[Plura-list] My letter to the FBI; No one should be on the No-Fly List

[Cory Doctorow]

Today's links

* My letter to the FBI: Let the FOIA follies begin!

* No one should be on the No-Fly List: There should not be a No-Fly List.

* Oh sure, let's expand the no-fly list: What could possibly go wrong?

* This day in history: 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current
writing projects, current reading

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👓 My letter to the FBI

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of my first blog post; some
anonymous axe-grinder gave me a hell of a bloggiversary present: they
complained about one of my posts to the FBI, triggering an investigation.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/15/hoover-calling/#g-man

Even though my EFF colleague Mark Rumold called the (very professional)
special agent, got him to agree that the post (a link to a Popular
Mechanics article on the science of toppling monuments) was within my
First Amendment rights, I wasn't done.

Today, thanks to the help of the self-described FOIA fiend Aaron Mackey,
I sent the FBI a FOIA request for:

* Any and all records that reflect or otherwise describe any
investigations, assessments, or other actions taken by the FBI
concerning my July blog post,

* Any and all records, such as reports, memoranda, or notes relating to,
or describing me that reflect or otherwise describe the January 12
communications between the FBI agent, me, and my legal counsel, and

* Any and all records created, collected, or maintained by the FBI that
otherwise describe or relate to any FBI investigations, assessments, or
other actions concerning me regarding any other protected First
Amendment activities.

But that's just for openers!

* Pursuant to the Privacy Act, I further request that I be allowed to
inspect and correct any records maintained about me. 5 U.S.C. §§
552a(d)(1)-(2).

* I further request that the FBI—after allowing me to inspect and
correct any and all records maintained about me—expunge or otherwise
destroy records it collects and maintains that document, reflect, or
otherwise describe my exercise of First Amendment rights.

So: let me see what you've got, then delete everything about my
protected speech activities. This is a right that every person who is
investigated for protected speech is entitled to under the Privacy Act.

Here's the letter I sent; I'm not a lawyer, and you probably aren't
either, but it might help you draft your own letter if you get into the
same absurd predicament:

https://craphound.com/images/Doctorow_FOIA_request.pdf

You will need to include a U.S. Department of Justice Certification of
Identity Form DOJ-361 (don't worry, it's an easy one):

https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/u-s-department-of-justice-form-361-certification-of-identity.pdf/view

And you'll need to send it to your local FBI field office, mine is the
LA one:

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Los Angeles Field Office
11000 Wilshire Boulevard
Suite 1700
Los Angeles, CA 90024

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👓 No one should be on the No-Fly List

It's been a minute, and the past four years really raised the bar on
presidential evil, but here's a thing you should remeber: George W Bush
was a fucking terrible president and everything he did was terrible.

The War on Terror - the latest addition to America's pantheon of Forever
Wars - leveraged a national trauma to strip away human rights and
incinerate official accountability.

Though this was described as a tool for punishing "terrorists," the
toolkit it handed to every law enforcement officer, from G-Men to school
cops, was given a real workout.

The war on terror turned everyone with a badge into a puny martinet,
able to violate the rights of marginalized and disfavored people without
fear of any consequences, reversing decades of hard-won progress on
civil and human rights.

The punishment the war on terror has meted out to women, LGBTQ+ people,
BIPOC people, political progressives, racialized people, Black people,
Muslim people, and anyone who looked crosseyed at a mall cop is
limitless and endless.

GWB did some really awful shit, like creating offshore torture sites
(not just Gitmo, a web of them, around the world), and starting a bogus
war that has raged so long that there are adults fighting it today who
weren't born when it began.

In the grand scheme of things, the No-Fly List isn't even in the top ten
of garbage things for which we should forever curse GWB but it is still
an utter piece of shit, an idiotic policy enforced by idiots to no good
purpose at the cost of enormous human suffering.

The Identity Project, and its Papers, Please! website, have been
documenting the No-Fly List's incoherent cruelty since its inception.
Today, they posted an extensive article explaining how the list (really
many lists) works.

https://papersplease.org/wp/2021/01/19/put-them-on-the-no-fly-list/

There's this thing that happens when you study corruption: you start
with this complex, difficult system, and someone who understands it
begins to explain it, and as they hold up each piece and say what it
does and what it's called, you have a revelation:

Ohhhh, it's just *bullshit*.

I mean, go read up on how mortgage-backed securities work, or pharmacy
benefits managers, or special purpose acquisition compaies, or cash
bail. Really lean into it, pay attention. You'll get there.

The reason it doesn't make sense to lay people isn't that it's
complicated. It doesn't make sense because it's fucking *nonsense*. The
complexity is there to delay this realization.

That's the no-fly list. It's bullshit.

The Qanon-addled white-nationalist cult members who stormed the capitol
last week shouldn't be on the no-fly list because there shouldn't be a
no-fly list.

And if that's not good enough for you, try this one on: they shouldn't
be on the no-fly list because if we lower the already rock-bottom
standards for inclusion on that list, they're coming for the people you
love next.

G-men and campus cops and TSA gropeaholics and thrice bailed out
aviation monopolists and small town cops flush with civil forfeiture
cash won't hesitate for an *instant* before putting the Wall of Moms and
your whole middle school gay-straight alliance on the list.

Forever.

If there's one thing we should all have learned from the four year
nightmare we've just barely survived, it's that being stampeded into
taking away rights from people you don't like is an utter monkey's paw,
and when the fingers curl, they're coming for you.

We need to do something about the violent, deranged cult that spent the
summer showing up in battle-rattle to terrorize state lawmakers,
culminating in the Jan 6 riot. We need a COUP Act to investigate the
links between cops and Nazis.

https://twitter.com/actdottv/status/1351291227530924032

But what we positively do *not* need is to expand the power of the
institutions that we have good reason to suspect are shot through with
unhinged white nationalists so they have even more control over who can
exercise the basic human right of going from one place to another.

Always remember: the No-Fly List is composed of people we're sure are
too dangerous to be allowed on a plane - but who, inexplicably, we don't
have enough evidence against to convict of any crime. In other words,
it's an evidence-free witch-ducking stool in the cloud(s).

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👓 This day in history

#15yrsago Seed Magazine launches science blog-network
https://web.archive.org/web/20060118032259/http://scienceblogs.com/

#15yrsago David Byrne: boycott DRM
https://web.archive.org/web/20060117084842/http://journal.davidbyrne.com/

#15yrsago PRO-USER ZEALOT bumper-stickers
https://web.archive.org/web/20120630102941/http://www.cafepress.com/bradblog.44980744

#15yrsago Nonprofit alternative to CDDB gets its first deal
https://web.archive.org/web/20060128114433/http://blog.musicbrainz.org/archives/2006/01/introducing_lin_1.html

#10yrsago Best mafiosi nicknames from today’s historic bust
https://web.archive.org/web/20110123161235/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/01/the_20_best_nic.php

#10yrsago Safe-cracking robot autodials combinations to brute-force a
high-security safe
https://web.archive.org/web/20110511153125/https://www.kvogt.com/autodialer/

#5yrsago Very sad news about science fiction titan David G Hartwell
https://memex.craphound.com/2016/01/20/very-sad-news-about-science-fiction-titan-david-g-hartwell/

#5yrsago Her Universe will start publishing science fiction novels
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/business/media/a-publisher-for-fangirls-by-fangirls.html

#1yrago Company that pampers rich people at Burning Man won’t give up
https://memex.craphound.com/2016/01/20/company-that-pampers-rich-people-at-burning-man-wont-give-up/

#1yrago Frontier, a terrible company, is going bankrupt
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/frontier-an-isp-in-29-states-plans-to-file-for-bankruptcy/

#1yrago Bestiality was not socially acceptable in medieval Europe
https://going-medieval.com/2020/01/20/no-bestiality-was-never-ok-you-absolute-rabid-weirdo/

#1yrago Facial recognition isn’t just bad because it invades privacy:
it’s because privacy invasions fuel discrimination
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/opinion/facial-recognition-ban-privacy.html

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👓 Colophon

Today's top sources: Interesting People
(https://seclists.org/interesting-people/).

Currently writing:

* My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and
reconciliation. Yesterday's progress: 510 words (101044 total).

* A short story, "Jeffty is Five," for The Last Dangerous Visions.
Yesterday's progress: 260 words (260 total).

Currently reading: Analogia by George Dyson.

Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 27)
https://craphound.com/news/2021/01/11/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-27/

Upcoming appearances:

* Keynote for linux.conf.au, Jan 22 (US) 23 (Australia)
https://linux.conf.au/schedule/

* Evening with William Gibson, Jan 25,
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/william-gibson-cory-doctorow-agency-tickets-132831910821

* Boskone, 58, Feb 12-15, https://boskone.org/

* Keynote, NISO Plus, Feb 22-25,
https://niso.plus/cory-doctorow-to-keynote-at-niso-plus-2021/

Recent appearances:

* Monocle Reads
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/meet-the-writers/monocle-reads-87/play/

* Hedging Bets on the Future (Motherboard Cyber):
https://play.acast.com/s/cyber/hedgingbetsonthefuturewithauthorcorydoctorow

* Applying the Pandemic Mindset to Climate Change:
https://hbr.org/podcast/2020/12/applying-the-pandemic-mindset-to-climate-change-with-cory-doctorow

Latest book:

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone
technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political
cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution
and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
solution.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially,
provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link
to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are
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basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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"*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion
Guy" DeVilla


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