Liberty's Blog

TSA: Homeland Terrorist

John Barlow goes public with his experiance with the war on the Bill of Rights terror.

At about 7:00 am on September 15, 2003, I boarded Delta Flight 310, scheduled to depart San Francisco International Airport for JFK at 7:20 that morning. I was still feeling slightly singed from Burning Man and the hour was one I prefer to see from the other side. I was almost back to sleep when, roughly two minutes before pull-back, I was approached by a Delta employee who informed me that there was "a problem" of some sort and that it would be necessary to get off the aircraft and bring my carry-on belongings with me. I didn't like the sound of this, but I complied, once more vividly awake.

He led me to an office in the baggage claim area that was thicker with cops than some banana republics. They greeted me with same distaste they'd likely have shown an actual terrorist and treated me accordingly for the remainder of that very long day. On the counter lay small quantities of marijuana (for which I have a physician's recommendation), mushrooms, and ketamine that had allegedly been encountered in my suitcase. That the total volume of this prize was significantly more compact than the amount of high explosive necessary to endanger an aircraft, and indeed, insufficient to merit a felony charge on any count, didn't matter to them. They clearly regarded me as a threat to public safety. When I pointed out to the officials that they only had authority to search for threats to the aircraft, one of them, a bug-eyed, crew-cutted troglodyte, declared that, if I had taken any of these substances, then I would have endangered Flight 310. That such an obviously ungifted person was capable of so imaginative a conceptual leap remains a marvel to me.

What is at issue here is whether the airport security searches can result in prosecution of contraband. What I find interesting is that they are prosecuting locally and that the DEA is keeping out of this. Barlow is fighting this with the aid of John Gilmore one of the co-founders of EFF. We wish him luck, his success will guarentee us all more security when we travel.

posted by Liberty @ 9:39 AM