Entire Court Discussion Of Feds Blocking US Citizen From Flying To No Fly List Trial... Redacted

from the sickening dept

Fri, Feb 7th 2014 8:50am — Mike Masnick

We already wrote about the release of Judge Alsup's ruling in the Rahinah Ibrahim case. However, I wanted to do a second post, concerning one of the issues that first grabbed our attention about the case -- the fact that Ibrahim's daughter, a US citizen, was put on the no fly list and blocked from flying to the US to be a witness at the trial. The DOJ insisted that this was untrue and the daughter had simply missed her flight -- claims that were later proven to be outright lies. At the time, it appeared that Judge Alsup was not at all happy about this, and we hoped that this would result in some sort of sanctions or punishment for the federal government lying to a federal judge.

And, that whole incident is discussed in the ruling, but we have no idea what it says. Because the entire section is redacted. At the beginning of the filing, Judge Alsup notes about this incident that: "the snafu was the result of government error, albeit corrected quickly, as will be outlined at the end of the findings of fact." Then you jump to the section about "The Citizen Daughter" and you get a brief recap, noting that Ibrahim's daughter, Raihan Binti Mustafa Kamal, a US citizen, was blocked from getting on her flight to the US in Kuala Lumpur. And then you turn the page and get this:

In other words, if Alsup did anything about this "snafu," we're unlikely to ever know about it, which seems fairly ridiculous.

Ibraruling (PDF)Ibraruling (Text)

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Filed Under: dhs, doj, no fly list, rahinah ibrahim, raihan kamal, redacted, us citizens, william alsup

25 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 6:58am

All due to 'National Security' I'm sure /s
Crap like this is a perfect example of why people don't buy the 'National Security' excuse the government loves to trot out so often, I'm sure the redacted sections have nothing to do with 'protecting america', and everything to do with covering up the lies the Feds got caught out on.

Can't have the government on record as lying, that would harm national security you know! /s
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Ninja (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 8:17am

It seems to have become some sort of internal TD meme already (seryously, search google for 'duct tape fax techdirt') but I'm all for it.

Duct tape the damn thing in a cycle around the fax machine and send it to the DOJ!
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- That One Guy (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 9:00am
  
  Re:
  Just to rub it in, add a page with 'I'm not quite sure what this section says, could you clarify if for me?'
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 9:01am

did anyone actually expect there to be any punishment issued against the government? even if there was, as it's redacted, intentionally, no one will ever know not what the punishment was but if it was carried out.my guess, like i am sure, yours, is that not a thing was done because she was prevented on purpose and the one responsible is higher up the tree than we know, ie, out of harms way!!
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 9:17am

It just says:

Write "I will not obstruct justice" on the black board 100 times.
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- ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 10:30am
  
  Re:
  Naturally they used black chalk.
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- Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 10:48am
  
  Re:
  Something tells me that they are fine with that because in their minds they ARE justice. So anything that stands in their way, including the law, shouldn't be obstructing them.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 1:00pm
    
    Re: Re:
    I am the LaaaWWW
    -Judge Dreadd
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    - btrussell (profile), 8 Feb 2014 @ 7:41am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      aj
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  - Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2014 @ 1:58am
    
    Re: Re:
    Yep, they are Justice. They apply their justice on Americans. Which is a word they think they are above of, the word american used to be an international pejorative term but now your own rulers certainly apply it to you, and not them.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 9:21am

Well isn't that just...
[REDACTED]
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- DannyB (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 9:36am
  
  Re: Well isn't that just...
  REDACTED to prevent embarrassment due to government misconduct and/or incompetence.
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- AricTheRed (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 11:43am
  
  Re: Well isn't that just...
  I don't know what everyone is so excited about, they Only redacted less than %20.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 9:41am

This government has caught a bad case of embarrassment flu from corporations.

It's idea is hide the fact it is sick, not to cure the flu.
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JR Price (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 9:43am

[REDACTED] Madlibs?
[REDACTED] is a very [REDACTED] and should be afforded the greatest [REDACTED] the US can give. Unfortunately, the [REDACTED] has caused [REDACTED] and now the US Government must now [REDACTED] themselves.

What do I think of this situation? [REDACTED]
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krolork (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 10:13am

We need a revolution.
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- Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 9:40pm
  
  Re:
  Tell that to Prince :)
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 10:23am

State secrets privilege
First used in

United States v. Reynolds

And as documented in 2000 was a lie by the government to the court.

So Our great courts that do not allow lairs and cheats do not apply the same rules to the well documented lairs and cheats, The US Government.

And what of all the harm done by the Justice Department by refusing to take cases where The US Government hiding information prevents the case.
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2014 @ 2:01am
  
  Re: State secrets privilege
  Not surprising, look for some act from 1871 that makes the US Gov a Corporation and not a government. I'm not american so I don't know the exact name but it exists, [s]google[/s] duckduckgo away.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2014 @ 10:39am

The meaning of redaction
Anytime something is redacted in a document like this, you know that the government is covering up lies, corruption, cowardice, mistakes, civil rights violations, bribes, payoffs, ripoffs, bad planning, poor execution, ignorance, discrimination, xenophobia, racism, sexism, rape, assault, kidnapping, murder, laziness, scams, bureaucracy, idiotic regulations, misapplied regulations, obsolete regulations, political favors, corporate cronyism, financial shenanigans, dubious loans, old boy network favors, censorship or just plain fuckups.
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- JR Price (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 10:57am
  
  Re: The meaning of redaction
  It can't be "plain" fuckups, otherwise we'd be able to see them...
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Spaceman Spiff (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 4:11pm

Protecting the guilty
Just black out the relevant evedence...
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Alana (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 4:19pm

MOST TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION
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Aaron (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 8:55pm

These are sobering findings.
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- btrussell (profile), 8 Feb 2014 @ 7:45am
  
  Re:
  This kind of shit should be sobering to all of us.
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