{"id":68005,"date":"2013-09-10T19:02:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T18:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/electronic-searches-and-seizures-at-us-borders-more-invasive-aclu\/68005\/"},"modified":"2013-09-10T19:15:31","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T18:15:31","slug":"electronic-searches-and-seizures-at-us-borders-more-invasive-aclu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/electronic-searches-and-seizures-at-us-borders-more-invasive-aclu\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic searches and seizures at US borders \u2018more invasive\u2019 \u2014 ACLU"},"content":{"rendered":"
Following the case of David Miranda, whose electronic devices were confiscated in August by British authorities at Heathrow airport, an American watchdog group reports similar abuses of power are happening at US borders.<\/div>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released documents
\nshowing how US authorities, exceeding their powers in the name of
\nprotecting the country from terrorism and other threats, are
\ninvolved in a widespread, largely secretive program that empowers
\nthe government to search and seize American citizens’ electronic
\ndevices at the border.<\/p>\n

According to US government data, an estimated 4,957 travelers to
\nthe US had their electronic devices searched between October 1,
\n2012 and August 31, 2013, while an additional 4,898 people were
\nsubject to similar searches the previous year.<\/p>\n

The ACLU report focused on the case of David House, who
\npreviously worked with the Bradley Manning Support Network. House
\nwas detained by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents at
\nChicago’s O’Hare International Airport in November 2010.<\/p>\n

House’s case is similar to that of Miranda, the partner of Glenn
\nGreenwald, an investigative journalist with The Guardian who
\nbroke the story on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. British
\nauthorities justified Miranda’s detention for nine hours, and the
\nconfiscation of his electronic devices, under a controversial law
\n\u2014 Schedule 7 of the UK Terrorism Act 2000.<\/p>\n

As was the case with House, Miranda was detained by the
\nauthorities and forced to endure a drawn-out criminal
\ninvestigation.<\/p>\n

Government agents interrogated House about his political
\nactivities and beliefs. He was also forced to surrender his
\nlaptop, camera and USB drive to officials for seven weeks.<\/p>\n

The ACLU report states: \u201c[E]ven after the government returned
\nHouse’s physical devices, it continued to actively investigate
\ncopies of his files for nearly six more months<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on House’s behalf, arguing that
\nthe government took action against House solely because of his
\nassociation with the Bradley Manning Support Network,
\n\u201cviolating both his First Amendment right to freedom of
\nassociation and his Fourth Amendment right to be free from
\nunreasonable searches and seizures.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

In March 2012, the judge in the case ruled that even though the
\nUS government does not require a warrant to search people’s
\nelectronic devices at the country’s borders, that power is not
\nunlimited and First Amendment rights still apply.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the US government agreed to a settlement wherein it
\nwould destroy all of the personal data it had acquired from
\nHouse’s electronic devices, and also turn over documents related
\nto its investigation of House and the search of his personal
\neffects.<\/p>\n

The ACLU revealed how the Homeland Security Investigations (an
\nImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) subdivision that is now
\nthe second-largest law enforcement agency in the United States)
\nentered a so-called \u201clookout<\/i>\u201d into a government database
\ncalled TECS (see the document here), thereby notifying US agents
\nnationwide that House was wanted for questioning in connection
\nwith the Department of Justice’s investigation into Manning and
\nWikiLeaks, the whistleblower website.<\/p>\n

(US Army PFC Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning,
\nwas sentenced by a US military court last month to 35 years in
\nprison for releasing hundreds of thousands of military reports to
\nWikileaks.)<\/p>\n

As a result of the nationwide warning system, which was linked to
\nthe Advance Passenger Information System, HSI was able to receive
\nan automated notification that House would be taking a trip
\noutside of the United States and that he was scheduled to return
\nthrough Chicago on November 3, 2010.<\/p>\n

The ACLU report said the US government was abusing its power to
\nprotect US borders from terrorism in order to interrogate an
\nindividual over political issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouse’s case provides a perfect example of how the government
\nuses its border search authority to skirt the protections
\nafforded by the Fourth Amendment<\/i>,\u201d the civil rights watchdog
\nstated. \u201cThe government enjoys wider latitude to search people
\nand their belongings at the border than it possesses elsewhere,
\nfor the purpose of protecting our borders.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

The documents in possession of the ACLU also show that HSI was
\n\u201cacting in cooperation with \u2014 and perhaps at the request of \u2014
\nthe Department of Justice, the Department of State, and the
\nArmy’s Criminal Investigative Division, not to protect our
\nborders but to further a domestic investigation of the WikiLeaks
\ndisclosures.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

House’s connection to the Manning case made him an unwitting
\ntarget of the investigation, the report said. The US government
\nthen used its access to airline passenger information to
\ndetermine when and where House and others would be entering the
\nUnited States (see the document here), and \u201claid in wait to
\nseize his computer and other electronic devices<\/i>,\u201d the report
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

The documents say the US government is able to use
\n\u201csophisticated forensics software<\/i>\u201d to carry out intrusive
\nsearches of personal documents stored on today’s electronic
\ndevices.<\/p>\n

The report described the US government’s process for searching
\nelectronic devices at the border as \u201cnot reassuring<\/i>\u201d
\nbecause the details of how it organizes these searches largely
\nremain a secret.<\/p>\n

The watchdog also said that electronic device searches \u201care
\nsubstantially more invasive than traditional border searches,
\nwhich is why this particularly intrusive form of government
\nsurveillance should not be conducted without reasonable
\nsuspicion.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Although ICE’s policy states that electronic device searches
\nshould generally be completed within 30 days, it required up to
\nseven months for the government to complete its search of House’s
\nelectronic information. In the course of the government’s
\ninvestigation, the contents of House’s data were \u201cshared with
\nanother government agency, the Army Criminal Investigation
\nDivision,<\/i>\u201d the ACLU reported.<\/p>\n

The ACLU report concluded: \u201cWe have no way of knowing how many
\nof those searches may have been carried out not to search for
\ncontraband \u2014 which is the reason ICE has been granted such broad
\nsearch powers \u2014 but to exploit border search powers to evade the
\nConstitution.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright: RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the case of David Miranda, whose electronic devices were confiscated in August by British authorities at Heathrow airport, an American watchdog group reports similar abuses of power are happening at US borders. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released documents showing how US authorities, exceeding their powers in the name of protecting the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,21,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-human-rights","9":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}