McGill student jailed in border search
p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- Pascal Abidor (right), a 26-year-old grad student working on his PhD in Islamic studies at McGill University in Montreal, is suing the US government for breaching his privacy rights.
Cited are secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano, US customs and border protection commissioner Alan Bersin, and assistant secretary of homeland security for immigration and customs nnforcement John T. Morton
In May Abidor, who has American-French citizenship, was on his way by train to visit his mother in New York when he was handcuffed at the US/Canada border and thrown into jail.
He was later released without any kind of charge being laid, but US authorities held onto his computer.
When it was returned 11 days later, “there was evidence that many of his personal files, including research, photos and chats with his girlfriend, had been searched”, says the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
It, together with the New York Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), is challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) policy.
The groups have filed on behalf of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), whose members include Abidor.
“Documents obtained by the ACLU in response to a separate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records related to the DHS policy reveal that more than 6,600 travelers, nearly half of whom are American citizens, were subjected to electronic device searches at the border between October 1, 2008 and June 2, 2010″, it says.
The documents are at www.aclu.org/national-security/government-data-about-searches-international-travelers-laptops-and-personal-electr.
(Cheers, Marc)
ACLU – Groups Sue Over Suspicionless Laptop Search Policy At The Border, September 7, 2010
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September 8th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
The constitution is the supreme law of the land not what the home land insecurity say.
September 8th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
^^^ LOL, the “constitution”. Haven’t you heard? It’s just a “goddamn piece of paper”.
People that even know the word “constitution” are now suspected terrorists. It’s true. Google the “miac report” and enjoy they tyranny.
September 9th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Tyranny is all this is, are these bureacrats so moronic as to play into the hands of terrorists ?
I have read many books on terrorism and couter revolutionary warfare and in each one its always made clear that to enact draconian rules that impact on your own folks is to allow the terrorist to dictate policy, when the bombs where going off in London in the 70,s ppl where told to go about there normal business or otherwise the terrorists win, this is what they did and thus the bombing campaigns where judged a failure and only served to show just who the savages where, is the US govt really so stupid they dont understand this simple concept ?