U.S. Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read

[BushOut06]

Source: Wired

International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years.

Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed for the trip.

The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening program at the border is actually a "surveillance dragnet," according to the group's spokesman Bill Scannell.

"There is so much sensitive information in the documents that it is clear that Homeland Security is not playing straight with the American people," Scannell said.

Read more: http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/09...

---

I suggest that whenever we fly, we all carry a copy of the Communist Manifesto and the Anarchist's Cookbook.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. So a terrorist carrying "A Charge To Keep" will be off the radar

so to speak?

[hobbit709]

2. I'm thinking Madison, Jefferson and Franklin

Along with Darwin, Paine, Rousseau and Voltaire

[hvn_nbr_2]

32. Yeah, I'm thinking a copy of the U.S. constitution ought to make you look...

subversive.

[rodeodance]

3. This is very serious---and they store the info. More controling of behavior.

[truebrit71]

4. Simple...anything by Chomsky and a copy of the Koran...

....

[LeftyMom]

41. I was reading Manufacturing Consent on my flight this weekend

Oh well, it's not as if I wasn't on a list or three already. :sigh:

[trusty elf]

5. deleted

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. I think I will give this a try, just to see

I am an American citizen with a US passport. I have very short hair and a full beard similar to the stereotype of a Muslim terrorist (except that my beard is fairly short.)

Next time I go to Europe, I will travel with an English/Arabic Koran in my carry-on and wear the crocheted "bowl hat" a friend made for me a few years ago (I usually travel in the autumn when things are getting cold.)

It would be interesting to see if, for the first time ever, I get pulled aside for special screening, or if my uncommon German/Polish name suddenly appears on the no-fly list.

[BushOut06]

7. Keep us informed

That should be a very interesting experience.

[MilesColtrane]

11. You're trusting Homeland Security to realize they've made a mistake...

...after a selective screening?

Are you looking forward to the menu at Guantanamo?

That's pretty ballsy.

[TomInTib]

12. Since I cut my hair, I never get hassled.

I used to tell people that I had the most often-searched bag on the planet.

My hair was more than half way down my back.

I knew the "look". Whenever I saw it, I would pre-emptively say, "Sure, go ahead".

Cut my hair - no more searches.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. I used to get pulled aside for "special", "random" bag searches- but only on the East Coast.

Every time I flew there.

I'm absolutely positive it was the hair. Ooooh! A man with long hair! I bet he has 30 lbs of that mar-eeee-wannna in his bag!

[reggie the dog]

38. I moved

I just moved to France. The cops at the airport (or elsewhere for that matter) do not profile people with long hair in the west of the European Union (or Switzerland for that matter).

[goodgd_yall]

24. I don't think you'd even have to go so far as wear the knitted bowl hat

The hair and beard will probably do it alone.

My friend's husband and his daughter, both Egyptian, were pulled out of line for extra screening multiple times in a trip we all made together between the mainland and Hawaii. It was so predictable, it wasn't funny. He wasn't wearing anything special.(I can't remember if he was sporting a beard at the time or not. Ever since 9/11 he has kept himself usually shorn.) Pretty pathetic, I say.

P.S. The Koran I'm sure will really help in your experiment!

[TechBear_Seattle]

29. I travel several times a year, and I've rarely had a problem

In fact, since they moved from random screening (every sixth or seventh person, regardless) to more "targeted" screening after 9/11, I've not been pulled aside once, despite the hair and beard. I'm just curious as to whether a Koran and "Muslim" style hat will make any difference.

[goodgd_yall]

30. It will probably make all the difference then

if your hair and beard alone hasn't raised suspicion.

Good luck !

[uppityperson]

25. Good luck and let us know.

my pa got pulled over for extra screening for the first couple yrs "after it all changed" (2001-04). Is a supposed northern european mix but looks like is from middle/near east.

[KillCapitalism]

8. Darn.

I better not take my copy of the Communist Manifesto on any flights now.

[The2ndWheel]

9. A better idea than bringing any book you want just to prove you can

Get rid of the database.

[frylock]

10. i think i'll make my copy of "they thought they were free" part of my travel kit

[backscatter712]

13. Reading material for my next plane trip:

The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky
1984 by George Orwell
The Authoritarians by Dr. Bob Altemeyer (free online at http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey / )
Hell, let's throw in the Communist Manifesto, just to get the DHS McCarthyites' panties in a bunch.

I'll also be wearing my t-shirt with this Thomas Jefferson quote:

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

I'll claim that shirt's my patriotic shirt...

[NYC]

42. The Authoritarians by Altemeyer is well worth reading.

I know you posted the link, but here it is again:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey /

[dipsydoodle]

14. You can't really go wrong with a copy of

Mad magazine.

[ryanus]

15. The Constitution would probably be more revolutionary

[valerief]

16. I was thinking we should carry My Pet Goat. nt

[IDemo]

31. Good thinking. Better hold it upside down just to make sure

[thunder35]

17. I guess I'll better bring a Playboy!!!!

ha ha ha

[Hugin]

27. Might as well give them something interesting to read...

You might carry a "Playgirl", too. They may be a Sen. Craig type.

[jmm]

47. Last spring I got a pamphlet my luggage after a flight

saying that the had searched my bags. The next time after that I flew a fried tried talking me into bringing all kind of adult items to keep them entertained while they searched my stuff. I ended up bringing a bunch of liquor and some of the prettiest personal clothing items I have. Who knew they'd be more interested in the Lovecraft and Chomsky in my bags ?

[MadHound]

18. Oh no, no no, the CM and AC are passes anymore,

I have a better suggestion in this era of terror and fear. Pick up a copy of the book that inspired bin Laden and others, "In the Shade of the Qu'ran" by Sayyid Qu'tab. This call for a pan Arab caliphate and violent revolution will get you stopped every time.

[KansDem]

19. Guess I'd better leave my copy of the "Anarchist's Cookbook" on the coffee table at home...

The Anarchist Cookbook (Wikipedia)

...better take a copy of "Henry and Ribsy" instead...

[conspirator]

35. Can I legally buy a copy of that book? nt

[KansDem]

36. Sure! Amazon has it for $19.77 ($17.95 used)

Amazon

The "cookbook" as it was known when it was first published, is in the same genre as A.Hoffman's "Steal this Book" -- what the other reviews fail to realize is that most of the material is harmless (any 1st year mining engineer's text tells much more) and the period is the message: Nixon, the King and Robert Kennedy assassinations, the escalation of bombing in Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos - the Pentagon papers coupled with G. Gordon Liddy's insane forays into a psychiatrist's office and the abortive Watergate break-in by 3`rd rate Cuban CIA operatives led to the Weather underground and the feeling that the next US revolution would have to happen if Nixon were to attempt a third term. The book is a reaction to much social unrest and the rejection of popular mandate by the legislative, executive and judicial branches. Sound familiar?

Never the less, this is not a book for children or parties given to violence. It is a social commentary with fireworks.

My roomate in college had a copy; it made for interesing reading!

[ret5hd]

49. legally? what books are on the "illegal" list???

[TrogL]

20. I'm in trouble

Last flight I was on, I was reading "The best of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin"

[L. Coyote]

21. If you carry the Communist Manifesto and the Anarchist's Cookbook.

you might want to wear your "I was searched here" underwear

[daa]

22. And how many of them do you think can read???? nt

[bluevoter4life]

26. Wonder how they will react.......

If I am caught with my copy of the Constitution.

[jmm]

46. I wish I could find my "hish school diaploma" thread on old DU.

About five years ago I was looking at want ads in a local paper and Logan had an ad for air port security. They were looking for people who "posess" a "hish school diaploma" and could speak English. Apparently reading English wasn't a requirement.

[arikara]

28. The thing that gets me

is any real terrorist travelling by air would do everything possible to not be noticed, they sure wouldn't be carrying around a Communist Manifesto.

All this stuff going on with picking on dissenters is meant to put fear into people so that everyone behaves and then we all can be easily herded around.

[MindPilot]

33. I have always put my books cover-down in the x-ray bin

and I carry them with the cover toward me so no-one can see what I'm reading. Before 9/11 it was paranoid; now it's just prudent.

[conspirator]

34. During the UK liquid bomb TERRA alert my only hand lugage was...

the book "1984". I always carry my own propaganda.

[reggie the dog]

37. So

I guess that if I am reading a copy of Cannabis Culture, or "Ain't nobody's Business if You Do, I should probably not smuggle any grass. What about flying with a copy of the independent with a big reefer leaf on it? I did that last weekend from Hungary through Switzerland and into France with no problem (I wasnt smuggling anything either).

[reggie the dog]

39. Does this mean

That if I carry a bible they will not search? hell every drug smuggler ought to start carrying the king james editon of the bible, they will have no worries.

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. Everyone should dig out their copy of '1984'

So many people must have one from school (and it's a fairly small book). The advantage is that, in a bit of delicious irony, it conveys a double message. To anyone with a slight feeling for civil rights, it's a terrible warning of what authoritarian governments can do. To the Bush regime, it's a simple 'how to' manual, and thus it won't actually get you in trouble. But the people who collate the statistics will get the message.

[rayofreason]

43. What is next?

Cameras looking at what I am reading? After all, installing video surveillence is not about stopping crime.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23412867-det...

[f the letter]

44. i'm going to start making book jackets myself to fly with

like "Do you seriously think you can gauge whether i'm a terrorist from this book jacket" or "thought is not a crime you monkeys"

[IndianaGreen]

45. A copy of Orwell's 1984 should do the trick!

While a copy of Bill-O's books will waive you through the security.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

48. These are IslamoFASCISTS we are talking about..

So what you really need is Mien Kampf.