My husband asked me tonight what it will take for Americans to get exercised about the loss of civil liberties in this country (he's British, but raised mostly in the U.S.) I said in my opinion, it will take government agents knocking on the doors or ordinary right wingers and sitting their families down in a room at gunpoint while they search their homes -- just like we do in Iraq. This one's for those wingers, who will probably find this policy perfectly acceptable:
WASHINGTON (AFP) — A key US national security agency on Friday defended the right of border officials to seize laptops from travelers even if they are not suspected of criminal activity, as lawmakers and rights activists slammed the policy as unconstitutional and alarming. "Since the founding of the republic, we have had broad authority to conduct searches at the border to prevent the entrance into this country of dangerous persons and goods," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told AFP. "In the 21st century, the most dangerous contraband is most often contained in electronic media, not on paper. The age of micro-fiches and paper files is long over," she said. The DHS last month made public policy documents, one of which authorizes border officials to "detain documents and electronic devices, for a reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search ... on-site or at an off-site location." "In the course of a border search, and absent individualized suspicion, officers can review and analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, reenter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States," said the document, which is available online. Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called such seizures unconstitutional. "It's a seizure without developing probable cause that a crime has been or is being committed. The Customs and Border Protection Division of the DHS is trying to turn the US border into a constitution-free zone," he said.
And why won't the wingers care? "Almost all business travelers possess a Blackberry, a zip-drive, or a mobile phone, so how is it exactly that they are selecting the individuals whose devices are searched and seized?" he asked. "That is the unknown question and it smacks of discrimination." Last month, the ACLU accused the DHS of endangering "US citizens' privacy and civil liberties without increasing security" through its policies and programs, including a terrorist watchlist which the rights group claims has grown to more than one million names. The ACLU also accused US border agents of unfairly targeting US citizens of Asian or Arab origin and of racially profiling Latino residents of the United States at immigration checkpoints.
What ever it takes to win the "war on terror" right?
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