[Infowarrior] - Blogger Threatened by DHS for Posting New TSA Screening Directive

[Richard Forno]

Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online
Blogger Threatened by DHS for Posting New TSA Screening Directive
	• By Kim Zetter
	• December 30, 2009  |
	• 3:53 pm  |
	• Categories: Censorship, Spooks Gone Wild

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/dhs-threatens-blogger/

Two bloggers received home visits from Department of Homeland Security  
agents on Tuesday after they published a new TSA directive that  
revises screening procedures and puts new restrictions on passengers  
in the wake of a recent bombing attempt by the so-called “underwear  
bomber.”
Special agents from the DHS’s Office of Inspection interrogated two  
U.S. bloggers, one of them an established travel columnist, and served  
them each with a civil subpoena demanding information on the anonymous  
source that provided the TSA document.

The document, which the two bloggers published within minutes of each  
other on December 27, was sent by DHS to airlines and airports around  
the world and described temporary new requirements for screening  
passengers through December 30, including conducting “pat-downs” of  
legs and torsos. The document, which was not classified, was posted by  
numerous bloggers. Information from it was also published on some  
airline web sites.

“They’re saying it’s a security document but it was sent to every  
airport and airline,” says Steven Frischling, one of the bloggers. “It  
was sent to Islamabad, to Riyadh and to Nigeria. So they’re looking  
for information about a security document sent to 10,000-plus people  
internationally. You can’t have a right to expect privacy after that.”

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino  
said in a statement that security directives “are not for public  
disclosure.”

“TSA’s Office of Inspections is currently investigating how the recent  
Security Directives were acquired and published by parties who should  
not have been privy to this information,” the statement said.

Frischling, a freelance travel writer and photographer in Connecticut  
who writes a blog for the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, said the two  
agents who visited him arrived around 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, were armed  
and threatened him with a criminal search warrant if he didn’t provide  
the name of his source. They also threatened to get him fired from his  
KLM job and indicated they could get him designated a security risk,  
which would make it difficult for him to travel and do his job.

“They were indicating there would be significant ramifications if I  
didn’t cooperate,” said Frischling, who was home alone with his three  
children when the agents arrived. “It’s not hard to intimidate someone  
when they’re holding a 3-year-old [child] in their hands. My wife  
works at night. I go to jail, and my kids are here with nobody.”

Frischling, who described some of the details of the visit on his  
personal blog, told Threat Level that the two agents drove to his  
house in Connecticut from DHS offices in Massachusetts and New Jersey  
and didn’t mention a subpoena until an hour into their visit.

“They came to the door and immediately were asking, ‘Who gave you this  
document?, Why did you publish the document?’ and ‘I don’t think you  
know how much trouble you’re in.’ It was very much a hardball tactic,”  
he says.

When they pulled a subpoena from their briefcase and told him he was  
legally required to provide the information they requested, he said he  
needed to contact a lawyer. The agents said they’d sit outside his  
house until he gave them the information they wanted.

Frischling says he received the document anonymously from someone  
using a Gmail account and determined, after speaking with an attorney,  
that he might as well cooperate with the agents since he had little  
information about the source and there was no federal shield law to  
protect him.

The Gmail address consisted of the name “Mike,” followed by random  
numbers and letters. Frischling had already deleted the e-mail after  
publishing the document but said he had learned from previous  
correspondence with the source that he had been hired as a screener  
for the TSA in 2009.

The agents searched through Frischling’s Blackberry and iPhone and  
questioned him about a number of phone numbers and messages in the  
devices. One number listed in his phone under “ICEMOM” was a quick  
dial to his mother, in case of emergency. The agents misunderstood the  
acronym and became suspicious that it was code for his anonymous  
source and asked if his source worked for ICE — the U.S. Immigration  
and Customs Enforcement.

The agents then said they wanted to take an image of his hard drive.  
Frischling said they had to go to WalMart to buy a hard drive, but  
when they returned were unable to get it to work. Frischling says the  
keyboard on his laptop was no longer working after they tried to copy  
his files. The agents left around 11pm. But on Wednesday morning, they  
came back and, with his consent, seized his laptop, which they  
promised to return after copying the hard drive.

Frischling wrote on his blog that he decided to publish the TSA  
directive to clear up much of the confusion and speculation that was  
circulating among the public about changes that were being instituted  
in airport security procedures after a passenger unsuccessfully tried  
to ignite a bomb on December 25th using a syringe and explosive  
chemicals hidden in his underwear.

“We are a free society, knowledge is power and informing the masses  
allows for public conversation and collective understanding,”  
Frischling wrote on his blog. “You can agree or disagree, but you need  
information to know if you want to agree or disagree. My goal is to  
inform and help people better understand what is happening, as well as  
allow them to form their own opinions.”

A former federal prosecutor who asked not to be identified told Threat  
Level that the DHS is being heavy-handed in how it’s handled the matter.

“It strikes me that someone at TSA is apoplectic that somehow there’s  
a sense that they’re not doing their job right,” he told Threat level.  
“To go into this one reporter’s house and copy his computer files and  
threaten him, it strikes me that they’re more aggressive with this  
reporter than with the guy who got on this flight.”

Chris Elliott, who is based in Florida and writes a column for the  
Washington Post, MSNBC and others, also received a visit from a DHS  
special agent named Robert Flaherty around 6:30 Tuesday evening.

Elliott wouldn’t discuss the details of the visit with Threat Level,  
due to the pending legal issues, but he describes in his blog post how  
he got a knock on his door shortly after finishing dinner and putting  
his three young children in the bathtub.

Flaherty showed him a badge and said he wanted information about the  
source of the document he published. When Elliott told him he’d need  
to see a subpoena, Flaherty pulled one out and handed it to Elliott.

Elliott told Threat Level they talked for 10 to 20 minutes, but he  
refused to cooperate. Flaherty left but called on Wednesday to remind  
Elliott that he had until the end of the business day to comply with  
the subpoena.

“I really don’t think they thought this one through,” says Elliott  
about the agents’ tactics.

Elliott could face a fine and up to a year in jail for failure to  
comply, according to a statement on the subpoena.

The TSA directive was issued by the DHS on Christmas Day, the date of  
the attempted attack on Northwest Flight 253, and indicates that the  
directive will expire December 30. The directive applies to anyone  
operating a scheduled or charter flight departing from a foreign  
location and destined for the United States.

It requires all passengers to undergo a “thorough pat-down” at the  
boarding gate, which should concentrate on their upper legs and torso.  
It also requires physical inspection of all “accessible property”  
accompanying passengers at the boarding gate, “with focus on syringes  
being transported along with powders and/or liquids.” It also  
indicates that restrictions against liquids, aerosols, and gels should  
be strictly adhered to. Heads of state can be exempted from the  
special screening.

Passengers are also required to remain seated during the last hour of  
the flight, and can not access carry-on baggage during this time or  
have blankets, pillows or other personal belongings on their lap.

Aircraft phones, internet service, TV programming and global  
positioning systems are to be disabled prior to boarding and during  
all phases of flight. Flight crews are also prohibited from making any  
announcement to passengers about the flight path or position over  
cities and landmarks.

The TSA was embarrassed earlier this month after a contract worker  
posted an improperly-redacted sensitive screening manual on a  
government site.

That document revealed which passengers are more likely to be targeted  
for secondary screening, who is exempt from screening, TSA procedures  
for screening foreign dignitaries and CIA-escorted passengers, and  
extensive instructions for calibrating Siemens walk-through metal  
detectors.

Five TSA workers were put on leave pending an internal investigation  
into how that document got posted.