Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The System Failed, Bust the Bloggers

TSA Goes After Two Travel Bloggers

Judith Miller [click to read] talks about the whole debacle surrounding Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab’s almost successful act of terrorism. Seems like TSA went into high gear with new regulations that caught the attention [and subsequent ridicule] of two travel bloggers: Chris Elliott and Steven Frischling. Somehow they got hold of the new regulations before they were supposed to. TSA went after the two journalists:

"Rather than focus its energy and resources on discovering how the 23-year-old Abdulmutallab managed to board an American airliner wearing explosive-laden underwear—endangering nearly 300 other passengers flying from Nigeria or Amsterdam, where the plane stopped before heading for Detroit—the TSA sent three of its agents at night to the journalists’ homes. Elliot and Frischling described them as “polite” but intimidating: they were armed with subpoenas and threats of grave legal consequences if the reporters failed to divulge their source. Under pressure, Frischling handed over his computer, which was returned the next morning, its software corrupted. Elliott called his lawyer and refused to turn over his computer or e-mails. The TSA gave him another two weeks to comply with the subpoena."

Ultimately TSA dropped the matter but the problem remains; the government wants to control the internet. Americans for Prosperity reports on this latest overreach and Makes a Call to Action [click to read] that all of us who cherish the free media need to step up for. Rush Limbaugh refers to the MSM as State Controlled Media.' We don't need the internet reduced to the level of Newsweak.

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