TSA Drops Subpeonas Against Journos

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Apparently they don't like having their asinine memos circulated:

The security directive, which ordered extra measures after a Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, quickly became known to passengers at screening lines and aboard their flights. Nonetheless, the passenger screening agency said it "takes any breach in security very seriously."

One subpoena went to Internet travel writer Chris Elliott, who obtained an attorney and did not immediately comply.

Elliott, from Winter Springs, Fla., said TSA agents had showed up at his house, demanding that he reveal who leaked the security directive.

The administrative subpoena - a demand for information issued without a judge's approval - is a civil, not a criminal document.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said her organization is supporting Elliott.

Another travel blogger who received a subpoena, Steve Frischling, said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his laptop computer.

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.

Dalglish said she was not speaking for Frischling, but added there's nothing to challenge if he already handed over his computer.

Dalglish said she could not remember the last time an administrative subpoena had been served on a reporter in last decade.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100101/D9CUKTGO0.html

Considering the crap Bush had to deal with, i.e the NYT divulging the wholly legal and highly effective SWIFT program, that last paragraph is quite telling.

[Thor]

and here I thought that Bush's jack booted thugs were bad enough. It appears 0bama's jack booted thugs are more reminiscent of the Gestapo.  

[Oceander]

Tut, tut!  Antsy-Pantsy Pelosi doesn't like us using such right-wing extremist language! 

[bijou]

This memo was circulated to around 10000 people around the world, why would anyone be amazed it then received wider distribution?

[Javelin]

and here I thought that Bush's jack booted thugs were bad enough. It appears 0bama's jack booted thugs are more reminiscent of the Gestapo.  

This is also the exact kind of Gestapo move we should be expecting to play out in the future for all of us.  I see it only becoming more of a problem.

[NHSparky]

Also, the guys at TAH got nailed by these clowns too...

LINK

(excerpt)

So what does this have to do with us, besides the fact that we’re also bloggers? Well, the same thing happened to This Ain’t Hell early last month. While they should have been investigating the Fort Hood shooter, Army Criminal Investigation Division agents were flying around the country with a search warrant signed by a Federal judge trying to solve the mysterious and life threatening case of Major Hasan’s Officer Record Brief making it to the internet.

Keep in mind that when we posted the ORB, Hasan was dead according to reports, and soon after we posted it and made it clear we weren’t taking it down, he was reanimated. Funny how that worked.

Be afraid, people--be very afraid.