Monday, July 02, 2007

JUSTICE


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TSA HARASSES 57-YEAR0OLD GRANDMOTHER OVER FORGOTTEN BUTTER KNIFE

NBC4, IA - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at
Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a
suspected terrorist. . .

This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school
students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. The trip
included two days at Disneyland. During the stay she made sandwiches for
the kids and was careful to pack the knives she used to prepare those
sandwiches in her checked luggage. She says she even alerted security
screeners that the knives were in her checked bags and they told her
that was OK.

But Beaman says she couldn't find a third knife. It was a 5 1/2 inch
bread knife with a rounded tip and a serrated edge. She thought she
might have lost or misplaced it during the trip.

On the trip home, screeners with the Transportation Security
Administration at Los Angeles International Airport found it deep in the
outside pocket of a carry-on cooler. Beaman apologized and told them it
was a mistake.

"You've committed a felony," Beaman says a security screener announced.
"And you're considered a terrorist."

Beaman says she was told her name would go on a terrorist watch-list and
that she would have to pay a $500 fine.

"I'm a 57-year-old woman who is taking care of 37 kids," she told them.
"I'm not gonna commit a terrorist act." . . .

She says screeners refused to give her paperwork or documentation of her
violation, documentation of the pending fine, or a copy of the
photograph of the knife.

"They said 'no' and they said it's a national security issue. And I said
what about my constitutional rights? And they said 'not at this point
... you don't have any'."

http://www.nbc4.com/news/13530622/detail.html

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WAR DEPARTMENT
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GREAT MOMENTS IN HOMELAND SECURITY

AUDREY HUDSON, WASHINGTON TIMES - Homeland Security officials are being
warned not to toss secret documents that could compromise transportation
security into the ordinary trash after hundreds of such papers marked
"sensitive" reportedly were found in a city trash container near the
Orlando International Airport in Florida. The Transportation Security
Administration used its most recent newsletter to tell employees not to
throw away outdated materials stamped as "Sensitive Security
Information".

"There have been recent news stories about a young person who went
Dumpster diving near a major airport and found an airport binder that
contained documents marked as [SSI]", the newsletter said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070620/
NATION/106200083/1001


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BRITISH TRYING TO MAKE HOMELAND SECURITY LOOK GOOD

BBC - UK tourist visas are often denied to would-be visitors because
they "plan a holiday for no particular purpose other than sightseeing",
a report says. Others were turned down because they had never previously
taken any foreign travel or could not speak English. The "ridiculous
reasons" for rejecting visas were set out in a report by the independent
monitor of UK visas. . .

She said a common reason for refusal was "you wish to go to the UK for a
holiday. You have never previously undertaken any foreign travel before
and I can see little reason for this trip". . .

She also highlights the case of a person whose request was rejected by
an officer because they had "little or no idea what you plan to see or
do". . .

In one case, a man was refused a visa because the officer thought it not
credible that he was going to stay in a hotel in Cirencester "far from
[his] friends in Surrey and Kent". The hotel was in fact in London and
the man had told the officer that he had not wanted to put a burden on
his friends for his entire 28-day visit. . .

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6768405.stm

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BUSH REGIME PUT HEAD OF LONDON AIRPORT ON NO FLY LIST

RANDY RICHMOND, SUN, CANADA - Steve Baker, head of the London
International Airport, knows first-hand the pain Canadian flyers may now
face. On the day a new no-fly security list threatened to ground an
unknown number of Canadian air travelers, Baker yesterday revealed he
was on the U.S. version of that list -- which bars people from flying --
about a year ago. "There was someone with the exact name, Steven James
Baker," he said. . . It took Baker four months of paperwork to convince
U.S. authorities he wasn't the Steven James Baker on the U.S. Homeland
Security list. During those four months, because Air Canada uses the
same list for all flights, Baker faced the irony of having his name pop
up on his own airport's security system on his way to Ottawa for a
meeting of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2007/06/19/4271850-sun.html

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