Feingold Points Out That DHS's Chertoff Is Misleading On Border Laptop Searches

from the reasonable-cause? dept

Fri, Aug 8th 2008 1:44pm — Mike Masnick

Following the release of Homeland Security's policies for searching laptops at the border, where the rules are, effectively, "anything goes," DHS boss Michael Chertoff claimed that laptop searches were only done when the border guard had a "suspicion" and placed that individual in "secondary inspection." However, Senator Russ Feingold has now hit back, pointing out that the official DHS policies say absolutely nothing about there needing to be a suspicion or that laptop searches only happen on secondary inspection. If Chertoff were being honest, why wouldn't those things be in the official policy? And, if Chertoff insists that DHS will only do searches when there is a real suspicion, what's wrong with following the "probable cause" standard that it insists it should be allowed to ignore? It's nice to see Senator Feingold asking these questions.

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Filed Under: border searches, customs, homeland security, laptops, michael chertoff, russ feingold, senate

14 Comments

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Bobby Ganoosh, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:12pm

Honesty
Honesty is not a policy embraced by this administration. Fearmongering, lying and pandering are, though.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:17pm

Feingold should be Obama's veep.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:37pm

Hey, you're not supposed to think about that. It's for your own safety.
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Anonymous of Course, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:54pm

Any first hand tales of woe?
Has anyone here had their laptop searched by
US border guards or DHS/TSA employees?
I'd like to hear about the circumstances.

I had my laptop searched, but it was by
Canadian border guards and seemed to
be standard operating procedure for them
in the mid-90's.

Just curious...
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D TEEL, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:58pm

LAPTOP SEARCHES
WE SHOULD BE ASKING LOTS OF QUESTIONS ABOUT FUTURE SURVEILLANCE TECHNIQUES. SHOULDN'T THERE BE PROBABLE CAUSE FOR THAT WIRELESS AUDIO BUTTON STUCK UNDER YOUR LAPEL, THAT RFID TRANSMITTER DROPPED IN YOUR POCKET, AND WHAT ABOUT THAT BIOSENSOR SHOT INTO YOUR ARM?
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Dan, 8 Aug 2008 @ 3:11pm

Thats my senator. Ata boy Russ, DHS BS and lies need to be challenged.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2008 @ 3:35pm

I do think its crap that DHS can search any electronic device it sees fit, for any reason. A smart person would just upload what ever it is they had to a server, then download it once they got to there destination, how are they going to combat that? Someone needs to over see the DHS policies and NOT the people that wrote them, like may hmmmmmm.... JUDGES?!
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Jake, 8 Aug 2008 @ 4:06pm

It's probably small comfort, but unless some REMF introduces a quota, I suspect that few Border Patrol officers will waste their time and energy on searching laptops without a compelling reason to do so. Honestly, your biggest problem is not the fact that the odd Border Patrol officer whose idea of a compelling reason is 'he looked like an Arab' is harder to reprimand; it's the fact that just subscribing to a particular set of values, however abhorrent those values may be, is now an indictable offence in the first country in the world to make a real go of democracy.
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Wendy M, 8 Aug 2008 @ 4:20pm

Feingold is the man
Yes, Dan. Keep voting him in!

As someone who lives several states away, I've been a great pleasure when Feingold responds to issues from misplaced Wisconsinites.

It would be nice if my own state's Senators Kay Bailey and John Cornyn took as much interest in what was happening around America.
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Rekrul, 8 Aug 2008 @ 4:30pm

Rig your laptop so that as soon as you login, it starts playing 2 Girls, 1 Cup and can't be used until the video has played in its entirety.
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Known Coward, 8 Aug 2008 @ 6:05pm

Laptop Searches
DHS can kiss my ass.
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Glenn Charles, 9 Aug 2008 @ 4:52am

DHS/probable cause/searches
It is after all under the umbrella of the original National Security Act. Faith in politicians, or press releases? really.
--Glenn
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Dustin, 9 Aug 2008 @ 11:19am

Re:
... then who would I vote for in my Senate race? :(
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2008 @ 12:35pm

Chartoffs a liar . . . .
Well he is a Bush appointee, so we know he wasn’t chosen for his competence, thats just not how they roll.
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