A six-woman Bernalillo [NM] County Metropolitan Court jury has found Phil Mocek “NOT GUILTY” (video) of all of the charges brought against him following his arrest in November 2009 at the TSA checkpoint at the Albuquerque airport. We’ll be posting audio recordings and photos of the trial. The jury returned its verdict Friday evening after […]
“No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.” (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 12) This week the Council on American-Islamic Relations held a news conference in Washington (statements, testimony, and links to adiditonal info) featuring first-hand accounts of US citizens who have been trapped overseas, unable […]
Despite being a party to international aviation and human rights treaties guaranteeing free passage through international airspace, the US government claims the right to require prior government permission (granted or withheld in secret, without due process, judicial review, or publicly disclosed standards) not just for travel to or from the USA but for transit through […]
S. 3427, a bill introduced in the Senate this week by Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and John Cornyn (R-TX), would require would require ID “verification” as a prerequite to buying a prepaid cell phone or SIM card. The seller or reseller of the phone or SIM card would be required to collect your personal information […]
“Freedom Flyer” arrested at TSA checkpoint “NOT GUILTY” VERDICT BY JURY ON ALL CRIMINAL CHARGES (see also follow-up Federal civil rights lawsuit against police and TSA staff) Video of the verdict and excerpts from Phil Mocek’s reaction Audio of Mr. Mocek’s comments outside the courtroom immediately after the verdict (complete and unedited) Our analysis of […]
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has been holding another round of meetings this week at its headquarters in Montreal. As we predicted, the US delegation has been pressing its vision of an integrated and standardized global system of surveillance and control of air travel, in which government access would be built into airline reservation […]
US Vice President Joe Biden gave a remarkable speech today at the European Parliament, devoting substantial time to professions of personal and institutional US commitment to “privacy” while focusing his policy agenda on lobbying the EP to approve warrantless, suspicious US government access to European financial (SWIFT/TFTP) and travel (PNR) data. If you don’t have […]
Today the Department of Homeland Security received its most significant rebuff from any democratically elected body since the DHS was created after September 11, 2001. In response to a recommendation from the Council of the European Union (the EU member national governments) for approval of the “interim” agreement under which the DHS obtains all airline […]
Last week the European Parliament, following a hearing earlier in the month in Brussels at which we testified, held a three-hour plenary debate in Strasbourg on proposals to approve access by the US Department of Homeland Security to European interbank transfer (SWIFT) and airline reservation (Passenger Name Record, PNR) data. The current “provisional” agreement to […]
We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the new Arizona “immigration” law, S.B. 1070, which we mentioned earlier in this blog. As we read the text (PDF) of the law it imposes no new requirement to show ID credentials or other evidence of identity. On the contrary, it gives people even more reasons to […]