When last we wrote about Saadiq Long — an Oklahoma native, U.S. citizen, and Air Force veteran — he had been sentenced by the U.S. government, without judge or jury, to life without air travel. First he was prevented from returning to the U.S. to visit his ailing mother. Then he was prevented from returning […]
We’ve been waiting for years for responses to some of our FOIA requests to the TSA and DHS, including a request for records of what happened to our earlier FOIA requests that were subjected to a special program of political review and reporting to the White House, a request for records that were previously improperly […]
The TSA published a revised System of Records Notice in the Federal Register on November 19th, updating its disclosures of what information about our “travel histories” it collects, retains, and uses through its Secure Flight program for airline passenger surveillance and control. The new notice is both better and worse than it might appear at […]
Airlines should have been defending their customers against government demands for information. Instead, they have chosen to collaborate with governments not just in surveillance and violation of the rights of their customers, but in the cover-up of those practices and the attempt to keep travelers from realizing their extent. We got a letter from Air […]
Last week the TSA’s Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC) held its second meeting since being reconstituted almost a year ago. As in the past, the latest reincarnation of ASAC remains largely window-dressing, lacking authority, with no civil liberties or privacy experts or consumer advocates among its members, and with a track record of unconcern for […]
Federal civil rights lawsuit for false arrest at TSA checkpoint U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit Argued March 17, 2015; decided December 22, 2015 Phillip Mocek v. City of Albuquerque, Albuquerque Aviation Police Department, Marshall Katz (in his official capacity as Chief of Police of the Albuquerque Aviation Police Department), Jonathon Breedon [TSA], […]
The obvious follow-up question to, Does an airline pilot have the right to refuse to let you fly?, is “What can you do if an airline pilot won’t let you fly?” Arijit Guha, one of the victims (his wife was also barred from the flight, merely for her association with her husband) in the incident […]
Just in time for the “back to school” crush of 300,000 students returning to classes at Boston-area colleges and Universities, and a week after the New York Times reported complaints by whistleblowers within the TSA and the Massachusetts State Police that the TSA “behavior detection” program at Logan Airport in Boston is functioning as a […]
On December 20, 2002, Terry Bressi was arrested at a roadblock in Arizona being operated by a joint task force including tribal police and agents of the US Department of Homeland Security. After all of the trumped-up charges brought against Mr. Bressi were dismissed , he sued the tribal police department, the DHS, and the […]
For two years, FBI agents tried to recruit Yonas Fikre — a US citizen who came to the US with his family as refugees when he was 12 years old — to infiltrate and inform on members of the congregation of a mosque he attended in Portland, Oregon, as part of an FBI entrapment “sting”. […]