by TChris

Responding to demands for faster lines at airport terminals, TSA officials are considering changes in airline passenger screening rules. Some of the changes under consideration make sense: prohibiting nail files in carry-on luggage has always been a bit extreme, although the ban on ice picks should probably stay. One welcome proposal would allow passengers to keep their shoes on unless they set off a metal detector, while another seeks to reduce patdowns by giving screeners the discretion to keep their hands off passengers who are wearing tight-fitting clothes.

More troubling is the list of individuals who would be exempt from screening requirements:

... federal judges, members of Congress, Cabinet members, state governors, high-ranking military officers and those with high-level security clearances.

These are exactly the people who should know what it feels like to experience an invasion of privacy (however slight) at the hands of a government employee. Exempting public officials from the same travel hassles that the rest of us endure insulates them from the real world in an unhealthy way.

by TChris

Three Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee -- John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner -- are unhappy that "the Pentagon has failed to hold senior officials and military officers responsible for the abuses that took place" at Abu Ghraib and other prisons. They intend to introduce legislation that would prohibit the military from concealing prisoners from the Red Cross, ban degrading treatment of detainees, and require interrogators to use only approved techniques. All very reasonable, and so of course the Bush administration wants none of it.

In an unusual, 30-minute private meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday night, [Vice President Dick] Cheney warned three senior Republicans on the Armed Services Committee that their legislation would interfere with the president's authority and his ability to protect Americans against terrorist attacks.

The proposed legislation could be tacked onto the $442 billion Pentagon authorization bill, which will be debated on the Senate floor next week.

Everyone knows by now that the man shot and killed by British police Friday was from Brazil and unconnected to the subway bombings. The BBC reports:

Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair has apologised to the family of the Brazilian man shot dead by police in south London on Friday.

He said the death of Jean Charles de Menezes was a "tragedy", but admitted more people could be shot as police hunt suspected suicide bombers. (my emphasis)

Heretik has more.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will announce Saturday that it is taking over security for the New York Subway. A press conference will be held at noon Saturday where NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow, and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff will announce the new program of random bag searches for the immediate future. Chertoff will say in tomorrow's statement obtained by the media:

"We are not precluding random strip searches as soon as possible. It depends upon how many police officers we can put in the subway. We hope that we soon can have in place magnetometers. It will take longer to install x-ray machines, but subway security is so important that we will install them as soon as we expedite a $1 billion grant."

Check out what Bo Dietel, former NYC cop, p.i., now a security analyst, had to say on Fox News today- Crooks and Liars has the video. He makes Tom Tancredo look like a piker.

"You got a bunch of people over there about 9000 what they call royal family. They're all inbreds they marry each other"... "This is how we have to interfere, they can't police their own if they can't stop the terrorism that they are exporting we have to go in there"....

"They are not doing any of that at all and I tell you the honest truth, they got oil, we need oil, we should go over there and take the oil. Everyone hates us anyway in these muslim countries and for some reason it's not working the holy site of mecca there."

James Ujaama, the terror suspect arrested by the FBI in Denver in 2002 on a material witness warrant and later charged in Seattle with trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in Bly, Oregon, has been questioned in the London bombing case. DOJ made a cooperation deal with Ujaama in 2003, and gave him a two year sentence (long over) provided he continue cooperating with them until 2013.

TalkLeft covered his case extensively, particularly because he was originally from Denver -- his aunt was formerly married to Denver Mayor Wellington Webb's son. The Rocky Mountain News reported the connection, which did not please Mayor Webb.

by TChris

It sounded yesterday as if the government might endorse the boneheaded idea of encouraging civilians to patrol the nation’s borders, turning vigilante justice into a government policy. Today, saner heads have prevailed.

"There are currently no plans by the Department of Homeland Security to use civilian volunteers to patrol the border," spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said in a statement. "That job should continue to be done by the highly trained, professional law enforcement officials of the Border Patrol and its partner agencies."

No kidding. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner, who supported the useless and potentially dangerous Minuteman Project, apparently didn’t bother to ask around before floating the notion that Homeland Security should rely on volunteers to enforce immigation laws.

Four underground transit stations in London were evacuated this morning during rush hour.

BBC radio is reporting that several "dummy" bombs or detonators exploded but authorities had not confirmed that. There were no reports of casualties.

by TChris

The United States government is still arguing that any citizen it labels an "enemy combatant" may be detained indefinitely. The government claims that Jose Padilla (TalkLeft coverage collected here) intended to activate a "dirty bomb" and to blow up apartment buildings in the United States. The reaction of Padilla's lawyers, arguing his case before the Fourth Circuit: prove it in court.

"I may be the first lawyer to stand here and say I'm asking for my client to be indicted by a federal grand jury," Padilla's lawyer, Andrew Patel, told the three-judge appeals panel.

It's strange to think that a U.S. citizen arrested on U.S. soil isn't entitled to the protection of the U.S. Constitution, but that's the claim our government, yet again, has advanced.

by TChris

The military charged eleven soldiers with abusing detainees in Iraq. Only limited details have been released.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the charges against the 11 troops, who served in the Baghdad area but were not otherwise identified, were filed Wednesday after another soldier complained about the alleged assaults.

"None of the insurgents required medical treatment for injuries related to the alleged assault," the statement added. "Only one of the suspected terrorists remains in custody of coalition forces at this time."

by TChris

The arrest of Brandon Mayfield (TalkLeft background collected here) may be the clearest example of the administration's misuse of the material witness law. Lacking sufficient evidence to arrest Mayfield for a crime (the FBI had only a fingerprint and chose to believe it belonged to Mayfield, a conclusion that Spanish authorities and the FBI's fingerprint-matching program disputed), the government instead arrested him pursuant to a material witness warrant.

Mayfield is striking back. His legal team will appear today for pretrial proceedings in his civil suit.

Mayfield's legal team -- led by celebrity lawyer Gerry Spence, who successfully defended former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos on racketeering charges in 1990 -- contends there is evidence to show the FBI was not on firm footing when they made their arrest.

Mayfield's lawsuit raises critical issues.

Bumbling, home-grown, holy warriors is rapidly becoming the conclusion of investigators in the London bombings.

The emerging picture of London's mass transit bombers is of normal people leading normal lives, good people from good families - "Suicide Bombers From Suburbia" was the headline in London's Daily Mail.

... According to closed-circuit television evidence, the bombers arrived at King's Cross shortly before 8:30 a.m. They were dressed like campers, each with a backpack, and were talking easily as they gathered, before splitting off in four directions.