The Gubmint Fights Back...

[The Annoyed Man]

Yahoo News
TSA subpoenas bloggers, demands names of sources
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 30, 8:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON – As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.

Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.

"It literally showed up in my box," Frischling told The Associated Press. "I do not know who it came from." He said he provided the agents a signed statement to that effect.

In a Dec. 29 posting on his blog, Elliott said he had told the TSA agents at his house that he would call his lawyer and get back to them. Elliott said late Wednesday he could not comment until the legal issues had been resolved.

The TSA declined to say how many people were subpoenaed.

The directive was dated Dec. 25 and was issued after a 23-year-old Nigerian man was charged with attempting to bomb a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam. The bomb, which allegedly was hidden in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's underwear, malfunctioned and no one was killed. Authorities said the device included a syringe and a condom-like bag filled with powder that the FBI determined to be PETN, a common explosive.

The near-miss attack has prompted President Barack Obama to order a review of what intelligence information the government had about Abdulmutallab and why it wasn't shared with the appropriate agencies. He also ordered a review of U.S. aviation security. The government has spent billions of dollars and undergone massive reorganizations since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

The TSA directive outlined new screening measures that went into effect the same day as the airliner incident. It included many procedures that would be apparent to the traveling public, such as screening at boarding gates, patting down the upper legs and torso, physically inspecting all travelers' belongings, looking carefully at syringes with powders and liquids, requiring that passengers remain in their seats one hour before landing, and disabling all onboard communications systems, including what is provided by the airline.

It also listed people who would be exempted from these screening procedures such as heads of state and their families.

This is the second time in a month that the TSA has found some of its sensitive airline security documents on the Internet.

This is sooooooooooooo reflective of the administration's haughtiness. You drop the ball, a blogger points out that you sent out a memo telling people to pick the ball back up again, and you try to intimidate the blogger into silence because the revelation makes you look bad.

These people are nothing more that commie apparatchiks.

[karder]

Washington is far more concerned with PR than with protecting the public. Naturally, going after the bloggers rather than dealing with actual terror threats would be the logical course of action. The only thing "protecting" us from terror attacks is the incompetence of the attackers themselves. At least that is the way it feels.
In all fairness, we have some excellent folks in the FBI, CIA, Secret Service and so on who do some amazing work. But the Washington politicos who they have to brief, have fallen pretty far down the rabbit hole. I just don't think more somber speeches from Obama discussing "systematic failures" and "increased vigilance" and muscling bloggers will do much to intimidate the Jihadists.

[The Annoyed Man]

In all fairness, we have some excellent folks in the FBI, CIA, Secret Service and so on who do some amazing work.

I agree. The problem isn't the people at the tip of the spear. Their dedication is inspiring. The problem is the people using the spear so fecklessly and without regard to consequences — Eric Holder's pursuit of the CIA, for instance.

And when government tries to intimidate media — particularly when no laws have been broken — it is just plain unacceptable. It made the White House a laughing stock when they tried to take on Fox News, and this particular instance of it will not sit any better with the MSM when the word gets out. They may not be particularly patriotic or concerned about national security, but they are VERY protective of their rice bowl. When it finally occurred to them that if a liberal administration could do it to Fox, then a conservative administration could do it to MSNBC, they weren't having any of it. I predict that in the next few days, the media will latch onto this story in a big way, and some heads are going to roll.

Besides, this particular blogger did not reveal national security secrets. He merely revealed that TSA had told its offices to shape up. The only negative here is that it betrays an institutional acknowledgment that they were falling down on the job, and a simultaneous lack of any sense of institutional accountability to the American people. THEY are accountable to US, not the other way around.

This further reveals that Secretary Napolitano has got to go. She is singularly unqualified for the position in which she serves, and she feels no particular accountability to the taxpayers. She is not deserving of the public trust.

[92f-fan]

Dont forget that going after bloggers is cheap and easy -

Dont even have to get up from your desk ...

[longtooth]

Not in my house w/o a warrent. Be hard to get the Co Sherriff to telll them to leave then charge w/ tresspass. They may steel my computer but I will not offer them coffee.

[casingpoint]

This further reveals that Secretary Napolitano has got to go. She is singularly unqualified for the position in which she serves

She certainly showed her ineptitude in the case of Harold Fish while she was Attorney General of Arizona.

[Oldgringo]

TAM wrote:

And when government tries to intimidate media — particularly when no laws have been broken — it is just plain unacceptable.

This may prove not to be a bad thing. Please recall that it was the media who created this RoseMary's Baby and the same media can also spell its end. Stay tuned for further developments.

[roberts]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jimlongley]

TSA will have a hard time tracking down ALL of the people out there that know some or all of TSA's procedures, and some or all of the holes in same, as well as posting about the possibilities, and then subpoenaing all of them, and then concatenating and compiling all of the stories.

One of TSA's biggest problems is that it is primarily a reactive agency and somewhat "intertia bound" even at its young age. TSA was formed by bureaucrats, and they attempted to make it millitary at the bottom end while retaining a civilian feel at the top, which has not really been successful. There are dishonest people in the ranks, which is to be expected in any cross section of society, and there are little tin gods that like to rule their little roosts, but who are experts at covering their tracks, just like anywhere else.