Legal Commentary

TSA Subpenas Blogger for Source of Non-Public Screening Leak

By Jeralyn

When the TSA increased security after the Xmas Day foiled bomb plan, two bloggers got a copy and posted it. The TSA paid them a visit last night, serving them a subpoena, wanting to know their source.

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public....Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.

What was in the top secret memo? [More...]

It included many procedures that would be apparent to the traveling public, such as screening at boarding gates, patting down the upper legs and torso, physically inspecting all travelers' belongings, looking carefully at syringes with powders and liquids, requiring that passengers remain in their seats one hour before landing, and disabling all onboard communications systems, including what is provided by the airline.

It also listed people who would be exempted from these screening procedures such as heads of state and their families.

The second blogger reports here.

The TSA is still smarting from the online publication of non-public portions of its screening manual a few weeks ago. The blogger that posted it first has a series of posts on what happened here. More at Cryptome, here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 30, 2009 (boomark / email).