U.S. Agents Can Seize Laptops

As reported on the national News and other electronic news media....

Report: The notebooks and other devices can be seized without reason and held indefinitely.

WASHINGTON - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.

Agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.

DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.

The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices removed and examined.

The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.

The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material. They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert, editing by Alan Elsner)

The following comments have thus far been received and made for your edification and knowledge about what is happening:

• Didn't our forefathers fight a revolution over things like this - illegal search and seizure. The constitution is now shredded.

• Can't anyone now fail to see the connection between intellectual property enforcement, most recently the subject of both new domestic US law and the highly secretive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Act and privacy-destroying passenger information on everyone? There is no one alive without something that may potentially violate IP on their laptop. Wake up and smell the police state.

• Make note: the ruling applies to books and other documents as well. If, rather than risk the pilfering of your electronic docs, you do hard copies of spec drawings and tech manuals prior to leaving Europe for the U.S., they, too, are subject to seizure without probable cause. This ruling binds our hands in ways the Founding Fathers avoided by including Constitutional protection of free speech and against unreasonable search and seizure. The liberal activist judges who abrogate our rights and freedoms are the problem. By definition their behavior is un-Constitutional. Why are we not calling for their impeachment? So many people went after Bill with such fervor, but we have no problem with the consolidation of power in the Judiciary? It's time to start thinking.
• This is NOT the law. It is an executive order. As such, citizens of this country that are not employed by the Executive Branch of the federal government are not required to obey it.
  
  The only difference between G.W. Bush and a bunch of neo-nazi's is he hasn't shaved his head yet.

• I am 100% for saving our constitutional rights, however, this time it is not the liberal activist judges, it is George Bush who is treading on our freedoms and liberties. Secondly, none of the protections in the Constitution have ever applied to anyone, citizen and foreigner alike, when you are outside of the US border. When arriving from another country, you are no longer considered to be on US soil until you have cleared customs, therefore search and seizure is normal daily activity by customs agents

• There is no such thing as constitutional rights. We have inalienable God-given rights, some of which are delineated in the constitution. The constitution, however, is primarily a document through which we, the sovereign people, invest authority in representatives and delineate specifically the areas of authority (and limitations thereof) we give them to work in our behalf to protect our inalienable God-given rights. These actions are not within the scope of authority which we the sovereign people invested in any representative. It is therefore, unconstitutional regardless of where they conduct it or on whom.

• Liberal??
  
  Try neo-conservative fascists.
  
  This is the Republican George W. Bush imperial white house at work.
  
  The Constitution is not their job to uphold but rather an inconvenience to their desire for absolute power.
  
  James Otis and John Adams would be outraged. The King's "Writs of Assistance" which allowed for similar unwarranted blanket searches and seizures was a prime cause of the American revolution and were even cited in the Declaration as one of the causes which impelled our separation from England:
  
  "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."
  
  There is NO way this is Constitutional. Bush must be impeached and the Constitution restored. In the mean time everybody, encrypt everything and make them work hard to decrypt it. There's no way they can do it if they have to decrypt everyone's files.
  
  The President's job is to defend the CONSTITUTION, not the country or to "protect us against terrorism". His job definition and powers are strictly defined in Article II Section 2 and further limited by the 9th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution. Yet Bush just makes up new powers out of thin air as he feels. Hopefully he will actually step down on January 20th when Barack Obama is sworn in and won't decide that the President's term of office as defined in Article II and Amendment 22 are null and void and that he is Presidente por vida (president for life) as they do in other banana republic(an) dictatorships.

• One reason they have unlimited access to both electronic and traditional media is so they can suppress alternative medicine. I suspect this is a significant reason why the whole "war on terror" was instigated in the first place: as an excuse to prop up the medical mafia and its failed eugenic theories by suppressing all opposition.
  
  Another reason may be that Bu$h-Cheney have no intention of leaving in '09. They may order another attack in Oct., providing a convenient excuse for declaring martial law, & will need to forcibly squelch all dissent, from the Left, from Libertarians, & from internal opponents from the Right, e.g. Pat Buchanan & Dan Barton (R, TX).
  
  Yet another reason might just be that the system is inexorably collapsing. Capitalism actually failed in 1929, & has been propped up by astronomical government subsidies since 1933, & they are simply running out of tricks and ways to cook the books. Like all addicts, the worthless ruling class will hold on for as long as it can before the inevitable closes in like a vise.
  
  Or, it could be a combination of all these.

•Ancient Canons/Seven Ecumenical Councils  

•An Understanding of the Ancient Canons

• Ancient Canons/Seven Ecumenical Councils

• A bit of understanding about the Fundamentalist Cults....

• Modern Day Ecumenism and its horrors

•  How Many Times