The TSA's Intimidation Of Bloggers Over Leaked Security Rules Is A Disgrace

[girl gone mad]

I would have liked to write my own commentary on this important issue, but I just don't have time. Here's a cut and paste from http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-the-tsas-intimidation-of-bloggers-over-leaked-security-rules-is-a-disgrace-2010-1">The Business Insider. I hope that this authoritarian action on the part of the government will stimulate more discussion on the role of bloggers - what rights and protections they are entitled to, if they have an obligation to protect sources - and, more importantly, should the government use blatant threats and intimidation against internet writers in an effort to protect information it considers proprietary. Anyone who posts here or elsewhere should consider these issues.

The TSA's Intimidation Of Bloggers Over Leaked Security Rules Is A Disgrace
Henry Blodget

Shortly after the Christmas bomber tried to blow up a Delta flight into Detroit, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) rolled out an emergency directive requiring airlines to implement draconian new security procedures.

Most travelers, unfortunately, had to find out about these new procedures from airline web sites or from firsthand accounts of those who had the misfortune to fly. Despite operating a consumer web site with a chatty blog, the TSA didn't bother to tell the public about the new rules. Instead, the agency just distributed the new rules electronically to thousands of airline, government, and security
employees and left the public in the dark.

Thankfully, someone leaked the rules, so Americans finally learned what we should have been told immediately. Thanks to bloggers like Chris Elliot and Steven Frischling, who published the memo, we got to read the whole directive.

Needless to say, the TSA should have made all of the new rules public from the get-go. The secrecy surrounding them was an insult to anyone affected--namely all Americans.

This insult was nothing compared to the TSA's next move, however, which was to send agents to the houses of Frischling and Elliott (and presumably others) to slap them with subpoenas and demand that they immediately reveal the sources of the leaked directive.

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-the-tsas-intimidation-of-bloggers-over-leaked-security-rules-is-a-disgrace-2010-1">more...

[thunder rising]

1. Intimidation tactics are truly Bush league