Upf ront
In classic Bush
administration
fashion, Chertoff
snubs Senate
I felt it was so important raphy or other criminal getting some answers on
to have a DHS witness activity.” just how much his admin-here that I wrote a letter Or, apparently, no con- istration has disregarded
to Secretary Chertoff last nection at all to anything the constitutional rights of
week urging him to recon- criminal. You can just American citizens.
sider. That letter will be look suspicious and your —Roy Mark
made part of the hearing government can toss and
The U.S. Senate held record. I would put the copy your electronic files, The good, the bad
a hearing June 25 to Secretary’s response in personal or business.
investigate the possible the record, as well, but he Again, Feingold: and the lame at
constitutional violations of “Aside from the privacy
a government program that violation, there is reason Cisco Live!
allows customs officials to for serious concern that
search, seize or copy con- these invasive searches Il
rove Cisco Systems. I
eally do. Those peo-
tents of laptops and smart are being targeted at ple are a fun bunch. But
phones even if the agency Muslim Americans and I’ve never seen anything
has no reasonable suspi- Americans of Arab or fall flatter than the effort
cion of criminal activity. South Asian descent. June 24 to Web 2.0-ify
The government told Many travelers from the run-up to CEO John
the committee to kiss thesebackgroundswho Chambers’ keynote with
off. have been subject to huge monitors coaxing
In a show of arrogance electronic searches people to text in answers
even unusual by Bush havealsobeenasked to stupid questions for
administration standards, about their religious all to see in real time.
Department of Homeland and political views. As To the thumping of
Security Secretary Michael we’ll hear today, trav- extended dance remixes
Chertoff refused to show elers have been asked of the Lemonheads and
up for the hearing or to has not responded.” why they chose to con- Devo (the kinds of tunes
send a representative. As Chertoff and the vert to Islam, what they 40-something marketing
Not only was Chertoff a DHS see it, your laptop think about Jews, and women think 20-some-
no-show, but he has also is no different from a their views of the can- thing IT guys like), we
stonewalled the Judiciary suitcase or a bag, which didates in the upcoming were encouraged to text
Subcommitteeonthe Con- are routinely searched at election. This question- the name of our favor-
stitutionsince April. internationalborders. The ing is deeply disturb- ite Web 2.0 app to a
Subcommittee Chair- Public Liaison Office at ing in its own right. It toll-free number. After
man Russ Feingold had the U.S. Customs Head- also strongly suggests 5 minutes, the huge
this to say: quarters in Washington that border searches are screen featured in tiny
S TEPHEN ANDERSON
“I asked DHS to send recently said: “[L]aptop being based at least in type: “Flickr,” “Twitter,”
a witness to testify today. computers may be sub- part on impermissible “Facebook” and “Google
DHS responded that its ject to detention for viola- factors.” Earth.” Somebody merci-preferred witness was tion of criminal law ... if Maybe when Bush fully added “Basecamp”
unavailable on the day of the laptop contains infor- finally slinks away to Texas before the Cisco gang
the hearing. I asked DHS mation with possible ties to cut brush or whatever switched questions. And
to send a different wit- to terrorism, narcotics onedoesona“ranch” out- as proof that censor-ness, but DHS declined. smuggling, child pornog- side of Waco, we’ll start [CON TINUED ON PAGE 9]
