Cnet reports:
A security researcher involved with the Wikileaks Web site was detained by U.S. agents at the border for three hours and questioned about the controversial whistleblower project as he entered the country on Thursday to attend a hacker conference, sources said on Saturday.
He was also approached by two FBI agents at the Defcon conference after his presentation on Saturday afternoon about the Tor Project.
Jacob Appelbaum, a Seattle-based programmer for the online privacy protection project called Tor, arrived at the Newark, New Jersey, airport from Holland flight Thursday morning when he was pulled aside by customs and border protection agents who told him he was randomly selected for a security search, according to the sources familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous.
Appelbaum, a U.S. citizen, was taken into a room, frisked and his bag was searched. Receipts from his bag were photocopied and his laptop was inspected but it's not clear in what manner, the sources said. Officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Army then told him he was not under arrest but was being detained, the sources said. They asked questions about Wikileaks, asked for his opinions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and asked where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is, but he declined to comment without a lawyer present, according to the sources. He was not permitted to make a phone call, they said.
After about three hours, Appelbaum was given his laptop back but the agents kept his three mobile phones, sources said.
Asked for comment, Appelbaum declined to talk to CNET. However, he made reference to his phone getting seized to Defcon attendees. Following a question-and-answer session after his talk on the Tor Project Appelbaum was asked by an attendee for his phone number. He replied "that phone was seized."
Shortly thereafter two casually dressed men identified themselves as FBI agents and asked to talk to him.
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Amazing the way the laws are set up that they can just photocopy his receipts and steal his phones and that's apparently perfectly acceptable.
ReplyDeleteIt's a case where both sides are wrong, here.
ReplyDeleteThe Wikileaks people probably need to be charged with crimes and arrested by due process.
Randomly detaining them (and sometimes not) then taking their possessions is illegal and an abuse of the justice system.
Until somebody actually charges Wikileaks with an actual crime, those involved need to be treated just as everybody else...
...Oh wait, they are :(
Quote from Anonymous : "Until somebody actually charges Wikileaks with an actual crime, those involved need to be treated just as everybody else..."
ReplyDeleteAnd after as well. You remember: Innocent until proven guilty.