Edward Snowden's Lawyer Claims Harassment From Heathrow Border Agent 261
concertina226 writes "Jesselyn Radack, a human rights lawyer representing Edward Snowden, has claimed that she was detained and questioned in a 'very hostile' manner on Saturday by London Heathrow Airport's Customs staff. Radack freely disclosed to the border agent that she was going to see members of the Sam Adams Associates group, and when he realized that the meeting would be happening at the Ecuadorian Embassy, he went on to ask her if Julian Assange would be in attendance and to ask her about why she had traveled to Russia twice in three months."
Realpolitik (Score:3, Insightful)
Use whatever petty powers might end up being called constitutional in a court of law, even if it's clearly against the spirit, because, hey, how else are you going to exert your authority over someone who's generally considered to have done a good thing?
Re:Is Snowden being tried? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you serious? Every single thing he does from here on could be another charge added by capricious prosecutors trying to prove a point. It's not like you or I where a small, harmless crime or misstatement is going to be overlooked. Someone somewhere in the bureaucracy of the FBI is building a gigantic case-file with everything Snowden does(and yeah, there's probably been a warrant issued too, so let's not pretend this isn't stuff they can bring to trial).
Re:Thugs. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you're mistaken. Thugs frequently tend to have quite a bit of authority. It makes them very good at being thugs.
When I watched films about the Nazis... (Score:2, Insightful)
When I was a kid, the TV output from America and the UK made every effort to show us why the regimes of the Nazis and the Soviets were 'bad'. One might think the fact that both regimes had been directly responsible for the murder of tens of millions of Humans would have made such concerns redundant, but Human psychology proves that people respond far better to depictions of individual acts of petty cruelty over scenes of unthinkable slaughter.
My point is that such dramas had many common themes. Mistreatment at international borders was certainly one.
Anyway, I have lived long enough to see each of those dramatic atrocities become standard operating procedure by the regimes of the UK and USA. The BBC is at the forefront of producing propaganda selling these abuses as 'essential'. It is notable that after 9/11, for more than one year the BBC worked in pro-torture arguments into every form of its TV output, and shortly afterwards torture was a commonplace tactic used by both official British and American forces.
Now watch the activity of the usual vile shills in this discussion. Long before Snowden's set of 'leaks', it became common knowledge that the British and Americans spend billions every year saturating public forums with pro-government0agenda propaganda. The owners of Slashdot do not promote their stories by accident. Even a story like this is NOT anti-government, like it seems, but a chance to 'threaten' ordinary citizens by reminding them what will happen to them or their families if they dare 'defy the king'.
When you pull the Tiger's tail (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is Snowden being tried? (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone needs many lawyers at all stages.
More seriously, a child -- even a stupid child -- could tell that Snowden faces legal threats, among other threats. It's not foolish of him to consult with lawyers. Besides, you think there are no lawyers out to get him?
Re:Thugs. (Score:5, Insightful)
I also suspect the Venn circles of former High School bullies and Small Town Cops damn near overlap.
Re:Thugs. (Score:4, Insightful)
Who cares about this stuff? Let's watch the news about the Kardashians and Honey Boo Boo!!!
Re:Basic. (Score:4, Insightful)
You are not the only person I have heard have trouble flying in or through Holland.
A friend of mine is Iranian and went home to visit family, with planned extended layovers in Amsterdam to have a little fun in between.
Twice he has done this, and twice subjected to invasive searches, including full cavity searches. We are not talking about some punk kid either, I mean a 60 year old, gray haired IT professional....up against a wall with his cheeks spread.
Re:The UK border staff are wildly incompetent. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm British.
I weekly travel between countries due to my current consultancy work. In my limited experience, the border guards really aren't there waiting for you in arrivals for European or common-wealth countries.
I've never had personal details questioned by UK border control.
I wouldn't know, I have yet to encounter it.
Can't tell you how it is from a EU resident perspective, but I definitely get asked about where I am coming from, going to, and sometimes where I am staying when going to the EU from the US and returning to the US from the EU. The US people don't always ask many questions, but sometimes they ask me more as a citizen than the EU guards ask. I probably was hassled the least coming from a certain South American country shortly after 9/11, which is surprising.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is Snowden being tried? (Score:5, Insightful)
No. The US embarassed the US. Snowden brought that embarrasment to everyone's attention. It isn't going to stop either. I remember a specific quote that the administration is aware of the harm Snowden's disclosure has caused. They are simply too arrogant or stupid to figure out that it was the actions of the US that are a complete embarresment, not those of Assange. If they didn't commit the crime, there would be nothing for Snowden to bring to light.
* The US Government is committing a crime. There is no way around this. No law trumps the constitution. Period. And, no, it is not a "living document" to be "interpreted".
Re:Get over it (Score:5, Insightful)
All right. How about we go back to the perfectly reasonable pre 9/11 security procedures, minus the lax "it could never happen here" mentality, and otherwise just trust folks not to be complete assholes? And accept that every now and then someone will do something terrible and people will die. It's life, shit happens. Most of it doesn't happen on airplanes. How many planes would have to blow up just to compete with the number of deaths due to drunk driving*? And yet we don't jump all over ourselves to throw away human dignity and vital liberties to stamp that out.
*Estimated 10,000+ U.S. drunk driving deaths in 2010. Most commercial airliners seat 200-500, let's call it 350 average. So, we need to average about three fully-loaded planes being destroyed every month just to be competitive with drunk driving, which itself doesn't actually rank all that high as a cause of death. Provided they keep the cabin door locked there's not much worse that a terrorist can do, and if we're getting three successful suicide bombings a month that's probably a symptom of far worse problems than lax airport security.
Re:Thugs. (Score:5, Insightful)
You should have said "when you are as crazy as American politicians and large organisations".
"Americans" are no longer in control of their country. Yes one could argue its their own fault, but there is little they can do about it now.
You will find that the "average American" is quite personable and decent as you will in almost any country.
You will also find a bunch of rabid, sociopathic assholes just chafing at the bit to take over everything and fuck everyone in the ass for their own benefit. And woe be to you if you let them gain the reins of power.
Unfortunately...
Re:Thugs. (Score:4, Insightful)
The best way to combat such government behavior is a real life DDOS. Everyone should report at Heathrow claiming to know Snowden, Assange and de Miranda. Carry encrypted thumb drives with you (chockfull with vile porn ofcourse). Refuse to decrypt without a court order. This will overload the system within 24 hours.
It would be even funnier if millions of ordinary citizens would end up on the no fly list. Report all government personnel and officials for spying! After all, they are part of a government with a broad illegal spying program targeted against their own population. So report them at home and overseas so they end up on no fly lists. Once a critical mass of people disallowed to fly has been reached, especially public servants, these programs will quickly get a review.
And just like a DDOS they would start filtering and dropping packets (ie refusing people entry).