Fanzines Plethora

Update, 3:50pm PT: One of the two bloggers reports that the TSA has dropped its subpoena against him.

An update on the case of the two travel bloggers who received holiday visits by armed TSA agents (with matching Homeland Security subpoenas!) after publishing a leaked copy of the "Christmas Day incident" security directive.

Chris Elliot has an attorney now, and more time to respond to the subpoena.

Steven Frischling got his laptop back from the Special Agents who demanded it, then imaged his hard drive, but the laptop no longer works (paranoid commenters suggest one explanation could be the installation of keylogger software, but that's just one of many possibilities.)

Annie Jacobsen of TheAviationNation.com has posted an interview with Frischling here. Why, Jacobsen asks in that piece, is Homeland Security going after these guys so hard?

[I found] my answer in a pre-recorded message at the FBI's Detroit Metro Bureau to which press are referred. The message there states that anyone seeking information about "the Christmas Day event at Detroit metro airport" should call the Department of Justice in Washington.

Wait. A Christmas Day "event"? The FBI makes the attack against Northwest Flight 253 sound more like a shopping sale or a rock concert than the terror strike that it was. Trying to kill 298 airline passengers, destroy an airplane, and crash it into the suburbs of Detroit is now called an "event"? Could the jackbooted TSA visit to blogger Steven Frischling's Connecticut home be just another trickle-down result of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano's insistence that terrorist attacks be referred to as "man-caused disasters"?

You see, in the TSA directive which Frischling's posted online, the TSA was caught calling a spade a spade: "INFORMATION: On December 25, 2009, a terrorist attack was attempted against a flight traveling to the United States."

For bloggers reading this story in horror, here's a helpful resource: The EFF's "Surveillance Self-Defense" website. Here's a relevant section:

Q: What should you do if a government agent (or anyone else) shows up with a subpoena?
A: NOTHING.

Update items at NYT, another at Firedoglake which addresses the need for a federal shield law to protect professional bloggers. (Huh? OK, then go read this, too). Snip:

As one federal prosecutor told Wired, "it strikes me that they're more aggressive with this reporter than with the guy who got on this flight."

Previously: TSA subpoenas, threatens two bloggers who published non-classified airline security directive

Related reading: Miles O'Brien: Captain Underpants and the Illusion of Security.

(Thanks, Glenn Reynolds / image: Elliot.org)

...apropos of bloggers being bullied into parting with their hard drives: check out this nifty doormat, available at Target for 18 bucks and some change.

(Courtesy of Wired: "TSA Special Agent John Enright, left, speaks to Steven Frischling outside the blogger's home in Niantic, Connecticut, after returning Frischling's laptop Wednesday." Photo: Thomas Cain/Wired.com)

(Update post here, Dec. 31, 2009.)

On Friday, December 25, following the incident in which a Nigerian man attempted to blow up a US-bound flight, the TSA issued an urgent, non-classified security directive to thousands of contacts around the world—airlines, airports, and so on. On Saturday, December 26, airlines and airports around the world further circulated that emailed document and began implementing the procedures described. On Sunday December 27, two bloggers published the content of the TSA directive online (some portions had already been showing up on airline websites). And on Tuesday, December 29, Special Agents from the TSA's Office of Inspection showed up at the homes of bloggers Steven Frischling and Christopher Elliott, and interrogated each on where they obtained the document. Both bloggers received civil subpoenas.

Snip from Wired piece by Kim Zetter:

"They came to the door and immediately were asking, 'Who gave you this document?, Why did you publish the document?' and 'I don't think you know how much trouble you're in.' It was very much a hardball tactic," [Frischling] says.

(...) The agents then said they wanted to take an image of his hard drive. Frischling said they had to go to WalMart to buy a hard drive, but when they returned were unable to get it to work. Frischling said the keyboard on his laptop was no longer working after they tried to copy his files. The agents left around 11 p.m. but came back Wednesday morning and, with Frischling's consent, seized his laptop, which they promised to return after copying the hard drive.

Here is Elliot's post about his visit from a friendly TSA Special Agent named Flaherty. "[T]he TSA wants me to tell them who gave me the security directive. I told Flaherty I'd call my attorney and get back to him. What would you do?"

Here at Boing Boing, I linked to Frischling's leak post on Monday, December 28. Two days earlier, I'd flown home to the US on an international flight during which I personally experienced the procedures detailed in the directive. I tweeted what I experienced of those procedures before, during, and after my flight on the 26th. Thorough physical patdowns and secondary hand luggage screening pre-board, no leaving your seat or electronics or putting anything on your lap during the final hour of flight, and so on. Attendants on my flight explained that the stepped-up procedures came from a just-issued TSA security directive. As soon as airlines and airports began implementing the directive—and that began before the bloggers posted their copies—the contents of the directive were no secret. So why the strong-arm tactics?

Read more: New York Times story, Wired News story, and Huffington Post.

Related: Just weeks ago, a TSA contract worker posted an improperly redacted sensitive screening manual on a government website.

Bob Self says:

Dr. Sketchy's Los Angeles is alternative figure drawing cabaret for artists who like their naked inspiration to be served up with some theatrical showmanship. To get 2010 off to an epic start, the Los Angeles troupe is producing a Dr. Sketchy's Marathon that will run continuously for 26 hours beginning at 8:00 PM on Saturday, January 2nd and ending at 10:00 PM on Sunday, January 3rd. Over a dozen models will be posing in and out of costume over the course of the event, and a roster of noteworthy contemporary artists will be in attendance (including Michael Hussar, who will be creating an alla prima portrait late Saturday night). As usual for Dr. Sketchy's, there will be prizes and surprises. The event will be hosted at Nucleus in Alhambra. Admission is $26 in advance via Dr Sketchy's LA, or $35 at the door. Attendees will be issued wrist bands that will allow them to come and go as they please.

...Several years ago we started a company called [sic] which manufactured and sold high end chocolate fountains to caterers, hotels, casinos, reception centers and other high end event centers. In addition to selling the chocolate fountains we also sold chocolate...and literally TONS and TONS of it. With our connection in the chocolate industry we had virtually a limitless supply of chocolate, and just as many chocolatiers and chocolate factories who could basically make anything and everything we ever wanted to.  

While I was growing up we spent a lot of time in the mountains fishing, camping, and hunting. On a recent getaway vaction/hunting trip, we were all piled in the car..dirty, grimy - hadn't bathed in days - and we were discussing our existing business, and ways we could help it grow. Someone blurted out  

'We should make chocolate bullets!'