Day: April 25, 2017

Finally, an explanation for why Laura Poitras was detained so many times at airports: Daily Bullshit, April 25, 2017

benfell

Updates

  1. April 25, 2:31 pm:
    • A judge has granted preliminary injunctions against Donald Trump’s order on sanctuary cities.[1] (Unauthorized migration)

Watch Lists

It appears Laura Poitras was detained over fifty times at airports because

Members of a U.S. Army National Guard unit from Oregon reported seeing a “white female” holding a camera on a rooftop just before they were attacked. David Roustum, 22, an Army National Guardsman from West Seneca, New York, was killed. Several troops were wounded. Some guardsmen who saw Poitras suspected she had a heads-up about the attack and didn’t share that information with American forces because she wanted to film it. If true, Poitras would have broken U.S. criminal law.[2]

This, of course, is the problem with this kind of system: There was apparently never a proper identification of that “white female,” but soldiers and the keepers of the watch lists just decided it was Poitras.

In Germany, [Poitras] was told her name lights up “like a Christmas tree” when security officials scan flight rosters. In Austria, she was told her threat score was “400 out of 400.”[3]

Poitras had to sue to find out what the fuck was going on and it wasn’t until she took action that the detentions ceased. Short of that, she had been presumed guilty and never even allowed the opportunity to prove her innocence. Which, in case you hadn’t noticed, is a reversal of the normal presumption that the accused is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Poitras called the allegation false and said she didn’t film the attack.

“There is no ambush footage,” Poitras told the AP. “That’s the narrative that they created, but it doesn’t correspond with any facts.”[4]

Deb Riechmann, “Filmmaker learns why she endured airport stops for years,” Associated Press, April 17, 2017, https://apnews.com/d69a8e6db867477795f4152d0511bbf9

Unauthorized migration

Paulina Firozi, “Federal judge blocks Trump’s sanctuary cities order,” Hill, April 25, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/330516-federal-judge-blocks-trumps-sanctuary-cities-order

  1. [1]Paulina Firozi, “Federal judge blocks Trump’s sanctuary cities order,” Hill, April 25, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/330516-federal-judge-blocks-trumps-sanctuary-cities-order↩
  2. [2]Deb Riechmann, “Filmmaker learns why she endured airport stops for years,” Associated Press, April 17, 2017, https://apnews.com/d69a8e6db867477795f4152d0511bbf9↩
  3. [3]Deb Riechmann, “Filmmaker learns why she endured airport stops for years,” Associated Press, April 17, 2017, https://apnews.com/d69a8e6db867477795f4152d0511bbf9↩
  4. [4]Deb Riechmann, “Filmmaker learns why she endured airport stops for years,” Associated Press, April 17, 2017, https://apnews.com/d69a8e6db867477795f4152d0511bbf9↩