NZ Traveler's Electronics Taken At Airport; Interest in Snowden to Blame? 453
An anonymous reader writes "A New Zealand backpacker stripped of all electrical equipment at Auckland airport suggests attending a London talk on cyber-security following the Edward Snowden leaks may be to blame. Samuel Blackman was returning home for Christmas on 11 December from London Heathrow to Auckland via San Francisco when a customs officer at his final destination took the law graduate's two smartphones, iPad, external hard drive and laptop, demanding the passwords for all devices." For a quieter version, see also The New Zealand Herald.
Highway Robbery (Score:4, Insightful)
It is baffling how easily civilization reverts to medieval behaviors.
Double secret probation (Score:5, Insightful)
We'll take your stuff, which you possibly use for your business or work, and won't tell you why, or for how long.
There need to be laws and yes, intelligence agencies, but barring a crime, this ends up being bad PR.
I Viviidly Remember... (Score:5, Insightful)
taking the piss out of the Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain satellites nations and their citizens for the entire "Papers, please!" nonsense that occured whilst I was growing up in the 70s-80s. Is this crow I taste?
Re:The lesson in this (Score:5, Insightful)
The lesson in this is NEVER carry sensitive information on you when entering an international airport.
That's not the lesson at all. This guy probably didn't have any sensitive information but that didn't stop his devices getting nicked.
The only people with lessons to learn are not the travellers but the security services unreasonably targetting them. Unfortunately, they're not interested in lessons.
Re:First (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like Saruman is now running The Shire.
The leaks are to blame!? (Score:5, Insightful)
The Whole Issue (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole issue is contained in the US Constitution where it says,
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." - Amendment 4.
This needs to be a universal human rights declaration world wide and it needs to be a condition where no government is tolerated forcing people to give up their computers or their passwords. In the mean time anyone taking a computer on international travel is an idiot! We also need that every computer has a kill password where it is reset to factory default condition and the disk is wiped with a single password. You just give the government demanding your password the kill password and the game is over for them. Every OS should contain this in the future.
Alright, New Zealand is on the list, too (Score:2, Insightful)
The list of countries you shouldn't travel to if you don't want to be detained and would like to keep your stuff: US, England, New Zealand.
Re:The Whole Issue (Score:1, Insightful)
What drug of choice makes you think a global declaration based on USC 4A would be enforced world-wide when it already isn't/i) even enforced in the US now?
Re:Figures (Score:5, Insightful)
Not many countries are worth traveling to these days but the UK and the US are probably on my bottom 10 list for reasons like this.
Re:Sigh (Score:4, Insightful)
In this world you cannot be both ridiculously reasonable and neutral on most things.
Re:Highway Robbery (Score:4, Insightful)
One's reach does not end at one's finger tips.
Detained in AKL but not SFO? (Score:5, Insightful)
The biggest surprise here is this happened in AKL instead of SFO. There is no transit freedom in the united states. If you're connecting you need to clear US customs and immigration and then re-check into your connecting flight. So if this was really a US demanded search one would think the phones and electronics would have been taken in SFO.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The lesson in this (Score:5, Insightful)
The lesson everyone is supposed to get is "Be afraid". It's not yet "Be very afraid", but just wait and we'll get there. So this guy was in a meeting where the Guardian editor Rusbridger was present. Perhaps that fact was what the intelligence services used to tag this guy as suspicious? If so this is sending a signal that you shouldn't be too (physically or intellectually) close to people like Rusbridger. This is a classic case of a "chilling effect" in action. If this isn't what the security services want, then they are stupidly incompetent. If it's what they want they are dangerously oppressive.
There doesn't seem to be any pleasant solution to this equation.
Re:I'm sure there is more to this story (Score:2, Insightful)
he transited through San Francisco and apparently US Customs had no interest in him. If US Customs felt that he was a source of useful information about Snowden, they'd have confiscated his electronics there. I'm pretty sure that New Zealand customs does not randomly target backpackers for confiscation of electronics and this is not an example of a police state gone mad. I'm sure he knows the real reason they took his stuff and he doesn't want to mention it because he wants to play the "I'm being singled out for nothing!" angle to the press right now.
The international terminal of the airport is not considered to be part of the US. Until you try to leave the terminal area, you do not need to pass through customs. If all he did was change flights, he likely did not go through US customs at all. It is possible that they became interested in him at US Customs though and asked the NZ customs officials to detain him.
Re:Detained in AKL but not SFO? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Double secret probation (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Highway Robbery (Score:5, Insightful)
This, this, a thousand times this! Why the fuck do the the talk radio assholes blather on ad nauseum excoriating Obama for Obamacare when they could be calling him a totalitarian traitor to the Constitution instead?
(The answer, of course, is that the Republicans (and Democrats) are perfectly okay with totalitarianism.)
Re:Highway Robbery (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Highway Robbery (Score:2, Insightful)
This, this, a thousand times this! Why the fuck do the the talk radio assholes blather on ad nauseum excoriating Obama for Obamacare when they could be calling him a totalitarian traitor to the Constitution instead?
Plenty of them do, you're just not listening to the right ones. Boortz, and Rush do, so do several other smaller hosts that are on a smaller number of stations(under 20). Oh and the tea party does, but obviously they're racists for doing so(because that's what the flappy headed fools in the media say).
Re:Ok, so... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Highway Robbery (Score:4, Insightful)
Boortz is allegedly retired (although for a retired guy, he still gets a lot of airtime). Rush is on while I'm at work, so I couldn't listen to him if I wanted.
I've heard Eric Ericson complain about it (for about 5 minutes, and then he spent the rest of the show on Obamacare). I've heard Sean Hannity mention it merely as part of a list of Obama's lies (which also included Bengazi etc.). As far as I know, Herman Cain hasn't mentioned it at all.
At any rate, there is absolutely zero chance of any of them giving NSA spying the attention it deserves (which means "completely drowning out any Obamacare issues," among other things). The only possible explanation for their criminal levels of omission is that they're all totalitarian asshats too.
Re:Ok, so... (Score:5, Insightful)
Granted, after you do this, you're in for the full treatment, but that's a judgement call you need to make.
This is the mentality that these type of cops love, and wish everyone would develop. If you feel that by simply verifying that you're not about to get raped by someone who is acting outside the law, you are then "out of line" and deserve some form of "the full treatment" (whatever the hell that is) then you are the reason that things have lapsed into the state as they have. Allowing someone to push you around in ways that are illegal, simply because they represent the legal authority, is placating and nourishing the wrong mentality. What good do you expect to come from that? I'll tell you what. Eventually every woman and child will be anally probed by such "authorities" because they'll see you as weak and possibly doing wrong. Stand the fuck up for yourself when you're in the right. It's what the actual universal authorities demand! It's how things naturally balance themselves out.
Re:Figures (Score:5, Insightful)
What you're missing is that people said the same thing regarding security concerns about all sorts of other things (SSL, TOR, deliberately-weakened key-generation algorithms, etc), but the Snowden leaks proved those concerns justified. Not all of the information Snowden found has been made public yet, so there's still opportunity for this concern to be proven justified too.
At this point, the only safe thing to do is to assume that if an attack is theoretically possible, then the NSA is exploiting it.
Re:Highway Robbery (Score:5, Insightful)
(The answer, of course, is that the Republicans (and Democrats) are perfectly okay with totalitarianism.)
Actually this is the "this".
The Snowden saga and politicians' and media response to it prove that there aren't 2 teams in politics. Dems and Republicans are part of the same corporation that pays them handsomely with the public's money.
It's like any professional sport organization (NFL, etc). Sure the teams are competitive to a point, but at the end of they game most of them don't give a rip and are chuckling and hugging each other, meeting for drinks and dinner afterwards.... Because they all get paid millions of the public's money, regardless who "wins" a single game. Only the public cares about that single game.
Same with American politics...The debates about healthcare, abortion. The elections. The political news shows. It is all just to see which team is best funded by the special interests. The special interests have big plans for the public's money and/or social behavior. In this system the politicians are always paid, at the public's expense.
It is no wonder why no politician or politically bent media organization will tip this system. It is their cash cow. We Americans need to wake up.
Re:Highway Robbery (Score:5, Insightful)
Did you just mention "Rush" that senile, racist, sexist?
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, you know.
Your opinion is completely irrelevant go back to your confederate flag draped tent...
You know the difference between you and whoever you're attacking? All they did was mention the name of someone who, occasionally, gets one right; All you've done is attack them and imply that they're racists because they mentioned the name of someone you've obviously decided to form a personal vendetta against.
So, who's the irrelevant one here? Not the guy talking about Rush - at least he managed to stay on topic.
Re:The Whole Issue (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Highway Robbery (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed, let's.
One is blatant unconstitutional totalitarianism, and proof of acts of outright treason by scores of public servants (including the Commander-in-Chief!).
The other is additional regulation that makes an already-fucked-up-by-regulation industry a little more fucked up, a tax increase, and an incompetent IT project deployment (whoop-de-fucking-do).
It is blatantly obvious which issue every patriotic American (or indeed, every less-than-treasonous-himself American -- there is no 'no true Scotsman' fallacy happening here) should be more concerned about!
I think the extent of their dereliction of their journalistic duty is so huge as to be figuratively criminal.