meta-roj

a first-person account of the new federal law making “theft of signal” a felony, according to the secret service? sure. let’s ask the rev.

So Weirdly Wrong [akma’s random thoughts, august 22, 2004]

“It’s a federal law, sir; a Secret Service agent came and explained it to us.”

well, there you have it.

now, who ya gonna believe? the good reverend that tells us this story, the good cop that’s saving us from the child porn and terrorist, or the good secret service agent that is just explaining the new federal laws to the nice local cops?

senator edward m. kennedy of massachusetts made his way onto the no-fly list, and it took personal intervention of the secretary of homeland security to get fixed.

note to self: call tom if i ever run into trouble.

the funny thing about translations is that there’s always a layer of interpretation involved…

Key Evidence in Doubt in U.S. Mosque Case -Paper [reuters, august 18, 2004]

Prosecutors said the Defense Department gave them information that a notebook with Aref’s name and address was found in what they called a terrorist training camp in the western Iraq desert, near Syria.

They said a word on one page, written in Arabic, referred to Aref as “commander.” In fact, the word was Kurdish, and could be translated as “brother,” according to prosecutors.

there could be a little difference between “commander” and “brother” – particularly in cultures where everyone’s a brother.

just a minor hassle, of course… nobody was arrested. yet.

today’s story of the supervigilant security forces protecting innocent families comes from new york, host of the republican convention.

i feel much better now. i wouldn’t want to be exposed to inappropriate reading material in new york city.

[via boingboing]

Bush camp solicits race of Star staffer [arizona daily star, july 31, 2004]

A rally organizer for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign asked Teri Hayt, the Star’s managing editor, to disclose the journalist’s race on Friday. After Hayt refused, the organizer called back and said the journalist probably would be allowed to photograph the vice president.

“It was such an outrageous request, I was personally insulted,” Hayt said later.

Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the president’s re-election campaign, said the information was needed for security purposes.

“All the information requested of staff, volunteers and participants for the event has been done so to ensure the safety of all those involved, including the vice president of the United States,” he said.

this, of course, is yet another interesting combination of race and photography. i imagine we won’t hear much about this, because the secret service will function as a convenient black hole for any questions. “is it true?” “the secret service does not comment on operational matters”

since this is patently offensive, we’re going to put christine walton on the record.

just some food for thought, in case any of you terrorists decide to get close to bush and/or cheney during any of the fundraising events before the big rnc party.

update: also covered at brown equals terrorist.

reported in the boston globe…

Sikh student detained by Secret Service [boston globe, july 30, 2004]

A Boston College student leader who wears a turban and full beard in accord with his Sikh religion says he was detained and interrogated for seven hours Saturday night by Secret Service agents for doing nothing more than taking photographs of the campus.

…

Boston College officials said they are giving [Sundeep] Sahni their full support and are attempting to arrange a meeting between the student and the Secret Service.

“We want to arrange a conversation, which we hope will result in an apology,” said Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn.

A Secret Service spokesman, however, said there will be no such meeting or apology.

“During the course of the DNC, law enforcement is in a heightened state of awareness in response to suspicious activity,” Secret Service spokesman Charles Bopp said. “He [Sahni] was interviewed, and our security concerns were addressed. The case is closed. There are no charges; there is no further investigation.”

according to his resume, he knows linux and macromedia so maybe that’s the terrorist angle.

i guess i just keep coming back to this… we’re never going to make much progress in this “war on terror” if we can’t face up to our own mistakes. what’s the downside of apologizing for ruining someone’s day? we’re supposed to be better than this.

sundeep – on behalf of the secret service, that is acting in my name as an american, i apologize.

oh, and by the way, if that’s a picture of sundeep’s turban, there is no way to fit an uzi in there.

update: also covered at brown equals terrorist.

we picked up the ian spiers story on july 10th – not terribly quickly – ian’s blog went live on june 19th.

since then, we’ve seen a workshop organized, and the blogosphere [technorati] exploded – reporting 301 inbound links right now.

the stranger picked this up with an interview.

now, major media is in the game…

We’ve seen the enemy, and he is us [seattle post intelligencer, july 14, 2004]
Photo student draws attention of authorities [seattle times, july 14, 2004]

that’s the local media… the breakthrough is when the story gets out on the wires…

ACLU wants answers about questioning of photography student [ap via seattle post intelligencer, july 14, 2004]
Questioning of Photo Student Challenged [ap via abc news, july 16, 2004]

i’ve spent some time working on a little project that has been aching for another example of the blogosphere bringing news to the major media. i’m not sure this is it, but the whole trent lott story is tired.

do something?

a photography workshop is being organized for august 1 at the ballard locks. i’m on the wrong side of the country for this, but the details are here.

this is inspiring because it’s a peaceful, community-organied response to this incident.

just when i was feeling better about life in america…

brownequalsterrorist.

a blog went live on june 19th, and i’m going to take a personal interest in this one. ian ain’t heavy. he’s my brother.

[via metafilter]

Disc Jockey Arrested for On-Air Gag [ap via abc news, july 8, 2004]

Dan Chappell, known to listeners of radio station KHFI as “Lunchbox,” walked around the store narrating events on air using a phone before buying a pack of gum and leaving. He was arrested a short distance from the store, police said.

Chappell, 22, was charged with making a terrorist threat and faces up to a year in jail and up to a $4,000 fine. He did not immediately return a phone message Thursday.

Although no verbal threats were made, store clerk Atif Akhlaque said he thought he was going to be robbed and pressed the silent alarm.

stupid? definitely. terrorist? you have got to be kidding me.