Schneier on Security

But the balaclava has "Evil" stitched onto it -- what more could the TSA ask for than a big label like that?

Are these next? http://www.cafepress.com/eviltee

See the game: http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/thegame/

And the balaclava http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/thegame/gallery.php?img=12

Maybe if the balaclava had "GOOD" or "SECURITY" painted on it, it wouldn't be a potential weapon of terrorism.

Hi,
the game is great fun, I took it to my in-laws for Christmas day games one year!

It does make you think about terrorism in a different light. There are positives and negatives to going "terrorist" in the game, I suppose that mirrors reality.

The game is presumably illegal in the UK anyway, seeing as it "glorifies terrorism".

More game info:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/24396

But... this is what would make profiling work!

"But the balaclava has "Evil" stitched onto it -- what more could the TSA ask for than a big label like that?"

They certainly seemed to like my t-shirt.

...it would help if it hadn't stripped out the HTML. Whoops.

http://tinyurl.com/6jsdaa

How nice of the police to give the game so much PR...

Government job interview for potential Head Of Security.

"What's your IQ?"
"Huh? What's an eye cue?"
"Good. You're hired."

One is automatically disqualified if they are smarter than the average turnip.

@rubberman
I'm afraid you're right.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2DB143DF93AA3575AC0A96F958260

The article seems to be based on a fuller article in the Independent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/war-on-terror-boardgame-branded-criminal-by-police-889287.html

Voting machine cartoon: very funny.

http://xkcd.com/463/

Yes, yes, and GURPS CYberpunk is, and I quote the Secert Service agent "A manual for committing computer crimes!". We are ruled by idiots.

This sounds more like DHS than the UK. May the Lord preserve us from such cretins.

i am afraid all of this is a semantic misunderstanding...they thought they were seizing baklava, a middle eastern dessert made of many layers of dough, into which pages of the koran could be hidden

I have a balaclava that I bought when I was working rotating shifts. Put it on backwards and it serves as a sleepmask that won't fall off. (Yes, you can breathe through it.)

Clearly, this is just spoiled brats abusing their power. If they believed a word of what they're saying, they would be seizing burqas and nuns' habits. The solution here is public floggings.

For those who aren't following UK news, the police aren't quite as stupid as they look. They're just bullies.

If they said the game was confiscated because they thought the balaclava could be used in a crime, then they lied.

Note that this copy of the game wasn't seized just anywhere - it was at the Climate Camp. This was an extended protest / camping holiday / political workshop, held last week close to a coal-fired power station scheduled to be extended. There were over 1000 people on site, and the police got up to all sorts of nonsense to make sure their presence was felt, and that the general public don't get the impression that they can just express political opinions whenever they choose.

Search your favourite UK news sources for "climate camp" and/or "kingsnorth" if you want more details. But for example, they were doing ID checks on anyone approaching the site. They also found a knife in the woods nearby, and decided that the appropriate action to take was a national press release.

To be fair, the police were sufficiently scared of the protesters to bus in armed reinforcements from Wales. Fortunately there was in the end no significant violence, nor any plan to start any, although there was an attempt to storm the power station by river with the aid of an inflatable dinghy.

So even if you take the police's side, it's pretty clear that they aren't trying to set a precedent for other owners of the game, or comment on the general availability of balaclavas. Obviously they took the game because it has the word "terrorist" in it, and they found it at a political protest.

@ pipebaum

The Diebolds I've voted on recently* provide such meager privacy with their narrow side wings that I've been doing what I do at ATMs: I use one hand to enter the data while trying to obstruct the view of its fine movements with the other hand.

*Oops, I've narrowed the field of my possible geolocations.

Confession: I inadvertently truncated my confession of 12:48 PM today by leaving my handle off.

@ SteveJ

Good insights.

"If they said the game was confiscated because they thought the balaclava could be used in a crime, then they lied."

Well, sort of. Citizens of a police state should feel lucky when they do not have all their clothes confiscated, since obviously clothes could be used in the course of a criminal act.

Remember the scene in Midnight Express when they forget to check his boots for drugs?

Under the conditions described here, the police could say "fear of potential use" justifies stripping everyone naked and shackling them. After all, arms could be used in the course of a criminal act, as could legs. Eyes too. Once all your potentials have been eliminated...you would be allowed to roam about your cell freely.

Hey, I own this game! (And contra the post above, the game _comes from_ England, so I doubt it's illegal there.) Since I live just outside of Denver, I wonder what would happen if I took the game -- with the Evil Balaclava! -- down to the DNC Convention. (Sadly, I'm pretty much stuck in Virginia for the next few weeks, so I don't think I'll have that chance.)

On the gripping hand, I will _not_ take the balaclava on my next plane flight; no sense pressing my luck with the TSA. Maybe John Gilmore would like to borrow it. :-) ..bruce..

"The satirical board game was confiscated along with knives, chisels and bolt cutters, from climate protesters during a series of raids near Kingsnorth power station, in Kent, last week."

So, it seems like people who were likely to use a balaclava to cover their faces while doing no good got their balaclava confiscated - to keep them from covering their faces if they were up to no good.

Pending more information (such as, the balaclava being confiscated from guy A while it was guy B who had the knives), I'm with the police on this one.

@ Davi,

"Once all your potentials have been eliminated...you would be allowed to roam about your cell freely."

A minor problem in the U.K. we appear to have run out of cells to "bang people up" in.

However it does not stop the powers that be in the U.K. from insisting they are tough on crime by locking up single parents who have alowed their T.V. Licence to expire by a few weeks, whilst letting out those who go onto maim and murder within a few days of their release.

Heh, on the Norwegian arctic archipelago of Svalbard, it used to be OK to walk into the Longyear city bank wearing a balaclava and carry a rifle. The balaclava because it is the arctic and the rifle because of the polar bear hazard. Nowadays, they ask that you do not bring the gun indoors though, as it has been too many accidents. I took this picture of the bank:
http://www.kjetil.kjernsmo.net/gallery/mountain/svalbard-2007/svalbard-2007-000413.jpg

This is also kinda cute:
http://www.kjetil.kjernsmo.net/gallery/mountain/svalbard-2007/svalbard-2007-000414.jpg

Clearly, they are smart enough to know that /this/ balaclava is as harmless as the next one.

This is just the slight misuse of the law to suppress what they know is wrong. I mean, they're cops, right? So, they should know what they are doing.

Right?

Probably should raid this knitting web site too:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall07/PATTjh.html

Could it be that the cap was inside-out, and is meant to read 'Live'? Yes, I think that's it.

This reminds me of my horrible history, as chronicled by my friendly neighbour, Mr Gilbert Keith Chesterton:

Jones had a dog; it had a chain;
Not often worn, not causing pain;
But, as the I. K. L. had passed
Their 'Unleashed Cousins Act' at last,
Inspectors took the chain away;
Whereat the canine barked 'Hooray!'
At which, of course, the S. P. U.
(Whose Nervous Motorists' Bill was through)
Were forced to give the dog in charge
For being Audibly at Large.
None, you will say, were now annoyed,
Save, haply, Jones - the yard was void.
But something being in the lease
About 'alarms to aid the police,'
The U. S. U. annexed the yard
For having no sufficient guard.
Now if there's one condition
The C. C. P. are strong upon
It is that every house one buys
Must have a yard for exercise;
So Jones, as tenant, was unfit,
His state of health was proof of it.
Two doctors of the T. T. U.'s
Told him his legs, from long disuse,
Were atrophied; and saying 'So
From step to higher step we go
Till everything is New and True.'
They cut his legs off and withdrew.
You know the E. T. S. T.'s views
Are stronger than the T. T. U.'s:
And soon (as one may say) took wing
The Arms, though not the Man, I sing.
To see him sitting limbless there
Was more than the K. K. could bear.
'In mercy silence with all speed
That mouth there are no hands to feed;
What cruel sentimentalist,
O Jones, would doom thee to exist -
Clinging to selfish Selfhood yet?
Weak one! Such reasoning might upset
The Pump Act, and the accumulation
Of all constructive legislation;
Let us construct you up a bit ­­- '
The head fell off when it was hit:
Then words did rise and honest doubt,
And four Commissioners sat about
Whether the slash that left him dead
Cut off his body or his head.

An author in the Isle of Wight [1]
Observed with unconcealed delight
A land of just and old renown
Where Freedom slowly broadened down
From Precedent to Precedent.
And this, I think, was what he meant.

@tcliu

From what I've read, it was a legal non-violent protest. Whatever the circumstances of this particular game being confiscated were, there are other worrying aspects of police involvement, see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/04/kingsnorthclimatecamp.climatechange

"Green MEP Caroline Lucas, who is attending the week-long event, said police had confiscated hundreds of items including disabled access ramps, board games and fire safety equipment."

Also see:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405874.html

http://www.hippyshopper.com/2008/08/climate_camp_a_report_from_the_front_line.html

Unfortunately the article about the game being seized misses the point. It reads like an advert, and ignores the wider issues of what was going on. Worse, by leaving out the context, it leads people to jump to unsupported conclusions that protesters are up to no good.

>So, it seems like people who were likely to use a balaclava to cover their faces while doing no good got their balaclava confiscated "

Since when does being on a protest imply criminal actions?

>I'm with the police on this one.

I prefer innocent until proven guilty. Where are the references to support your point of view?

"it's almost too stupid to believe"

Ten years ago, it would have been too stupid to believe.

Civilisation is not making progress.

TSA has been doing this for a long time. Two years ago, Knotts Berry farm gave everyone who came to the grand opening of their new rollercoaster, 'Silver Bullet' a nice wood gift box with a bullet shaped ball point pen inside. TSA refused to let anyone at CA's Orange county airport board with it.

TSA said that other passengers may mistake the gift for a real bullet and be upset.

Video footage of UK police at the camp discussed in this thread: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kol08/article/default.asp?article_id=46009

Something doesn't precisely add up here:

The police either,
a) Already knew what was in the board game when they confiscated it.
b) Opened it up, saw the baclava, and decided to confiscate all of it.
c) Confiscated it without knowing what it was.

(a) seems unlikely. (b) seems strange. If I opened up a board game and saw a baclava in it, I would probably not assume it was part of the game. Given the situation, I tend to suspect that (c) is what happened. They probably did an over-broad sweep and grabbed too much stuff, and are now trying to make sure their list of contraband found is big enough to justify their behaviour.

This reminds me of the 60s board game "Nuclear War", where the players represent competing nuclear powers. One of the endearing features of the game is that a player eliminated from the game has the opportunity to dispatch their entire remaining arsenal in one final retaliatory strike. Quite often, this leads to a chain reaction that destroys every player, so there is no winner.

SteveJ is bang on the money here. More details here, though you might want to take some of the stories with a pinch of salt:
https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406021.html

Bussing in police from out of the area is a fairly standard tactic since the Miners' Strike in the 80's.

@kjetil

Those pictures are great. I love the risk analysis on the second one, which states clearly that the risk of polar bear attack is low, therefore guns are not needed. :)

This entry motivated me to go and buy the boardgame - great way to give a "tool of terrorism" loads of PR!

We were looking for a new board game to play anyway!

Thanks Bruce!