<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: [lbo-talk] Homeland Sec Protects Us From Journalis</title></head><body> <div>Something similar happened to six French journalists last May when they arrived in Los Angeles to cover a video game trade show without proper documentation. Sounds like something from the bad old days in Soviet Russia ...</div> <div><br></div> <div><font face="Verdana" size="-3" color="#000000">Reporters Without Borders today [20 May 2003] protested against the detention of six French journalists on arrival a week ago at Los Angeles international airport to cover a video games trade show and their forcible repatriation after being held at the airport for more than 24 hours.<br> <br> "These journalists were treated like criminals - subjected to several body searches, handcuffed, locked up and fingerprinted," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard complained in a letter to the US ambassador to Paris, Howard Leach.<br> <br> Ménard urged the ambassador to press for an investigation and to ensure that the journalists will have no problems the next time they travel to the United States. He also suggested that it should be clarified whether or not journalists travelling to the United States need a specific press visa. "As things stand, the decisions taken by airport security officials appear to have been arbitrary if not discriminatory," Ménard said in his letter. ...</font><br> <font face="Verdana" size="-3" color="#000000"></font></div> <div>See http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6909</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>This article describes, perhaps without intending to,<br> the *Homeland Security* apparatus' twin weaknesses: <br> <br> 1.) Despite stated intentions to protect us against<br> terrorists its used as a sort of Ministry of<br> Harassment.  This is the civil liberties problem.<br> <br> 2.) Considering its consuming harassment function, it<br> seems unlikely the agency is actually useful as part<br> of a counter-terrorist system.  This is the<br> effectiveness problem.<br> <br> When you remove state power, it all seems pretty<br> tawdry, pathetic and small minded really.<br> <br> DRM<br> <br> =============================<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> from -<br> <br> http://www.laweekly.com/ink/printme.php?eid=49609<br> <br> <br> <br> Coffee, Tea or Handcuffs?<br> An Australian journalist gets a taste of Department of<br> Homeland Security hospitality</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>by Steven Mikulan<br> </blockquote> </body> </html>