Next time you travel to the US, think twice about what you take with you – your files may be contraband:
In opening the 25 June hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, subcommittee chair Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) said, “Over the last two years, reports have surfaced that customs agents have been asking U.S. citizens to turn over their cell phones or give them the passwords to their laptops. The travelers have been given a choice between complying with the request or being kept out of their own country. They have been forced to wait for hours while customs agents reviewed and sometimes copied the contents of the electronic devices. In some cases, the laptops or cell phones were confiscated and returned weeks or even months later, with no explanation.
Everything on your laptop. Belongs to the US government. In perpetuity.
At a time when the essential truth of McLuhan’s vision of technology as an extension of our selves is irrefutable, the assertion that the US government – or any government – has the right to arbitrarily seize, copy, and analyze at its leisure every piece of data that we have created and own is tantamount to the revocation of habeas corpus.
When I read an account like this I wonder if anything will stop these secular mullahs before they achieve the dream of totalitarians since time immemorial: the ability to tear the lid off the last refuge humanity has, and stare right in.
Filed under: america, cinema, fascism | Leave a Comment
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