Loss of Privacy

Want to blow away your competition at work? If you send a text message about it, you’re now a terrorist. That’s what happened to Saad Allami, turning his life upside down.

A casual text message to work colleagues encouraging them to ”blow away” the competition at a trade show allegedly plunged a Muslim man into a terrorism probe.

The Quebec man says he was arrested by provincial police while picking up his seven-year-old son at school. A team of police officers stormed into his home, telling his wife she was married to a terrorist. And his work colleagues were detained for hours at the U.S. border because of their connection to him.

On Jan. 21, 2011, Allami sent a text message to colleagues urging them to “blow away” the competition at a trade show in New York City.

Allami was arrested and detained for four hours while police searched his house and repeatedly told his wife that he was a terrorist.

The Moroccan native is seeking $100,000 from the Quebec provincial police force, one of its sergeants, and the provincial government. The six-figure sum is being sought for unlawful detention, unlawful arrest, loss of income and damage to his reputation.

Allami has been unable to obtain the necessary paperwork in order for him to continue working in his profession, leaving him with no choice but to take the Quebec provincial police force to court in order to restore his reputation and be able to find work again.

“Allami says he sent the text message in French and used the word ”exploser,” a term he claims is commonly used in finance to mean grow or succeed.”

His exact words were:

“Salem, je serai à New York le 25 janvier, on va exploser ACN, si vous avez des contacts référez-les moi”

This literally translates to:

Salem, I will be in New York on January 25h, we will explode ACN, if you have contacts refer them to me.

In all likelihood, Allami’s message was automatically screened by American intelligence agencies who have the ability to monitor cell phone usage within its borders. Allami sent the message to colleagues in New York City, where it was intercepted. It is unlikely that those who intercepted the message understand colloquial Quebecois French and over-reacted. The problem arises when none of his colleagues were arrested in the United States. They were only detained upon their arrival at the border going back to Canada.

In reality, anyone reading this literal translation would know that there is something not quite right with the translation and get someone qualified to help them ascertain what is going on. Instead, everyone decided it must be terrorism because some machine translation can’t be wrong.

There are several questions that remain unanswered. If there was really such a threat, why were his colleagues never arrested when they were in New York City and Allami, a Muslim, was the only one under immediate scrutiny? Why did they not dig deeper or get someone who understands colloquial Quebecois French? Why was Allami’s message intercepted and why was he under suspicion to begin with?

The greater problem to remember here is that Saad Allami was arrested not for the actions he took, but for a message he sent. His speech is what was considered dangerous.

The US is so concerned that criminals and terrorists are crossing the Canadian border into the United States that more security needs to be present along the 6400 km boundary. A draft report has been made by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency detailing what needs to be done.

The report proposes the use of “fencing and other barriers” on the 49th parallel to manage “trouble spots where passage of cross-border violators is difficult to control.”

But a spokesperson for U.S Customs and Border Protection said the government is not considering the fence option “at this time” and instead is looking at the environmental effects of putting more manpower, technology and infrastructure along the border.

Although the US CBP says they are not considering a fence, they are considering other types of security via new technologies. Hopefully, the US is seriously considering the environmental effects of blocking off wildlife migration when they create this “fence.”

The border service is also pondering options including a beefed-up technological presence through increased use of radar, sensors, cameras, drones and vehicle scanners. In addition, it might continue to improve or expand customs facilities at ports of entry.

It is curious to see that the US wants more security protocols when they have recently stated that they want to ease border controls to eliminate the delays goods, services, and people experience today.

Many new roads will have to be built as vast stretches of the border are covered in forests and are not easily accessible. Although unmanned aircraft current cover parts of the thickly covered border, the DHS feels that it isn’t adequate enough.

“The lack of roads or presence of unmaintained roads impedes efficient surveillance operations,” says the report. “Improving or expanding the roadway and trail networks could improve mobility, allowing agents to patrol more miles each day and shortening response times.”

There will be a series of meetings next month to discuss the issue as well as invitations to the public to make comments on the issue.

Several Canadians have complained to the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office in Toronto after being denied entry in the United States because of various mental illnesses that are kept in police databases and share with America. In particular, Lois Kamenitz, 65, of Toronto, was denied entry because she had once attempted to commit suicide.

Kamenitz says she was stopped at customs after showing her passport and asked to go to a secondary screening. There, a Customs and Border Protection officer told Kamenitz that he had information that police had attended her home in 2006.

“I was really perturbed,” Kamenitz says. “I couldn’t figure out what he meant. And then it dawned on me that he was referring to the 911 call my partner made when I attempted suicide.”

Kamenitz says she asked the officer how he had obtained her medical records.

“That was the only thing I could think of,” she says. “But he said, no, he didn’t have my medical records but he did have a contact note from the police that [they] had attended my home.”

Stanley Stylianos, program manager at the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office, says his organization has heard more than a dozen stories similar to Kamenitz’s.

This is where blanket information sharing fails. Kamenitz and others aren’t a threat to the United States, yet, another arrested in Canada is in a database that is shared with America. The fact that people who are merely arrested are being denied entry to the United States is shameful. Being arrested does not mean you are guilty of any crime, but, now, you can be kept from traveling simply for being suspected of a crime.

According to diplomatic cables released earlier this year by WikiLeaks, any information entered into the national Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database is accessible to American authorities.

Local police officers take notes whenever they apprehend an individual or respond to a 911 call, and some of this information is then entered into the CPIC database, says Stylianos. He says that occasionally this can include non-violent mental health incidents in which police are involved.

In Kamenitz’s case, she has had counseling and no longer wants to commit suicide. She, too, is no threat, but is being treated like a criminal solely because she wanted to visit America. Kamenitz maintains that the police were at her house for a medical emergency and her information, therefore, should never have been placed into the Canadian criminal database.

Kamenitz was eventually allowed to board a plane to Los Angeles, four days after missing her initial flight. But in order to do so, she had to submit her medical records to the U.S. and get clearance from a Homeland Security-approved doctor in Toronto, who charged her $250 for the service.

Benson says the response from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers in Kamenitz’s case was fairly typical. “Now that the note from her doctor is on her records,” he says, “I wouldn’t expect her to have any more problems.”

Included in the Homeland Security forms Kamenitz was required to fill out were questions about whether she had a history of substance abuse and whether she had diseases, such as AIDS or tuberculosis.

It is absolutely disgusting that Kamenitz had to do any of this to enter the United States. Medical records are supposed to be private all the time and now her private, personal information is located in a US database where she has no control over how it will be used in the future.

Personal medical information should remain private and out of police databases. There is no need for any foreign government to ever have such information on file. The failure of the Canadian government to protect its citizens is a disgrace to all Canadians who simply wish to travel internationally for a vacation.

More at the Bank of Canada.

via cnet.