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Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.

State and local police departments, working with U.S. agents, "federalize" money and property seized during local drug raids. The federal government gets at least 20 percent of the seized assets, but the feds give back up to 80 percent of the seizure - now exempt from state law - to state and local police agencies.

According to federal statistics, the share going to Alabama law enforcement agencies went from $1.8 million in 2000 to $8.5 million in 2007. Nationally, state and local agencies collected $416 million in 2007, up from $212 million in 2000.

Earlier generations of activists had created tight, hierarchical organizations. A spy could penetrate such a group with a reasonable chance of learning things about it not available to outsiders. But by the 1960s, undercover agents were facing a new phenomenon. The protest organizations coming to the fore then consisted, writes Gary Marx, “not of highly centralized, formally organized, tightly knit groups of experienced revolutionaries;” they were instead “decentralized, with fluid leadership and task assignments, shifting memberships, and an emphasis on participation. Members were generally not carefully screened, and requirements for activism were minimal.”
On the one hand, they tended to be naive about infiltration and surveillance. On the other hand, Marx writes, “Most groups had nothing to hide.” More than 30 years later, the description and evaluation still seem apt. Certainly they apply to the groups infiltrated by the Maryland State Police.
So why would agents monitor such groups? It is tempting to answer, “Because they can.” But sociological analysis suggests another reason. Gary Marx notes the principle that “the amount of deviance ‘found’ in a society bears some relationship to the number of officials whose job it is to find it. Thus, as facilities for dealing with the crime of ‘witchcraft’ in early America increased, so did the number of ‘witches’ discovered.” (See also Marty Glaberman’s basement.)
When surveillance becomes a field of professional competence, those so certified must find something to infiltrate — even if it’s just a group handing out literature at the Farmers Market.

Dr. Smith said the "dogmatism" of his testimony stemmed partly from a view early in his career that he was on the prosecution's side.

Other witnesses have indicated that pathologists are supposed to maintain a scientific neutrality.

"I honestly believed it was my role to support the Crown attorney. I was there to make the case look good," he said. "It took me a long time, years, to acknowledge my role was not to make the Crown's case Â… but to be much more impartial."

Dr. Smith was certified as a pediatric pathologist, but confirmed that he received virtually no training in forensic pathology: applying the science to criminal and other legal matters.

"It was self-taught, it was minimal," he said of his knowledge of the field. "In retrospect, I realize it was woefully inadequate."

He also said he was "profoundly ignorant" of the proper way to present his opinions in court. The outside experts were highly critical of his court testimony.

Winnipeg Transit driver William Bordynuik was in bed when his sleep turned into a nightmare.

But the eight people that burst into his home, ordered him to the floor and handcuffed him weren't bogeymen -- they were Winnipeg police officers armed with a search warrant and looking for cocaine.

Bordynuik says not only was there never any cocaine in his home, police themselves would have realized that if they had investigated before breaking through his door on Dec. 28, 2006.

In fact, the only white substance police found during the search -- a clear bag with white round stuff in it -- turned out to be nothing more than mothballs.

Now Bordynuik, who has no criminal record, is suing the unknown Winnipeg police officers and former chief Jack Ewatski for damages.

Bordynuik said the raid has caused him to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, nervous shock, depression, sleep loss and a personality change.

"This guy is an upstanding citizen," Martin Pollock, Bordynuik's lawyer, said.

"Where's the surveillance here? They could do wiretaps. It appears they didn't. What kind of information did they have?"

The lawsuit, filed in Court of Queen's Bench last week, also claims police kept yelling 'where are the drugs?' even though Bordynuik replied he didn't even know what cocaine looks like.

Venezuela's top food company has accused troops of illegally seizing more than 500 tonnes of food from its trucks as part of President Hugo Chavez's campaign to stem shortages.

The leftist Chavez this week created a state food distributor and loosened some price controls, seeking to end months of shortages for staples like milk and eggs that have caused long lines and upset his supporters in the OPEC nation.

City faces possible lawsuit over DUII case made by Officer Dave Cox, who is under investigation

The ongoing investigation into Corvallis Police Officer Dave Cox at least in part concerns the DUII arrest earlier this year of a Corvallis man who was completely sober.

"This is just the end of Phase 1," he said. "My family and I are just regular people who have been walked over."

His own father chimed in: "A sleeping giant has just been awoken."

Manitoba's Victims' Bill of Rights, the document that Robert Taman sees every time he turns on his computer, says that all victims of crime "should be treated with courtesy, compassion and respect."

Tell that to Robert Taman, a little guy whose wife was killed by a cop.

Then persuade him his rights -- and those of his late wife -- ever had a place in the courtroom.

Help him start the revolution. It is time for the public to say this can't go on.

Chomiak said yesterday he fully expects that given the public outrage about this case, both Wolson and Minuk will want an opportunity to give their side of the story. Certainly, it would be a good strategy to make it clear that the inquiry wants to hear from both Minuk and Wolson, and leave it to them to either accede to the demand or publicly resist it.

Given the outrage sparked by this case, resistance would demonstrate extremely poor judgment.

But then again, important figures in the justice system have shown they will not only defend poor judgement, they will celebrate it as a virtue.

We can only hope the attorney general doesn't allow this to happen at his inquiry.

Google controls your e-mail, your videos, your calendar, your searches… What if it controlled your life?

Google has threatened to close its German online services Google Mail if the German government does not scrap its controversial draft law that would monitor telecommunications and internet traffic, Peter Fleischer, the company's global privacy counsel, said in an interview with WirtschaftsWoche magazine.

ZIMBABWE'S parliament on Tuesday began debating a law empowering authorities to monitor phones, mail and the internet to protect national security, a move seen by critics as part of an official crackdown on the opposition.

While rights groups are concerned President Robert Mugabe's government will use the Interception of Communications Bill to infringe on privacy and further trample freedom of speech, officials have described it as integral to fighting crime.

"We are all subject to this law ... and Zimbabwe needs to mitigate against those who use technology to commit crime as is the norm globally," Transport and Communication Minister Chris Mushowe told parliament.

Human beings live in worlds of their own making. This is true of individuals as well as nations -- even entire periods. I suppose a person couldn't help being born in the Dark Ages, but it was still people who created the Dark Ages and people who ended them. They weren't cosmic events.

If we recreate the Dark Ages in the 21st century, it will be our own doing, too. Nobody is making us. None of our Evil Empires came from outer space. The red cancer of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism may have gone into remission, but the malignancy of tyranny comes in many colours. From the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s, it came in Fascist black and Nazi brown. If it were to flare up again in green--Islamist green, environmental green, it doesn't matter --it would still be as homemade as apple pie.

Everyone agrees that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the United States was so worried about who it would let into the country that visa problems were widespread — even for many scholars posing no security threat. But the Bush administration has boasted that things are better now — and that the United States wants foreign talent to feel welcome.

Tell that to Karim Meziane. He’s a citizen of Canada and a physicist at the University of New Brunswick, who was turned away at the U.S. border in 2004 when he was trying to attend a research conference to which he had been invited by the University of New Hampshire.

While many have been turned away or denied visas or just had visa applications languish, Meziane’s case is unusual: He got the Department of Homeland Security to tell him, in writing, why he was persona non grata. He was then able to demonstrate — with written government documents — that the department was wrong. But to this day, he can’t get anyone to change the conclusion or even talk about the case. And when the head of Canada’s largest professors’ group asked for a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to talk about the case and the issues it raises, he was turned down without explanation.

OK. Mr. Wilkins suggests that Canadians should stop griping and get on with it. We should accept that "we live in a post 9/11 world." In the end, we all benefit because the new rules make the border "smarter and more secure." Instead of grumbling, we should get our posteriors over to the passport office for our travel documents. It's no big deal. Indeed, it isn't. That's why it does little to increase security. All the 9/11 terrorists had, or would have been eligible to have, valid passports.

So did the Madrid train-and London subway-bombers. It is fruit pickers and aupairs who have trouble with documentation, not terrorists. The problem with saboteurs isn't that they're undocumented, but that they fly planes into buildings.

It won't make our lives more secure if they do so carrying passports.

WHEN I asked Mr. Schneier of BT Counterpane what he would do if he were appointed leader of the T.S.A., he said he would return to the basic procedures for passenger screening used before the 2001 terrorist attacks, which was designed to do nothing more ambitious than “catch the sloppy and the stupid.”

He said he would also ensure that passengers’ bags fly only if the passenger does, improve emergency response capabilities and do away entirely with ID checks and secret databases and no-fly and selectee lists. He added that he would shift funds into basic investigation and intelligence work, which he believes produces results like the arrests of the London bomb suspects. “Put smart, trained officers in plainclothes, wandering in airports — that is by far the best thing the T.S.A. could do,” he said.

The issues raised by the discovery of security vulnerabilities are not new. A. C. Hobbs, a locksmith who in 1853 wrote the book on locks and safes (the title: “Locks and Safes”) knew that “many well-meaning persons” assume that public exposure of a lock’s insecure design will end up helping criminals.

His response to this concern is no less apt today than it was then:

“Rogues are very keen in their profession, and know already much more than we can teach them.”

After the Diallo case, I wrote that I, my father, older brother and countless other relatives had collectively served the NYPD for more than a century and a half and that none of us would have fired at Mr. Diallo. I say the same about the lethal volley that took Mr. Bell's life, based on initial reports.

Simply put, the police culture in our country has changed. An emphasis on "officer safety" and paramilitary training pervades today's policing, in contrast to the older culture, which held that cops didn't shoot until they were about to be shot or stabbed. Police in large cities formerly carried revolvers holding six .38-caliber rounds. Nowadays, police carry semi-automatic pistols with 16 high-caliber rounds, shotguns and military assault rifles, weapons once relegated to SWAT teams facing extraordinary circumstances. Concern about such firepower in densely populated areas hitting innocent citizens has given way to an attitude that the police are fighting a war against drugs and crime and must be heavily armed.

Yes, police work is dangerous, and the police see a lot of violence. On the other hand, 51 officers were slain in the line of duty last year, out of some 700,000 to 800,000 American cops. That is far fewer than the police fatalities occurring when I patrolled New York's highest crime precincts, when the total number of cops in the country was half that of today. Each of these police deaths and numerous other police injuries is a tragedy and we owe support to those who protect us. On the other hand, this isn't Iraq. The need to give our officers what they require to protect themselves and us has to be balanced against the fact that the fundamental duty of the police is to protect human life and that law officers are only justified in taking a life as a last resort.

Special Weapons and Tactics teams — SWAT for short — became standard in most large police departments during the 1980s when the Pentagon began unloading surplus military equipment just as the federal war on drugs was ramping up. Originally intended for use only in volatile, high-risk situations involving snipers, hostages or prison escapees, militarized SWAT teams are now increasingly used in routine police work, primarily to execute search warrants.

But, as CATO policy analyst Radley Balko documents in his ground-breaking study, “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America,” the practice often result in botched raids and dead citizens.

That the Washington region is far from exempt from this disturbing trend was seen Jan. 24 when an unarmed optometrist under investigation for sports gambling was shot and killed outside his Fair Oaks townhouse. Tactical Officer Deval Bullock reportedly told internal affairs investigators that a recoiling door from the SWAT team’s Chevy Suburban caused him to fire his .45-caliber handgun into 37-year-old Salvatore Culosi’s side. Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer apologized for the “accident,” but Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Horan refused to take action against the 17-year police veteran.

The Culosi family’s attorney, Ben DiMuro, isn’t buying the accident explanation. “Using the word ‘accidental’ is a disservice,” he told The Examiner. “It doesn’t answer the question of why he pulled out the gun, why he put his finger on the trigger and why he pointed it” at Culosi. “Those are all intentional acts.”

Culosi’s grieving parents say they have had no communication with police officials since detectives came to their home to inform them their eldest son was dead five hours after the fact. The detectives said they were delayed by taking statements from witnesses.

What witnesses? Police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings told The Examiner that the SUV driver and under

"If a widespread pattern of [knock-and-announce] violations were shown . . . there would be reason for grave concern."

—Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in Hudson v. Michigan, June 15, 2006.

An interactive map of botched SWAT and paramilitary police raids, released in conjunction with the Cato policy paper "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids," by Radley Balko.