Happy Thanksgiving: Travel laughs

REDUX: 11-24 Opt-out Day Edition

11-24-2010:  Report Abuse During Passenger Screening in U. S. Airports

c/o Paper's Please - Edward Hasbrouck 

What you need to know about your rights at the airport 

1. TSA “screeners” are not law enforcement officers. Despite wearing police-type uniforms and calling themselves “officers”, they have no police powers and no immunity from any state or local laws.  At some airports, notably San Francisco (SFO) and Kansas City (MCI), they aren’t government employees at all, but rent-a-cops employed by a private contractor. They cannot legally arrest or detain you (except as a citizen’s arrest, the same way you can arrest them if they commit assault or battery). All they can do is call the local police.
2. You have the 1st Amendment right to film, photograph, and record what happens in public areas of airports, including your interactions with TSA and screeners.  Photography and recording in airports and at TSA checkpoints violates no Federal law or TSA regulation. Any state or local laws that purport to prohibit this are likely to be unconstitutional. You have the right, for your own protection, to document what happens to you and what is done to you.
3. You have the right not to be assaulted or battered (sexually or otherwise), falsely arrested, unlawfully detained, or kidnapped.  You should consult the applicable laws, including local laws, and/or an attorney if you plan to do any of these things, but you have the right to make a criminal complaint and/or a citizen’s arrest of someone who assaults you, and/or to sue them for damages.
4. Under most airlines’ conditions of carriage, you have the right to a full and unconditional refund if the airline refuses to transport you because you won’t show ID or won’t “consent” to whatever they want to do to you in the name of “screening”. Read this first:Here’s what to do to protect your right to a refund.  If the airline refuses to give you a full refund, you can sue them for damages and request that the US Department of Transportation investigate and fine them.
5. If an airline cancels your reservation or refuses to transport you, you may be entitled to collect damages, and you can request that the US Department of Transportation (and, if you were denied passage to the USA from another country, that country’s authorities) investigate and fine or impose other sanctions on the airline.
6. You have the right to freedom of movement, guaranteed by the First Amendment (”the right of the people… peaceably to assemble”) and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a human rights treaty to which the US is a party: “Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence. Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own…. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.”

ALSO:

IMPORTANT TSA numbers & contact URLS

Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs is (571)227-2829.
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/portstep/editorial_with_table_0063.shtm

The Office of Civil Rights can be reached toll free at 1-877-EEO-4-TSA (1-877-336-4872) or (800) 877-8339 (TTY), or by E-mail at TSA.Civilrights@dhs.gov.

Source: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/civilrights/contact_us.shtm

Other TSA contacts: http://www.tsa.gov/contact/index.shtm

DHS & TSA: Making a list, checking it twice

Filming the TSA may get you persecuted, laws or not

"NSTIC - Not-so Trusted Identity in Cyberspace"

via  POGO.WAS.RIGHT

"According to recent reports, the Obama administration is making a new DHS national identity authentication program a high priority. The National Strategy for Trusted Identity in Cyberspace, expected to be signed by Obama this winter, is another program in a string of recent government attempts to centralize human identity in the US and abroad."

SEE ALSO : Op-Ed News 

FUN: Poli-cartoons on TSA "package" handling are in

WeWontFly.com 

Nate Beeler @ Washington Examiner

    
RELATED NEWS: TSA screenings drive passengers to find alternatives to flying

REDUX: NSTIC unfortunately, a big deal

"There is nothing that is more important than deployment of broadly interoperable authentication," he said. "It is a priority for me; it is a priority for DHS; and it is a priority for the administration."   

-Phil Reitinger, under secretary for NPPD 

NSTIC:: -OMB, DHS working on new HSPD-12 guidance

Here is second life for news that matters:

SFO Body Scanner Protest (one of at least 3 groups confirmed to show 11.24)

A national report on your local Fusion Centers from the LA Times

@LossofPrivacy: Use of RFIDs in Ski equipment now concerning enough for ESPN

NSTIC,  according to federal news radio

CBS4 in Florida asks, What's in a Real ID?

"Florida is one of 11 states that embraced the program. Fifteen states in all have adopted REAL ID."

I-Team: Questions About New National ID Card
CBS4 MIAMI

The Department of Homeland Security estimates it will eventually cost nearly $10 Billion to implement "REAL ID" nationwide.

The line of private companies lining up to cash in and get some of that public money gets longer all the time.

According to the Senate Office of public records, the numbers of clients lobbying to get business from the US Department of Homeland Security skyrocketed from 15 companies in 2001 to 883 last year (2009).

One of the leading companies that is benefiting from the REAL ID Act is L-1 Identity Solutions, an international created in 2006 by businessman Robert LaPenta, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

Business records show that one month after President George W. Bush signed the "REAL ID" Act into law, LaPenta established L-1 Identity Solutions.

According to several annual reports for L-1 Identity Solutions, the company has been immensely successful.

This year, Florida's Department of Motor Vehicles alone awarded L-1 Solutions a 5 year contract worth $56.9 Million.

A spokesperson for L-1 Solutions told the I-Team that LaPenta had no comment and the company would not talk about its business involving REAL ID.   :::MORE HERE:::

ACTION ALERT: Call Senate about TSA practices

Tweeted @Privacyactivism 

"Senate #TSA oversight hearing tomorrow, 11/17.http://is.gd/h9bzZ I've called my senator (& my airline), have you?#privacy"

FROM FLYER TALK...

The Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security will hold a
Transportation Security Administration Oversight Hearing next Wednesday.

Please forward this information as widely as possible.

Meeting info:

Jena Longo - Democratic Deputy Communications Director, (202) 224-8374
Nov 17 2010 10:00 AM
Russell Senate Office Building - 253

Contact the communications director to find out more information about the meeting.

The committee chair is Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) phone (202) 224-6472. The ranking member is Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison 202-224-5922.

The subcommittee chair is Sen Byron L. Dorgon (D-ND) phone (202) 224-2551. The ranking member is Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC) phone (202) 224-6121.

Regardless of your home state, call the chairpersons to ask whether recent TSA abuses are on the agenda for the oversight hearing. Ask to speak with the staffer responsible for dealing with issues related to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.


Here is a list of committee members, their homepage and phone number. If one of these people is your Senator, please also phone them, either at the number below or look online to find their nearest local office - you can even visit in person. A constituent who knows a senator's committee assignments and addresses issues for the agenda for a scheduled hearing gives him/herself an educated and powerful voice.

If none of these people is your senator, contact the committee chairs. Also contact your own senators and representative . They still need to hear your opinion, it's just that they won't be at this hearing.

D-AK Mark Begich (202) 224-3004
D-AR Mark Pryor (202) 224-2353
D-CA Barbara Boxer (202) 224-3553
D-FL Bill Nelson 202-224-5274
D-HI Daniel K. Inouye (202) 224.3934
D-MA John F. Kerry [(202) 224-2742
D-MN Amy Klobuchar 202-224-3244
D-MO Claire McCaskill 202-224-6154
D-ND Byron L. Dorgon phone (202) 224-2551
D-NJ Frank R. Lautenberg (973) 639-8700, (888) 398-1642
D-NM Tom Udall (202) 224-6621
D-VA Mark Warner 202-224-2023
D-WA Maria Cantwell 202-224-3441
D-WV Jay Rockefeller (202) 224-6472

R-FL George S. LeMieux (202) 224-3041
R-GA Johnny Isakson (202) 224-3643
R-KS Sam Brownback (202) 224-6521
R-LA David Vitter (202) 224-4623
R-ME Olympia J. Snowe (202) 224-5344, (800) 432-1599
R-MS Roger F. Wicker 202-224-6253
R-NE Mike Johanns (202) 224-4224
R-NV John Ensign (202) 224-6244
R-SC Jim DeMint phone (202) 224-6121
R-SD John Thune (202) 224-2321, 1-866-850-3855
R-TX Kay Bailey Hutchison 202-224-5922

This link has information on committee staff, as well.