Freedom..of the press, search and seisure...

I find it interesting how a "civilized" industrialized country, such as the United States, is able to do the same things that a country like China does to their people, but get no serious thought about it from the American people dumbfounds me. We state that it is all because the government is doing its best to help keep terrorists from out of our borders. That is a line of shit.

Bush has the nads to go on a short foreign visiting spree, thinking this is to show the American people that he is a well traveled diplomat...right...(once he is out of office he will never leave Texas again)he then makes assertions of his disappointment with the Chinese government and how it handles the imprisonment of some of their people. What about Gitmo and the other secret prisons throughout the world our government has and the continued rationalizations this administration has done to keep the American people from looking past the end of our noses.

These are war criminals. But then when this case is brought up as to the Geneva Convention and its rules for the imprisonment of war criminals, the administration state s that they are in a gray area due to the fact that they are not from a specific country or army...

It is interesting on how if something is labeled as "a war on" it gives our government the constitutional right to do whatever they please through the power of the president. This administration knows this rule better than anyone and has run their entire Presidency on this issue. Yet, they still claim that they are looking for accountability...try the mirror!!

Freedom, my ass. There is nothing they cannot do, if they simply want to, anymore. You thought your life was safe and free...Safe is relative, free is a facade.

I found this article a bit interesting. It seems that there has been more and more incidents of this action occurring, therefore the civil liberties organizations and others have decided to bring this out more to the public.

Fri Aug 1, 7:31 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.

Agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.

DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.

The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices removed and examined.

The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.

The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material. They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert, editing by Alan Elsner)


I have traveled throughout the world and only once have I ever had something confiscated. That was when I was in Dubai, in the Arab Emirates. We didn't show up on the computer from Turkey to Nepal via India with this stop in Dubai. On our stopover to change planes at 3AM we were told that we would have to wait until tomorrow for a new flight as they needed to get things figured out...They took my video camera for the night...This was 15 years ago.

I'll tell this story further as that 48 hours was quite the experience...tomorrow.