Just when I thought the surveillance establishment couldn’t get more Orwellian or that I couldn’t get more cynical, I came across this story. Here in the U.S. we have the infamous no-fly list. It’s right out of Kafka: no one knows how they got on the list or even if they are on the list. They just know that the airlines say they can’t fly. Once you get on the list, you can’t get off. Everything about the list and how it operates is secret.
Finally, one of the list’s targets has struck back and managed to get her case into court. Because the target is not an American citizen the State Department has kept her from testifying by refusing to give her a visa. Her daughter, who is an American citizen was also scheduled to testify. Unfortunately, she was visiting her mother in Kuala Lumpur and when she tried to board a plane home she discovered that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had placed her on the no-fly list as well.
When the judge queried the government’s lawyers about this they denied that it had happened and said the daughter was lying. It turned out, though, that it was the government that was lying. Malaysia Airlines, against DHS protocol, supplied the daughter with the DHS orders putting the lie to the government’s denials.
The link above is to a short Boing Boing story but you should follow the link to Edward Hasbrouck’s day-by-day reporting on the trial. The government’s position can only be described as surreal. At one point they insisted that publicly available information could not be introduced because the TSA considered it secret. This despite the fact that the information was available to anyone who asked. Really, the government’s actions challenged even my well entrenched cynicism.
But follow the link and see for yourself. I don’t have the words to describe what you’ll find there. Bad faith on the government’s part is the least of it.
I should note, by the way, that I have no way of knowing whether placing the mother on the no-fly list was justified or not. My objection is the government’s lying and obstruction.