Border Security and the DHS
Surreal story about a person coming into the U.S. from Iraq who is held up at the border because he used to sell copyrighted images on T-shirts:
Homeland Security, the $40-billion-a-year agency set up to combat terrorism after 9/11, has been given universal jurisdiction and can hold anyone on Earth for crimes unrelated to national security—even me for a court date I missed while I was in Iraq helping America deter terror—without asking what I had been doing in Pakistan among Islamic extremists the agency is designated to stop. Instead, some of its actions are erasing the lines of jurisdiction between local police and the federal state, scarily bringing the words “police” and “state” closer together. As long as we allow Homeland Security to act like a Keystone Stasi, terrorism will continue to win in destroying our freedom.
Kevin Drum mentions it, too.
bob • June 16, 2006 9:59 AM
Why would there still BE a court date after you are found not guilty? To be given a stern warning “dont not do it again”?
Whats all the fuss anyway, customs agents had unrestricted powers like this for decades?