Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Foreigners Still Don’t Realize How Dumb Our Government Is

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

More dumb police work: Man angry with son-in-law fingers him as terrorist to FBI

A man in Sweden who was angry with his daughter's husband has been charged with libel for telling the FBI that the son-in-law had links to al-Qaeda, Swedish media reported on Friday.

The man, who admitted sending the email, said he did not think the US authorities would stupid enough to believe him.

The 40-year-old son-in-law and his wife were in the process of divorcing when the husband had to travel to the United States for business.

The wife didn't want him to travel since she was sick and wanted him to help care for their children, regional daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet said without disclosing the couple's names.

When the husband refused to stay home, his father-in-law wrote an email to the FBI saying the son-in-law had links to al-Qaeda in Sweden and that he was travelling to the US to meet his contacts.

He provided information on the flight number and date of arrival in the US.

The son-in-law was arrested upon landing in Florida. He was placed in handcuffs, interrogated and placed in a cell for 11 hours before being put on a flight back to Europe, the paper said.

Neither the FBI nor the TSA can afford to ignore emails with specific accusations. Stopping someone directly accused of being a terrorist is entirely reasonable — although you have to wonder whether the Swedish authorities were consulted at any point between receipt of the email and the passenger's arrival.

Still, if the FBI and the TSA can't do a better job of distinguishing a terrorist from an innocent visitor after 11 hours in which they have him to interrogate and during which they can presumably contact the Swedes to go talk to the sender (if they haven't already), then TSA really is not much use, since all air travel will be subject to a trivial denial of service attack. This is worse than “security theater” — it's security Grand Guignol.

Apparently the FBI did eventually get around to contacting the Swedes.

FBI contacted Swedish intelligence agency Saepo, which discovered that the email tipping off the FBI had been sent from the father-in-law's computer.

What's unclear from the story is when the request was made, and why they deported the traveler pending this report.

Bonus 'security' horror story, brought to you by those dangerous Episcopalians.

Posted in Civil Liberties | 1 Comment

Free Opinions

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

In one of the comments to my Guy Fawkes Day Musings, anonymous asks:

What exactly is your position on Islamic extremism? … Your other postings about torture, surveillance and profiling are pretty meaningless as well, as you have never articulated your assessment of threat level. …

… A google search of your blog reveals no stated position on the Israel conflict, and little in reference to Islamic extremism. I am somewhat baffled how a discussion of contemporary civil liberties can be had without a statement of position on the threat (if any) to western freedoms posed by what is perceived to be a spreading doctrine of genocidal fascism. At a bare minimum, since a google search also reveals you to be Krugmanite economist, the profound affects on our economic stability (which I assume you'd agree is closely tied to viable liberal civil liberties) certainly bear mention with regards to oil prices.

I'm surprised this needs saying, but here goes: Since I'm not running for office, I feel no need whatsoever to have a position on every issue.

I write about the things that either interest me the most, or on which I think I have some value added to contribute. There are a huge number of issues that I think are important but that I don't write about either because I don't have the time, or because I don't think my opinions are all that likely to be of interest to anyone. I have much more to say about domestic matters than foreign (as opposed to international) because I live and vote here: I'm concerned about and responsible for US policy in ways that don't apply elsewhere, so naturally I write the most about the USA. I think the suggestion that a blogger has some sort of obligation to opine on every good or bad thing that every foreign government or organization does is a fairly risible idea. It's a big world.

In any case, I don't see “Islamic extremism” as a topic, much less one on which I have much that is unusual to say. It's complex, not monolithic. Like, say, “modern capitalism” which is also complicated and varies from place to place.

I do, however, have the following opinions, which you may have free of charge:

Continue reading →

Posted in Politics: International | 7 Comments

Military Contractor to Face the Jury in Torture Claim

Posted on November 6, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

From the e-mail inbox:

November 6, 2007, New York, NY – In a key victory in the war against torture, today a federal court ruled that the lawsuit against a private military contractor in Iraq should be heard by a jury of Americans. The action was filed in 2004 against CACI and Titan, both of which were named in the military investigation of the Abu Ghraib scandal. The Center for Constitutional rights, Burke O'Neil LLC, and Akeel Valentine, PLC brought the suit as a class action on behalf of the hundreds of Iraqi torture victims. The same firms filed an action on October 11 against Blackwater USA for the killing of innocent bystanders at Noori Square in September.

The court today ruled that the case could go forward against CACI, whose employees worked as interrogators in the prison. The court found that that there was a dual chain of command where corporate employees were obliged to report abuse up the chain of command at CACI. The court dismissed the claims against Titan, whose employees worked as translators, reasoning that the military exercised exclusive control over the translators.

Susan L. Burke, of Burke O'Neil LLC, stated, “We are delighted that a jury of Americans will soon be deciding whether an American corporation is free to torture prisoners.”

Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, stated, “This will send a message to all contractors that they cannot act with impunity outside the law and begins to answer the question of how CACI will be held accountable for the atrocities at Abu Ghraib.”

Shereef Akeel of Akeel & Valentine, PLC said, “This is a real victory for the men we represent. Now they have the chance to seek justice before the American people.”

The denial of summary judgment in the case means there will be a jury trial of a private military contractor for torture. A status conference is scheduled for December 6, and a trial date will be set then. Attorneys for plaintiffs are asking for it to be held as promptly as possible.

Posted in Torture | 3 Comments

Dumber than Fiction

Posted on November 6, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I swear, if I saw this in a movie, I'd turn off the DVD on the grounds that it was just too stupid to be worth wasting my time.

Firedoglake, The Falafel Squad,

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

A check of federal court records in California did not reveal any prosecutions developed from falafel trails….

But I don't watch movies that dumb.

UPDATE (11/9): FBI Denies Data Mining Grocery Records

Posted in National Security | 1 Comment

Ron Paul’s TV Ads Mirror His Prospects

Posted on November 6, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Ron Paul, the anarcho-libertarian running for President as a Republican, has two TV ads running in New Hampshire. One of them is really stilted and awful:

But the other ad isn't bad:

Given that Ron Paul's supporters raised over $3 million for him yesterday — apparently without much help from the campaign — it looks like he'll be able to buy some serious air time in New Hampshire.

Quirky, ultra-right-wing anti-state and anti-tax New Hampshire one of the few states where Rep. Paul might actually do quite well. Let's hear it for a brokered Republican convention!

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 8 Comments

US Government Contintues to Fail the Waterboarding Test

Posted on November 6, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

State Department lawyer John Bellinger, heretofore not known as an Addington-rabid member of the State Department (he was cut out of the key torture debates), refuses to say that the US would always condemn a foreign power that waterboarded a US citizen. Apparently whatever vague desire our government may have in protecting us against foreign torturers must give way to our government's desire to do some torturing.

Meanwhile, three-star Army General Russel Honore responds to questions about waterboarding by saying that “we've got an obligation to do what the hell we've got to do to make sure we get the mission done.”

Yup, now that we got past that little AG confirmation thing, they're all for it.

What's next, retroactive immunity bills?

Posted in Torture | Comments Off on US Government Contintues to Fail the Waterboarding Test