07.14.13
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Openmarket.org: DHS Secretary Napolitano Resigns, TSA Body Scanner Scandal Remains Unresolved

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is resigning to become president of the University of California system. Republican politicians such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Tex.) quickly praised Napolitano when news of her resignation broke, with McCain saying she “served our nation with honor” and McCaul touting her as “someone who does not underestimate the threats against us.”

Fortunately, not all Republican members of Congress are as enthusiastic when it comes to America’s bloated and malignant security state. “Secretary Napolitano’s departure comes not a minute too soon,” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.). “Now is a good time for Congress to consider dismantling the monstrous Department of Homeland Security and replacing it with a smaller security focused entity that is realistically capable of connecting the dots of threats posed to our national security.” Hear, hear, Rep. Mica.

News of Napolitano’s resignation deserves one response from civil libertarians and those in favor of risk-based security policy: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Among other unsavory deeds, for her entire tenure, she allowed the Transportation Security Administration to illegally deploy whole-body imaging scanners in airports. Until a court ordered the TSA in July 2011 to conduct the legally mandated regulatory proceeding, officials at the Department of Homeland Security maintained that such basic lawful administrative procedures were unnecessary and the public had no right to officially comment on the use of the machines. It then took over a year and a half for the TSA to open the regulatory proceeding in March 2013, something it should have done in 2009 before deploying the scanners in the first place.

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Click below for the full article.

http://www.openmarket.org/2013/07/12/dhs-secretary-napolitano-resigns-tsa-body-scanner-scandal-remains-unresolved/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Openmarketorg+%28OpenMarket.org%29

07.14.13
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Reason.com: Nevada Cops Commandeer Private Homes, Arrest Residents for Objecting

Henderson police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors, the family claims in court.

Anthony Mitchell and his parents Michael and Linda Mitchell sued the City of Henderson, its Police Chief Jutta Chambers, Officers Garret Poiner, Ronald Feola, Ramona Walls, Angela Walker, and Christopher Worley, and City of North Las Vegas and its Police Chief Joseph Chronister, in Federal Court.

Henderson, pop. 257,000, is a suburb of Las Vegas.

The Mitchell family’s claim includes Third Amendment violations, a rare claim in the United States. The Third Amendment prohibits quartering soldiers in citizens’ homes in times of peace without the consent of the owner. …

“Although plaintiff Anthony Mitchell was lying motionless on the ground and posed no threat, officers, including Officer David Cawthorn, then fired multiple ‘pepperball’ rounds at plaintiff as he lay defenseless on the floor of his living room. Anthony Mitchell was struck at least three times by shots fired from close range, injuring him and causing him severe pain.” (Parentheses in complaint.)

Officers then arrested him for obstructing a police officer, searched the house and moved furniture without his permission and set up a place in his home for a lookout, Mitchell says in the complaint.

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Click below for the full article.

http://reason.com/24-7/2013/07/04/nevada-cops-commandeer-private-homes-arr

07.13.13
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Reuters: Hackers convention ask government to stay away over Snowden

Member of the DHS Advisory Committee Jeff Moss speaks at the Reuters Global Media and Technology Summit in New York, June 12, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The annual Def Con hacking convention has asked the U.S. federal government to stay away this year for the first time in its 21-year history, saying Edward Snowden’s revelations have made some in the community uncomfortable about its presence.

“It would be best for everyone involved if the Feds call a ‘time-out’ and not attend Def Con this year,” conference founder Jeff Moss said in an announcement posted Wednesday night on the convention’s website.

An irreverent crowd of more than 15,000 hackers, researchers, corporate security experts, privacy advocates, artists and others are expected to attend the Las Vegas convention, which begins on August 2.

Moss, who is an advisor on cyber security to the Department of Homeland Security, told Reuters it was “a tough call,” but he believed the Def Con community needs time to make sense of recent revelations about U.S. surveillance programs.

“The community is digesting things that the Feds have had a decade to understand and come to terms with,” said Moss, who is known as The Dark Tangent in hacking circles. “A little bit of time and distance can be a healthy thing, especially when emotions are running high.”

He said the move was designed to defuse tension.

“We are not going on a witch hunt or checking IDs and kicking people out,” he said.

The conference has attracted officials from agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Secret Service and all branches of the military.

Last year, four-star General Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, was a keynote speaker at the event, which is the world’s largest annual hacking conference.

The audience was respectful, gave modest applause and also asked about secret government snooping. Alexander adamantly denied the NSA has dossiers on millions of Americans, as some former employees had suggested before the Snowden case.

“The people who would say we are doing that should know better,” Alexander said. “That is absolute nonsense.”

Alexander is scheduled to speak in Las Vegas on July 31 at Black Hat, a smaller, two-day hacking conference that Moss also founded, but sold almost eight years ago. It costs about $2,000 to attend Black Hat, which attracts a more corporate crowd than the $180 Def Con.

Black Hat General Manager Trey Ford said that the NSA has confirmed that Alexander will speak at his conference, which is owned by UBM Plc, a global media company. Security will be heightened and Alexander will take questions from the audience, Ford said.

An NSA spokeswoman confirmed Alexander would attend, but did not elaborate or comment on Def Con’s request that the Federal government not attend.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/11/us-hackers-feds-idUSBRE96A08120130711

07.12.13
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EFF: Whether High School or College, Students’ Speech Rights Are Being Threatened Online

Attention, high school and college students: Your online speech is not nearly as private as you think. And no, we’re not talking about the National Security Agency. The threat to student speech comes from a far more local and immediate source: the prying eyes of school administrators apparently unaware of their students’ rights. All too often, students face unwarranted punishment for online communications.

Examples abound.

Just this past May at Cicero-North Syracuse High School in upstate New York, senior Pat Brown was suspended for three days for creating a Twitter hashtag about a school budget controversy. Brown created the “#shitCNSshouldcut” hashtag to suggest ways his school could save money after voters rejected a $144.7 million budget plan, joking that laying off the school’s principal or getting rid of the “anime club” might help alleviate budget strains. Unfortunately, the principal wasn’t amused; CNN and The Huffington Post reported that Brown was accused of “harassing the principal” and “inciting a social media riot that disrupted the learning environment.”

Also this past May, Heights High School (Wichita, Kansas) senior class president Wesley Teague was suspended and barred from attending graduation after posting a tweet that the school deemed offensive to HSS’s student athletes. Teague wrote that “‘Heights U’ is equivalent to WSU’s football team,” referring to the school’s athletic program and nearby Wichita State University, which eliminated its football program in 1986. Teague was scheduled to give the commencement speech at graduation, but the school sent Teague and his parents a letter stating that Teague’s initial tweet and a few subsequent tweets “acted to incite a disturbance” within school and “aggressively [disrespected] many athletes.”

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Click below for the full article.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/07/whether-high-school-or-college-students-speech-rights-are-being-threatened-onlin-0

07.11.13
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Reuters: Tired of helping the CIA? Quit Facebook, Venezuela minister urges

A man uses an iPad with a Facebook app in this photo illustration in Sofia January 30, 2013. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

A Venezuelan government minister on Wednesday urged citizens to shut Facebook accounts to avoid being unwitting informants for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, referring to recent revelations about U.S. surveillance programs.

Edward Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor who is stuck in a Moscow airport while seeking to avoid capture by the United States, last month leaked details about American intelligence agencies obtaining information from popular websites including Facebook.

“Comrades: cancel your Facebook accounts, you’ve been working for free as CIA informants. Review the Snowden case!” wrote Prisons Minister Iris Varela on her Twitter account.

Venezuela has offered to provide asylum for Snowden, but he has not responded and appears unable to leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo International Airport.

He exposed a program known as Prism that relied on customer data supplied by major technology companies.

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Click below for the full article.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/11/us-usa-security-venezuela-facebook-idUSBRE96A01120130711

07.10.13
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Outrage Over Highway Body Cavity Search

Two women are suing the Texas DPS after getting body cavity searches during a traffic stop.

“The male officer, his words verbatim were, ‘We’re gonna get familiar with your womanly parts,'” Brandy Hamilton said.

That officer, Nathaniel Turner, claimed to smell marijuana in Hamilton and Alexandria Randle’s car when he pulled them over for speeding on Memorial Day 2012. He called a female trooper to search their genitalia for drugs on the side of Highway 288 in Brazoria County.

“You’re going to go up my private parts?” Hamilton said. Brandy Hamilton and Alexandria Randle have filed a lawsuit against Brazoria County for invasion of privacy after they were searched on the side of a highway on Memorial Day 2012. KVUE

“Yes, ma’am,” trooper Jennie Bui said matter-of-factly.

The entire stop was recorded on the state troopers’ dash camera, including Hamilton’s horrified face at the moment of insertion.

“She pretty much forced my legs open because I wouldn’t even open my legs,” Hamilton said.

07.06.13
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Happy Fourth of July America: Video: 4th of July DUI Checkpoint – Drug Dogs, Searched without Consent, Rights Taken Away, while Innocent

A man was pulled over and searched by police on the 4th of July at a DUI checkpoint in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Although the man repeatedly exercised his constitutional rights to not be searched and followed the law, the officers bullied him and forced him out of the vehicle despite committing no crime. The motorist’s car was then searched by a K-9 unit who was given a false alert signal by the police officer in order to search the vehicle for drugs.

From the video:

Tennessee State Trooper AJ Ross orders me to pull over and get out of my car, bullies me around, gets the drug sniffing K-9, lies about me having “Illegal Drugs” in the car, searches without consent, and tells me that it is ok to take away my freedom. All while not being detained. All this harassment because my window was not lowered enough to his preference. I broke no laws whatsoever. All of this on a day that we are supposed to be celebrating freedom and liberty. This checkpoint was in Murfreesboro, TN.