Tuesday, October 2, 2012

TSA rescinds approval to film in response to opt out Campaign.

The TSA has reacted to a national campaign encouraging people to opt out and film TSA procedures by removing a page on its website which admitted that recording security checkpoints is not prohibited.
The previous version of the TSA website (screenshot above) contained a page entitled “Taking Pictures at the Checkpoint,” which stated, “TSA does not prohibit the public, passengers or press from photographing, videotaping or filming at security checkpoints, as long as the screening process is not interfered with or slowed down.” Google’s cache of the old web page can still be viewed here.

Attempting to visit the URL now leads to a 404 page. The TSA’s admission that filming at TSA checkpoints is not prohibited has been deleted.

The change is part of a re-design of the TSA website. The new design contains no information whatsoever on travelers’ rights to film when they are at a TSA checkpoint.The TSA’s move to rescind its “approval” to film TSA procedures, not that such approval was ever needed, is most likely a response to a newly launched national Opt Out and Film campaign set to launch during Thanksgiving week in November.

The campaign, being promoted under the banner of Infowars.com and radio host Alex Jones, repeatedly emphasized the fact that the TSA’s own website gave the green light for travelers to film checkpoints.
Although the TSA has contradicted its own policy by placing signs at checkpoints ordering people not to film, as well as attempting to intimidate and even accuse people of being terrorists for doing so, filming federal employees or police is not illegal in the United States, as a First Court of Appeals ruling confirmed last year.

The TSA’s move in deleting the web page which conceded that filming TSA checkpoints was not prohibited is likely a desperate attempt to intimidate people out of taking part in the Opt Out and Film campaign by sending the message that they will be harassed by both TSA officials and law enforcement if they use a recording device.

Special Comment From Alex Jones
There is an organized move on behalf of governments and corporations to bully the First Amendment out of existence.
This is why Infowars is pioneering a new civil rights movement that is not based around race, sex or any other minority issue. The fact that our rights are being violated and characterized as suspicious and terroristic threatens the freedom of every individual, no matter from what what race, gender or creed they originate.
We are being systematically intimidated out of expressing our right to free speech as part of the advancement towards a new dark age of tyranny.
We are calling on like-minded people to join us in the Opt Out and Film campaign, with the understanding that you will in all likelihood face official oppression for doing so.
The TSA is a federal agency stuffed full of liars, thieves and petty tyrants who like to harass and terrorize innocent Americans who refuse to comply with degrading treatment and who refuse to partake in obedience training.
The risk of being harassed or even arrested for legally exercising your First Amendment right is significant. However, the risk of not exercising this right is far greater. The risk of not exposing tyranny and allowing it to breed is unthinkable.
Use it or lose it. The First Amendment is under attack across the board and unless we re-assert our right to speak up when our basic human dignity is being eviscerated by uniformed goons on a daily basis, not only at airports but also subways, highways, political events, music concerts and even high school prom nights, we can kiss our liberty goodbye.

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