Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Beyond Weird & Scary: Mass X-Ray Searching in UK

Posted on March 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Talkleft has a pointer to a UPI item that is so weird I have to quote it in full: TalkLeft: British Cops Search Pub Patrons With Giant X-Ray Device:

British police used a giant X-ray machine to check for drugs and guns in raids on two London pubs, the BBC reported Saturday. Thirty four suspects were arrested by police who
used a 7-foot high X-ray machine outside the two pubs. Suspects had the
choice to be scanned or strip searched – officials said most people
chose the X-ray. The scan shows anything hidden under one’s clothes,
including metal, plastic or ceramic guns, wooden clubs, explosives or
drugs. Scotland Yard said the arrests were for offences that included
possession with intent to supply drugs, possession of an offensive
weapon, credit card fraud and immigration violations.

It can’t happen here, right? Right? Right?

Posted in Law: Criminal Law | 2 Comments

Susan Crawford Is Blogging Yale’s Cybercrime Conference

Posted on March 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Susan Crawford is blogging Yale Law School's Cybercrime conference. I'll be speaking on the last panel of the day, starting at 4:30. (By which point I and no doubt everyone else will be exhausted.)

Posted in Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on Susan Crawford Is Blogging Yale’s Cybercrime Conference

One Type of Battleground Miami is Not

Posted on March 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

It seems that where I live is just a cash cow, not an electoral battleground.

As for Miami, Mr. Jordan said, the group [Moveon] was not ruling out advertising there in the future but said that the market is already rich in Democratic voters who will likely vote for Mr. Kerry. Miami is also almost prohibitively expensive, he said.

Posted in Miami | 1 Comment

Richard Clarke Is Not A Lone Gunman

Posted on March 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

There is a sleeper (waking?) witness on Bush & 9/11: Sibel Edmonds, a translator who alleges that she was bougt off witgh a promotion to keep silent about the adminstration ignoring evidence that suggested an attack was being planned. (I first blogged Ms. Edmonds in January. She's interesting.)

Salon has an article quoting Edmonds as saying,

Referring to the Homeland Security Department's color-coded warnings instituted in the wake of 9/11, the former translator, Sibel Edmonds, told Salon, “We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001. There was that much information available.” Edmonds is offended by the Bush White House claim that it lacked foreknowledge of the kind of attacks made by al-Qaida on 9/11. “Especially after reading National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice [Washington Post Op-Ed on March 22] where she said, we had no specific information whatsoever of domestic threat or that they might use airplanes. That's an outrageous lie. And documents can prove it's a lie.”

Posted in 9/11 & Aftermath, Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Richard Clarke Is Not A Lone Gunman

Abusable Technologies Awareness Center

Posted on March 26, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The best thing about referrers is that they lead me to interesting places like the Abusable Technologies Awareness Center. This is a very serious effort run by a list of impressive, distinguished and serious people.

Just one thing: YOU GUYS NEED COMMENT SPAM CONTROL. MT-Blacklist works pretty well. You can find my (long!) list of banned sites at the URL for this blog with the filename blacklist and the suffix of txt after the dot. (Why no link? The file is behind a robot exclusion and I do not want search engines that might follow the link anyway to pick up all those terms and associate it with my blog.)

Posted in Blogs | Comments Off on Abusable Technologies Awareness Center

$1.2 Billion is a Large Shortfall

Posted on March 26, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Misplacing $1.2 billion is quite an achievement for a government agency other than the Pentagon. Yet, that's what Homeland Security and/or its predecessors did. (Spotted via Talk Left)

But I don't suppose MS-NBC, which seems obsessed with “is Clarke a liar” (a White House spin point directed by GW Bush personally) will care very much.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on $1.2 Billion is a Large Shortfall