort and golf course. It will break again for nearly seven miles in San Pedro, where the federal...

I wish I could take credit for this spoof-but I can't. Enjoy it anyway !!

(CNSNews.com) - Members of Congress are split on whether the National Guard should end its deployment along the U.S.-Mexico border in July, as planned. On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff predicted the border would not be secured until 2011. (See earlier story)The Guard built 38.1 miles of new fencing, 18.5 miles of new roads, 94.5 miles of vehicle barriers and repaired 717 miles of road. The final withdrawal for the National Guard working in Operation Jump Start is planned for July 15. The National Guard's Noller said that Operation Jump Start is winding down because of a presidential directive....

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer assigned to the San Luis, Ariz., port of entry and four others face various immigrant smuggling charges in a 22-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury. The officer, Jose Carmelo Magana of Yuma, is accused of accepting bribes from four others to allow illegal immigrants to be smuggled through the port of entry from October 2007 through May of this year. Also charged are Ana Calderon, 28, of San Luis, Ariz., and four residents of neighboring San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., identified in the indictment as Jesus Gastelum-Rodriguez, 41, Guadalupe Milan de...

Good news: the war on terror is over! Charles Allen, the Department of Homeland Security’s senior intelligence official, said last week that American officials should stop calling this conflict we’re in a “war on terror,” far less the president’s term, the “global war on terror.” Why? Because it offends Muslims, of course. When they hear “terror,” you see, this hurts the feelings of peaceful non-terrorist Muslims. “[It] has nothing to do with political correctness,” insisted Allen, straining credulity well past the breaking point. “It is interpreted in the Muslim world as a war on Islam and we don’t need this.”...

The west needs a more comprehensive strategy to counter al-Qaeda propaganda and the US should stop using the term “war on terror”, according to a top intelligence official. Charles Allen, the senior intelligence official at the Department of Homeland Security, says the phrase is counter-productive because it creates “animus” in Islamic countries.

LONDON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff downplayed the threat of a nuclear terror attack Friday despite recent postings on al-Qaida-affiliated Web sites exhorting militants to pursue weapons of mass destruction for use against the U.S. Speaking at London's Oxford Union, Chertoff said that while officials acknowledge al-Qaida's interest in developing such capability, the U.S. was more concerned about terrorists' use of conventional arms. "The short answer is the intent is there. Its probability, particularly in the short term, is lower than conventional weapons," he told the students and journalists in attendance at the famed debating society.

Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.”

GALVESTON — Saying he wanted to “drive a stake through the heart of a misapprehension which is out there,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Border Patrol checks will not bog down Rio Grande Valley or other hurricane evacuations. “Instructions to the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection are clear,” Chertoff said in a statement out of Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington. “They are to do nothing to impede a safe and speedy evacuation of a danger zone. “Now, obviously, the laws don't get suspended, but it does mean that our priorities are to make sure we...

Louisville, KY — The term “politically correct,” is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary thus: “Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.” Add to that litany of “historical injustices” the title of my New York Times bestseller: “American Heroes in the Fight Against Radical Islam.”In recent weeks, the vocabulary police opened a new front in the War on Terror by issuing a list of “do’s” and “don’ts” for terrorism terminology. In an effort to fight a “kinder, gentler” war on Islamic...

The US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Bureau seeks to identify Criminal Aliens for a very simple reason. They want to catch these malefactors and return them to their various and sundry spawning holes. Their portion of the DHS website describes their goals in the following flowery prose.The Criminal Alien Program (CAP) focuses on identifying criminal aliens who are incarcerated within federal, state and local facilities thereby ensuring that they are not released into the community by securing a final order of removal prior to the termination of their sentence. This doesn’t register in most US states. There are some illegal...

Tourists visiting the US face even tougher security checks now airport officials can search through mobile phones and laptops. Guards can download any details contained in the items and keep them indefinitely, following a new court ruling. The latest legislation could mean lengthier queues as security copy photos, emails and phone records. Visitors already face hour-long waits while armed officers take fingerprints and photos.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is refusing to identify the "influential Muslim Americans" and "leading U.S.-based scholars and commentators on Islam" who met with Secretary Michael Chertoff in helping shape a softer approach to government lexicon about terrorists and their ideological motivations. "Our policy is we don't comment on the Secretary's private schedule," spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told the IPT. Nor would she identify any of the participants' organizational affiliation. DHS and the State Department's Counterterrorism Communications Center each issued reports urging government employees to avoid words like "jihad," "mujahedeen" or any reference to Islam or Muslims, especially in relation...

Bush Administration Gives New Terminology to Terrorism By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press | April 25, 2008 WASHINGTON — Don’t call them jihadists any more. And don’t call Al Qaeda a movement. The Bush administration has launched a new front in the war on terrorism, this time targeting language. Federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counter Terrorism Center, are telling their people not to describe Islamic extremists as “jihadists” or “mujahedeen,” according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. Lingo such “Islamo-fascism” is out, too. The reason: Such words may actually boost support...

A 74-year-old grandmother spent the night in jail after she refused security officers' efforts to check her at Palm Beach International Airport and then shoved a deputy, authorities said Thursday. Elena Reichman, a Holocaust survivor who lives west of Boca Raton, is charged with felony battery on a law enforcement officer. She was released from jail after posting a $3,000 bond at 5 a.m. Thursday. It was her first arrest, state records show.

The US is offering foreign, minority investors in its companies an incentive to forgo board representation and other shareholder rights that convey “control” over a company, if they want to avoid a potential national security investigation. As reported in the Financial Times, proposed regulations released by the US Treasury on Monday made clear that investments under 10 per cent may be investigated by the Committee on Foreign Investment, the executive branch body that vets foreign deals on national security grounds. The proposed rule represents a departure from previous regulations, which said that, in most cases, investments under 10 per cent...

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Department employees mostly are an unhappy lot. An internal survey of about 141,000 of the department's 208,000 employees found that only 58 percent were satisfied with their jobs, the same as results from a 2006 survey that measured job satisfaction across the government. The department ranked at the bottom in the 2006 poll, which was conducted by the Office of Personnel Management. While 91 percent of the people who work at the department think the work they do is important, only 54 percent would recommend the department as a good place to work. That number is...

AUGUSTA, Maine -- Gov. John Baldacci signed into law a bill to tighten standards for getting a Maine driver's license, acknowledging that the measures were a tough issue for lawmakers. Under pressure for the federal government, Baldacci wasted little time before signing the bill Thursday night after the Senate approved it by a 19-15 vote despite criticism from civil libertarians. With the bill's enactment, Maine joins 44 other states, including the rest of New England, in making proof of legal U.S. residency a requirement for getting a driver's license, the governor said. Previously, the state did not require any proof...

After doing tons of research on CPS over the years (and learning more than I'm sure they would care that I know), the public should be aware of why CPS uses the illegal ways that they do to obtain custody of literally THOUSANDS of children in Texas alone! Because of some courageous parents whose children have been illegally taken from them by CPS have decided they MUST speak up for the sake of the VERY LIVES of their children in CPS custody, it is coming to the attention of the media, more and more, NATIONWIDE, about the way parents have...

By Ann Shibler Published: 2008-04-07 New "anti-terrorism" rules ordered up by DHS for those who fish the Great Lakes are causing a wave of dissent. While still leaving our southern border wide open, the northern border will be protected by stricter security rules heavily enforced by the DHS, particularly for those tall-tale-telling anglers. Follow this link to the original source: "Going fishing? Pack your passport" COMMENTARY: Starting with the 2008 charter fishing season on the Great Lakes, and particularly impacting Lake Erie because of its geography and popularity among anglers, fishermen will now have to have their passports or two...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says he feels the pain of employers pinched by the federal government's intensified efforts to control illegal immigration. But until Congress enacts broad immigration reforms, businesses shouldn't expect any changes in enforcement. In an interview with The Associated Press, Chertoff said this week the rising complaints from businesses offer some evidence the Bush administration's approach is working. "This is harsh but accurate proof positive that for the first time in decades, we've succeeded in changing the dynamic and (are) actually beginning to reduce illegal immigration," Chertoff said. "Unfortunately, unless you counterbalance that with a robust...

The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps. Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said...

Three years after Congress granted the federal government unprecedented waiver authority, 14 congressmen are challenging how that authority is being used to construct a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., led a group, including Rio Grande Valley U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, to file a brief in Supreme Court which questions the constitutionality of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's waivers. Last week's waivers filed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would suspend more than 30 laws, which Chertoff said could interfere with "the expeditious construction of barriers." It was the fourth set of...

NEWARK - Ten immigrants yesterday charged that warrantless and abusive pre-dawn raids by federal authorities violated their constitutional rights. The immigrants, in a federal lawsuit, asserted that ranking Homeland Security officials ordered agents to meet arrest quotes but failed to provide proper training or current addresses for people they were seeking.

The Bush administration plans to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and bypass environmental laws hindering the building of 670 miles of fence along the border with Mexico and finish the section authorized by Congress by the end of this year. Federal officials said the administration will invoke two legal waivers sanctioned by Congress to overcome obstacles holding up construction in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, the Associated Press reported. Officials have said the "virtual fence" along a 28-mile section of the border in Arizona has been delayed by technical problems, and opposition from landowners along the border has...

Inadequate handgun rules designed by Department of Homeland Security officials are to blame for last weekend's accidental discharge of a pistol by a commercial pilot during landing preparations, a pilots association said yesterday. "The pilot has to take his gun off and lock it up before he leaves the cockpit, so he was trying to secure the gun in preparation for landing, while he was trying to fly the airplane, too," said David Mackett, president of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance. "In the process of doing that, the padlock that is required to be inserted into the holster pulled the...

Now a fixture at Department of Homeland Security science and technology conferences, SIGMA is a loosely affiliated group of science fiction writers who are offering pro bono advice to anyone in government who want their thoughts on how to protect the nation. The group has the ear of Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Jay Cohen, head of the science and technology directorate, who has said he likes their unconventional thinking. Members of the group recently offered a rambling, sometimes strident string of ideas at a panel discussion promoting the group at the DHS science and technology conference. Among the group’s...

IntroductionMention the words “illegal immigrant” and most Americans conjure up images of desperate migrants sneaking across the Mexican border. There is another side to America’s immigration problem, however, that most know very little about — those who come with valid, temporary visas and do not return home. According to a 2006 Pew Hispanic Center study,1 nearly half of the 12 million-plus illegal aliens in America arrived legally with temporary, non-immigrant visas. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that a “substantial” percentage of America’s illegal population is made up of visa overstays — their estimates range from 27 to 57...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Homeland Security Department is appealing a judge's ruling against its proposal to force employers to fire workers whose names don't match their Social Security numbers, and promises to try to make the policy a law. A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the "no-match rule" in October, saying it would likely impose hardships on businesses and their workers. Employers would incur new costs to comply with the regulation that the government hasn't evaluated, and innocent workers unable to correct mistakes in their records in time would lose their jobs, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote. In...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Homeland Security Department is appealing a judge's ruling against its proposal to force employers to fire workers whose names don't match their Social Security numbers, and promises to try to make the policy a law. A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the "no-match rule" in October, saying it would likely impose hardships on businesses and their workers. Employers would incur new costs to comply with the regulation that the government hasn't evaluated, and innocent workers unable to correct mistakes in their records in time would lose their jobs, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote....

The Bush administration unveiled a revised rule Friday threatening businesses with prosecution unless they fire employees identified in government records as possible illegal immigrants, offering a new explanation but virtually no change in content from the regulation that a San Francisco federal judge blocked in October. The Department of Homeland Security announced the new version of the so-called no-match rule on its Web site and said it would invite public comments for 30 days. The department then plans to ask U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to lift his injunction. At the same time, it has asked a federal appeals court...

WASHINGTON - Homeland security officials on Friday hinted at a possible face-saving deal to end their standoff with a handful of states over new driver's license rules — a dispute that, left unresolved, could cause big air travel headaches. For weeks, the Homeland Security Department has been headed toward a showdown with some states over a law called Real ID, which would require new security measures for state-issued driver's licenses. Yet a late Good Friday letter from a top DHS official suggested Washington may be backing away from a messy fight. South Carolina, Maine and Montana are the only states...

The Department of Homeland Security, continuing to enforce what it calls a "strict policy of arresting, prosecuting and jailing" illegal immigrants, deported a record number of those caught on the nation's borders last year — more than 280,000 in fiscal year 2007 compared with 186,000 a year earlier. It was the largest number of illegals ever removed from the country in a single year. The increase is attributable to what veteran law-enforcement authorities said is a revised apprehension process, adding that the department no longer is targeting only criminal illegals for removal, but seeks eventually to apprehend, charge and deport...

The Department of Homeland Security, continuing to enforce what it calls a "strict policy of arresting, prosecuting and jailing" illegal immigrants, deported a record number of those caught on the nation's borders last year — more than 280,000 in fiscal year 2007 compared to 186,000 a year earlier. It was the largest number of illegals ever removed from the country in a single year. The increase is attributable to what veteran law enforcement authorities said is a revised apprehension process, adding that the department no longer is targeting only criminal aliens for removal, but seeks eventually to apprehend, charge and...

The FBI and Homeland Security officials revoked Governor Eliot Spitzer's security clearance early this week as the criminal investigation into Spitzer's alleged use of prostitutes broadened, according to officials familiar with the case. As a result, Spitzer no longer has access to classified intelligence and security briefings, federal officials told WNBC on condition of anonymity. A spokeswoman for Spitzer did not return calls for comment. Spitzer's security clearance was pulled on Tuesday, just one day after his alleged connection to the alleged prostitution ring became public. One federal source said Lt. Governor David Paterson is now being cleared for security...

JOURDANTON — Residents here may not know it, but homeland security begins in their small town 35 miles south of San Antonio. The weapons and training of the nine police officers who patrol between its two traffic lights have improved in recent years with the acquisition of an automatic rifle. An M-16, to be precise. It may be unusual, but it's not unique for a police agency that size to have such a weapon, experts said. Police Chief Ronnie Lawson says it's an appropriate upgrade because several highways funnel more than vehicle traffic through this agricultural community, and the tranquility...

The US government is demanding the right to ban British air passengers from flying over America en route to other countries – even when the flights will not land in the United States. Under anti-terrorism measures due to come into force within two years, the US authorities insist they need to do background checks on all UK air passengers travelling to Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Direct flights to popular holiday destinations such as the Bahamas, Barbados, Toronto and Mexico City would all be covered by stringent US security checks examining people's passport details, travel plans and even...

208,000-worker, $38 billion agency fails to deliver on a slew of projects Stumping for President Bush's ill-fated immigration overhaul in 2006, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff vowed that his department would wrest "operational control" of the nation's borders away from human and drug traffickers within five years. That projection was based on the prospect of tough new enforcement measures as well as a temporary-worker program meant to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants, including the most ambitious use of surveillance technology ever tried on the U.S.-Mexico border. Two years later, the legislative overhaul has been shelved, development of the "virtual...

[Snip] Homeland Security Issues Warning on Sports Arenas As the spring sports season moves into high gear, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI today issued an assessment, called "Potential Threats to Popular Sports and Entertainment Venues," that said arenas and stadiums are attractive "potential targets during events." …..[Snip]   

US Cities At High Risk For Terrorist Attacks IdentifiedA color-coded map identifies American cities' level of risk to bioterrorism. Red identifies urban areas of highest risk, yellow is medium risk, and green is lowest risk. (Credit: Walter W. Piegorsch ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2008) — A University of Arizona researcher has created a new system to dramatically show American cities their relative level of vulnerability to bioterrorism. Walter W. Piegorsch, an expert on environmental risk, has placed 132 major cities -- from Albany, N.Y., to Youngstown, Ohio -- on a color-coded map that identifies their level of risk based on factors...

The U.S. homeland security chief vowed to install more high-tech equipment along the border with Mexico and said on Wednesday the first section of "virtual fence" was working despite problems and delays."The system is now functionally working ... it does add value," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. "We need to take it to the next level, and that is what we are in the process of doing."Chertoff announced in February that a $21 million, 28-mile virtual fence of sensing towers and advanced communications built by Boeing Co. and dubbed "Project...

Over a year ago, Congress passed a law to spend over $7 billion to build a fence to secure our Mexican border. Less than two weeks ago, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced at a news conference that a high-tech "virtual fence" project on part of the U.S. border with Mexico was finally ready for service, and that the technology that was a substitute for an actual physical fence — you know, cement, barbed wire, watch towers, moats. The secretary was very specific. He said: "I have personally witnessed the value of the system, and I have spoken directly to...

WASHINGTON — Bristling at attacks from Texans opposed to building a fence along the Texas-Mexico border, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that he will not be intimidated into abandoning the federal government's plans by harsh words or lawsuits. "I'm willing to have a fair and constructive discussion, but I'm not willing to have an endless discussion," Chertoff told reporters at a breakfast meeting. "Insulting me or attacking me does not cause me to go, 'ooh, I've been insulted and attacked, I'm going to stop doing what I'm doing.' " The Homeland Security Department has been on the...

Hypothetically, let’s say the borders are secure. There is a fence and drones and technology and people in uniforms ensuring that no one is getting into the country illegally. The only people immigrating here are coming in through the front door. Now what? We still have ten to twenty million illegal immigrants in the country. Some studies have the number as high as forty million. What is going to be done with them?

WASHINGTON – The government has approved the first “virtual” fence along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, a 28-mile stretch of technology that will use radars and surveillance cameras to try to catch people entering the country illegally. The Bush administration also plans to use some of the technology in other parts of Arizona and in Texas. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff planned to announce his approval of the virtual fence, built by the Boeing Co., on Friday. Last year the government withheld some of the payment to Boeing because the technology the company used in the test project near Tucson,...