The Fallout From SD-1544-09-06 : The Feds At My Door
30/12/2009 – The Fallout From SD-1544-09-06 : The Feds At My Door
Yesterday evening was like most other nights, until around 6:30pm when I received a phone call from Chris Elliot. Chris is a travel journalist, who happens to be National Geographic Traveler’s Reader Advocate, writes a regular column for The Washington Post, produce a weekly segment for MSNBC…and Chris is the other journalist who received and published a copy of the TSA’s Security Directive SD-1544-09-06
Chris and I have conversed many times before, however this phone call began by him asking me if any Federal Agents had visited me from the Department of Homeland Security this evening, as he had just been visited by a TSA Special Agent.
Moments after my call with Chris ended a sedan pulled in front of my house and two US Transportation Security Administration Special Agents were at my door with some questions and paperwork for me. I sent two of my kids upstairs, and like Chris I was served a subpoena by the Department of Homeland Security to disclose who sent me the contents of SD-1544-09-06 (you can read Chris’ subpoena HERE)
The two Special Agents were at my house for more than two hours speaking with me as I held my youngest son in my arms most of the time. When the agent left they said they’d see me again tomorrow morning, and hopefully we come to a resolution.
First let me say this, the two agents were polite and professional. I understand they have their job to do. I understand these agents have been given a task to investigate and that what they will do. I would expect nothing less. I have repeatedly written about positive TSA experiences on Flying With Fish. I am not an apologist or looking to gain favour, I simply believe the vast majority of those in the TSA are serious professionals and these two agents acted in a manner that upheld this belief.
The DHS & TSA are taking this matter seriously, and that tells me that they are paying attention to security in detail. Their issue is not that the Security Directive expires tomorrow, or even that I posted SD-1544-09-06 but that someone within the TSA sent this sensitive document outside of the agency. I understand why the TSA wants to find the person leaking this information and I wish I had a long intertwined story about how I got the document, but I don’t.
I received it, I read it, I posted it. Why did I post it? Because following the failed terrorist attack on the 25th of December there was a lot of confusion and speculation surrounding changes in airline & airport security procedures.
We are a free society, knowledge is power and informing the masses allows for public conversation and collective understanding. 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.
While I sort out what happens next in this situation, and keep my opinions to myself to protect my family from the potential ramifications, I will continue working to keep travellers informed.
Hopefully this is resolved in an amicable way so that we can all move forward and focus on the greater good of servicing the public’s best interest.
Happy Flying!
Your blog is one of the most informative for me on the internet. Flying as a professional photographer isn’t easy and your blog helps makes it a bit easier and less stressful, especially in this day and age with all the rules and regulations.
Even before Christmas, it has been a series of hoops to go through to ensure that our gear travels safely with us as carry on baggage. When I heard about new security regulations – without definitions – I know that I wasn’t the only professional photographer or businessperson that was worried about the possibility of being forced to check my gear on the next flight I take. This isn’t an ipod or digital camera we worry about when new regulations about carry on baggage comes about, this is thousands of dollars of equipment that we are often relying upon to work with at our destinations.
I hope that this all comes to a resolution for you and quickly. I also hope this doesn’t stop in you keeping us well informed.
Sorry to hear of the issue. Seems to me like it is a reasonable concern, but I also wonder about the idea of sources being confidential.
Good luck.
Fish, fight it. Whistleblowers who provide documents like this to the media need to be commended, NOT PUNISHED. Let us know how it goes.
*oh and on another note, lots of random coding on your post above*
I had a problem earlier this year where I was threatened with arrest for photography in the public.
ACLU office in the area I was traveling had the same policy, but I was able to get their attention by sending a confidential facsimile. You can try this – but I would be networking among attorneys you do know to protect your rights.
The statement you tweeted that the US DHS does not view “bloggers” as “journalists” is extremely disturbing.
I wish you the best, in the meantime, please keep up the great work!
Steve
Please see http://travel-babel.blogspot.com/2009/12/department-of-homeland-security.html. I’m one of the travel bloggers/journalists on your side.
I know you are concerned about your kids having to go through something like this again, but I hope you and Chris are able to fight this. This is a big deal. Who protects the bloggers? Who protects free press? If this isn’t fought, other bloggers will be afraid to post anything negative about the TSA or DHS.
Good luck and let me know if I can support your effort in any way!
Sir:
Seek counsel and let your attorney speak for you. You don’t cut your own hair. Or perform dentistry on yourself. Why try to talk your way out of this pickle? These nice guys don’t have your best interests at heart.
I’m very sorry to hear about your plight Fish. I hope it remains an internal investigation to find the leak and that they don’t drag you or Chris Elliot too deep.
Good luck and best wishes from the aviation blogosphere.
Way to go. You hit a nerve that we have all been predicting in the aviation community. Thanks for acting as a true journalist. –
Your friends in Alaska!
Yipes! What has been the relatively new territory of blogger journalists having their sources protected? At what point is one a “journalist?” It is what I call myself since I have an education and history that says so. However, there is a whole new generation of journalists that likewise need to be protected.
There is scarce law on any/all internet legal issues due to the complexity and our Congress’ inability to tackle anything more complicated than a parking ticket effectively and in a timely fashion. It is an unfortunate reality that cases such as your posting of the TSA directive (and subsequent subpoena) will create case law. It possibly will determine the future direction of the courts on such matters. Maybe that is good, maybe not. We shall see. I hate for you and Chris Elliott to be the guinea pigs in all this. Subversives you aren’t!
Pam at ZippyReviews.com
Bradford, Are you seriously suggesting that the TSA documents in question would have been made public if the leakers had no hope of anonymity?
Mark Loundy
Twitter: @Mark Loundy
http://www.loundy.org
http://www.mediawoorks.com
Media Consulting and Video Production
Never, ever talk to cops. All you will do –even when you have ‘nothing to hide’– is cause yourself more headaches. There is -never- anything to gain from talking to any flavor of law enforcement. Really.
Should have used wikileaks.org
Cryptome.org also good if you send encrypted.
There is no freedom without anonymity.
….
Glass Empires need remember even palestinians can throw stones.
I’m sure TSA is still recovering from the TSA handbook that was leaked a few weeks back. TSA also has to learn that it is important to disseminate information — like revised screening processes — PDQ — or risk being seen as outdated. They have a lot of egg of their face because of this situation and are have to answer a lot of questions — detailed questions.
While we are all appreciative of your blogs and information and the help you gave during this trying week — BUT, the person(s) who violated the confidentiality agreement by distributing it should have their hands slapped. Unfortunately, the nature of today’s news and media really challenges the ethics of employees whom companies — and government have trusted with confidential documents. One day, someone will give out too much information to the wrong media outlet and we will pay the price. Luckily, the rules that TSA devised made no sense or difference what so ever and this time it didn’t matter that they were leaked. They only served to make TSA look even more ridiculous — and maybe that, is part of what this is all about.
This is the “most transparent administration ever”? What happened to the CHANGE! CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN that we were supposed to be reated to?? Way to go guys, you can’t contain your own documentsand then hassle journalists?? You J. Edna Hoover types must be VERY proud.
Have you read the post about this incident on Wired.com’s Threat Level blog? They really made the agents who paid you a visit out to be incompetent thugs. I’m happy to read on your blog that the opposite seems to have been the case.
I am curious if those agents disclosed what authority they had, i.e. do they have to Mirandize you? Can they actually detain you? If so, where do they take you and what due process are you afforded? I’ve looked on the TSA website and have found nothing about this. I think the bigger story would be to find out what they TSA investigators are actually able to do, so they can’t use our ignorance as a weapon to intimidate us.
How does TSA have any jurisdiction outside of groping you at the airport? Did they explain that?
I understand your situation with your kids there, but I would have told them to go spit. When you can speak about it, I’d like to know why you allowed them to take and copy your laptop without a specific warrant/subpoena. Good luck — I’m pretty sure you’ve got everyone who’s reading here and the article on Wired on your side.
Did you ask to see or was any ID presented to you? What did it say? Because it looks to me like this Enright guy you are photographed with in the Wired article is nothing more than a hired process server.
I would like to pose a couple questions. I am a commercial pilot, former journalist(small market/local) and former member of the Civil Air Patrol as the Public Affairs Officer for the State of Nevada. While I have not finished reading the entire article/subpoena, I was taken by the thought of what is the slippery slope. The first question would be; Knowing that what you were holding may very well have had specific national security intrests for the directive, was it more important to break the story? Second is; If you published a Directive/Memorandum/Story from an anonymous source, how did you back check to verify your source and contents?
Please understand that I am not looking to “mukrake” anyone. I have worn both sides of the cape. I am concerned for both the First Amendment and our governments good faith attempts to protect the public.. Please be well, Scott Lilley
If whoever sent you this information has half a brain in their head, then they used a proxy, or SEVERAL proxies, in order to mail it to you. And on top of that, again, if they have even half a brain, they did it from a public open wifi connection. Heck, they probably did it from the airport itself, which would be the perfect touch of irony. Of course, you should do what your lawyers tell you to do. But as I’ve said multiple times here, if the whistleblower has even ONE brain cell, they’ve covered their tracks carefully, so you can rest easy about whatever instructions your lawyers give you, even if it means turning over the info. If not, well, call it Darwin in Action. Stupidity, even if benevolent, should come with a penalty.
Thank you for posting the message, I understand TSA wants to get the person who leaked the information because this same person could be leaking to criminals. However, that said, it is as if we are living with the Stasi and I fear it could and will only get worse.
The export of suicide mentality as a way of war is just going to become worse in economies that get worse and as people are further and further removed from the ability to pursue happiness.
We’ve got to get the people a way out of the corner or else things like this happen and only worse, can’t people see that these folks are in pain and suffering? They feel lonely, depressed, and these extreme religions have people come in with food, water and shelter, the things governments don’t seem to give a damned about. These people don’t have kids for the most part, because governments in the west don’t care about single people. This is the problem! And until it changes things will get worse!
If the government is reading this, please — don’t you guys read books like 1984? You think it won’t happen to you, but you are sitting in it, complacent out of fear.
Thank you Chris, I know you have a family and we cannot expect you to fight, but to you and your family, thank you.
Best of luck with the situation. Thanks for your work.
If the TSA was a more competent and professional agency, I (in your place) would not be unduly worried by a visit from their “special agents.” But in my personal experience, TSA employees are anything but competent and far from professional. I hope I’m wrong, but suspect your life is about to be negatively impacted by this incident.
Hey Fish,
got a question for the TSA to ponder. If you had not posted the information sent to you and thus, made the public aware of the situation through the media. TSA likewise would not know that they have a serious security problem on their hands. Bottom line, without simple everyday people questioning rules, regulation and sometimes even law itself, our protections and laws that govern us would not be of any good to us for what they were intended to do. I agree with you though about TSa in general. Here inthe NW, when I fly I know to take my shoes off, have all my personal belongings ready for inspection along with change and little items nicely sandwhich bagged for the agents to look at if they like and always, I answer any questions they have with no issue. The agents have always in turn been respectful if not amused on ocasion by myself and some of my belongings (I like to travel to haunted places and as such, I sometimes have little EMF meters and IR themometers out in plane sight which always raises an eyebrow and a whisper to an agents ear). I want to mention though that the TSA is going over board on their heightened restrictions. Keeping someone in their seat if they already have gotten through the door of the plane and are with you at 36K feet, is going to do very little if they are a bad guy with a plan. Also, shutting down carrier provided consumer electronics an hour before a flight lands, does nothing either less upset the public and require good old uncle check book Sam, to bail out the industry when people stop flying. So, TSA realy needs to be looking inward for the culprits becasue its the security breec inside THEIR agency, not the airlines or outside individuals, that is the problem.
Fight it. The TSA is coming across as a bunch of thin-skinned weenies. They dropped the ball big time, so in response they go after you and Chris Elliott.
Is this article correct in stating that you handed over your laptop computer to the TSA? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_airliner_attack_tsa_subpoenas;_ylt=AoDrd7dfZ3YH72Z0qZSKK3us0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTQ0a2llYTV0BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjMxL3VzX2FpcmxpbmVyX2F0dGFja190c2Ffc3VicG9lbmFzBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDNQRwb3MDMgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3RzYXN1YnBvZW5hcw–
It’s not my livelihood at stake so it’s not my place to armchair quarterback. But it was a mistake for you to hand over your laptop to the TSA. Not only did they have no right to take it, they are at this very moment mining your hard drive for ALL information they think will be useful for their investigation. Shame on them. Does anyone really think these clowns can protect us from terrorists?
hi steve,
i have studied our situation in the united states and the world for about 6 years. in particular i have been educated by people like jordan maxwell and others. steve, thank you for informing us -your neighbors and the people you fly with- about these changes in flight security rules.
i have noticed that our “government” wants to keep everything secret.
that is not a government that i can live under. if i believed that we were and are indeed under attack from the terrorist threat that the government claims, it is possible i might in some very defined cases agree to temporary secrecy.
steve, for whatever reason you posted the info. , you are a really helpful guy. i believe that the procedures we -as travelers and citizens- endure everyday are largely not helpful in a possible terrorist threat and are designed to humiliate and subserviate us, the public.
Neal K,
Saying I handed over my laptop is a bit simplified. I will not be expanding on the circumstances at this time.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Brian,
Since I began writing about the TSA I have written about the good and the bad. I have praised the TSA and I have slammed the TSA. For me it is not about right and wrong, it is about the end-game. The end-game ultimately is the security and safety of the flying public.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Scott Lilley,
Mine was not a rush to break a story. I read the document, was able to reference a second independent source who had the document , which verified the validity to me. Having read the document, there is no national security secret in the document, the bulk of the information was already available. The document was also transmitted to every airport and airline globally that has any direct flights to the US, thus the document was already outside ‘secure hands.’
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Erik G,
The TSA Special Agents were quite professional in how they conducted themselves. I won’t discuss tactics, but in terms of professionalism, there was no issue. Both presented their credentials to me immediately.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Jay,
The TSA falls under DHS. They are Federal Agents, their jurisdiction is anything that impacts transportation security.
The details of them removing my laptop will not be discussed at this time for a number of reasons, I am sure you can understand.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Why didn’t you get a laywer first or contact the ACLU?
Seems to me the TSA is overstepping their bounds as posting something online is not a threat to transportation, airports or the likes.
oh well.
Shilo,
You are assuming I was not in contact with an attorney.
Also, if you call the ACLU in CT you get a message saying they are available to discuss legal matters on Friday between 9 and 10 am…I kid you not.
But don’t assume.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Fish,
Has anyone in a position of authority within the TSA explained just what the so-called expanded rules are suppose to accomplish?
The only thing these rules appear to be are a poorly thought out and knee-jerk reaction to a situation they (the TSA) were not prepared for which is frighting since that’s their job.
Stick by your guns and hang in there, there are lots of rational people pulling for you.
Ugh Steven! Sorry you had to go through that man. Just read the article on MSNBC. That really ticks me off that they threatened you by disrupting you with that show!!!
I’ve got your back! They could have been much nicer about it and you could have been much harsher with them. Even in the interest of national security, there are still laws that allow you to protect your sources. Blogging is considered a form of journalism!
But then again, who knows, we may not have that right anymore either.
Take care,
Will
I came to your website thorough Yahoo news article. It mentioned the TSA took you laptop the next morning, if I understood that correctly. Did they have a search warrant for that? Seems that whether or not you had anything to hide is irrelivant; they needed a search warrrant for your computer. Unless of course you just volunteered to give it to them. Maybe i am mistaken in reading the other article.