Re: complaints about the governemnt spying!

[Paul Schmehl <pauls () utdallas edu>]

--On December 29, 2005 2:05:23 PM -0500 Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu wrote:

> On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:04:43 CST, Leif Ericksen said:
> > There are those laws that are direct and clear cut, and there are the
> > ones that takes an act of congress to decide what is legal or not.  ;)
>
> And then there are those you're not allowed to even *see*.  In Gilmore v.
> Ashcroft, the Department of Justice finally consented to allow a *judge*
> with a security clearance to see the text of the law, but Gilmore and his
> attorneys are still denied access to what the law says.

That's a silly misrepresentation of the facts of the case.  There *is* no 
law requiring the presentation of ID at an airport.  There *is* a law that 
makes it illegal to hijack a plane, and there *are* security directives, 
issued by the FAA, which define the means and methods by which the law will 
be enforced.  Among those is the requirement to show ID upon request.  The 
security directives are secret because you don't show your hand to the 
enemy (except if you work for the New York Times.)

Mr. Gilmore, who is an activist civil libertarian, deliberately entered an 
airport without an form of ID, then refused to produce ID when requested. 
When he was then asked to undergo a more thorough screening, he refused 
that as well.  He was then arrested and removed from the airport.

Every airport has signs everywhere instructing you to provide a photo ID. 
Only someone who was deliberately trying to disrupt the system would enter 
an airport with ID, refuse to show ID, refuse a thorough screening, and 
then complain when they were arrested - after which they file a lawsuit for 
large money damages.

So, while everybody eagerly portrays Mr. Gilmore as an innocent citizen 
just trying to about his daily life, he was far from it, knew when he 
entered the airport he was going to cause trouble, deliberately chose to do 
so anyway and now whines about his rights being violated.

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu/
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