Free Talk Live

Reason.com's Radley Balko cites current cases regarding cops harassing photographers and the legality of taking photos. It is all about power... not security.

More here ( http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/06/the_war_on_phot.html )as encryption expert Bruce Schneier speaks up on harassment of photographers, legality of taking photos, and the myth that terrorists use photographs of their targets to prepare their attacks.

Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.

The Transportation Security Administration is feeling public heat these days over its combination of whole-body-image scanners and heavy-handed pat-down searches, and deservedly so.

There’s no question that reform is needed to curtail TSA’s excesses. We especially applaud the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s efforts to increase public awareness about the body scanners. But will the heat now being generated produce the kind of light we really need?

Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation's homeland security chief said Friday.

Don't like the way airport screeners are doing their job? You might not want to complain too much while standing in line.

Arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator Transportation Security Administration officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists. And, when combined with other behavioral indicators, it could result in a traveler facing additional scrutiny.

Eric Rachner, a Seattle cyber security expert and one of the golf players, wasn't satisfied when the city dismissed charges against him after a possibly illegal arrest for refusing to provide identification.

Rachner discovered through sleuthing that police had withheld video-recorded evidence in his case.

Rachner also hired Seattle attorney Cleveland Stockmeyer to look at his case and probably others where arrests might have been illegal or where police claimed to have destroyed valuable arrest videos that weren't, in fact, erased.

Norwegian Police confirms that at least two persons are dead, and several others injured in a terrorist attack directed against a building housing the Norwegian govt. Many have voiced their concern that authorities will use this as an excuse for more strict and intrusive security regulations.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) thus far, has been more problematic than useful. The extreme surveillance of citizens, the NDAA implemented, ACTA signed which in essence censors our freedom of speech on the Internet and the TSA defines an imposition on our privacy in every area of our lives. This infographic sums the TSA up quite well.

WASHINGTON -- Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation's homeland security chief said Friday.

As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans' civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.