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Gary McKinnon Loses Extradition Appeal
G0rAk writes "The BBC is reporting that hacker Gary McKinnon has lost his High Court appeal against extradition to the United States. The fight is not yet over yet: 'We will certainly be applying for this court to certify a point of law of public importance and to grant leave.' said his lawyer, referring to alleged threats by US authorities. One New Jersey prosecutor apparently has stated that that 'he would fry,' a statement that would be among issues raised when they take they appeal to the House of Lords."
This fight is not yet over yet! We represent the Department of Justice Department!
Limina.Log
In the UK the CPS decided there wasn't enough evidence to bother pushing for a trial and prior to that he'd been warned he could get community service (help in charity shops, that sort of thing) but then the US manages to extradite him using an agreement they refuse to ratify and with threats of the electric chair being thrown at him (and not in a Balmer sort of way) before the trial even begins. Ye Gods.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Who is Gary McKinnon?
Someone who has a very high opinion of himself. Some might say he has an overactive ego. Regardless, he did some naughty things and much to his surprise, his kiddy skillz weren't enough to keep him out of trouble. He's been whining ever since.
Yeah, I think that might cover it.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
As you could tell if you read the article.
now iam not so sure,
while watching the Guantanamo debacle continue alongside CIA secret prisons and torture openly embraced by the country that seeks to convict Mr Mckinnon i would be worried about my Human Rights too, is such a thing as a "fair trial" even possible in USA anymore ?
Yeah, I can see why Brits would be upset. This would set a very nasty precedent. I didn't realize that even after all the lies about Iraq, etc, that we are *still* far enough into the U.K. that they'd bend over like this.
There is a war going on for your mind.
... who thinks this is actually a disgrace?
AFAIK, Gary McKinnon is a british citizen (check Wikipedia for this). Why does the UK allow one of its citizen to be extradited to the USA? Why is he not judged and sentenced in the UK?
Does anyone think, for just a millisecond, that the USA would do the same? Extradite one of its own citizen to be tried in the UK?
Where on earth is the outrage? How come a sovereign country, like the UK, is extraditing one of its own citizen -- regardless of his crimes -- to another country to be tried there? This is ridiculous! Can anyone answer that question?
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
European countries (well, their governments) are ubelievably hypocritic in this regard. I think it's just because, time after time, they buckle to USA pressure. Not all that long ago, a EU-citizen was extradited to the USA, facing a possible deathsentence (acording to US laws). It is clearly stated, in many national laws, but also as an European law, that NO EU-citizens may be extradited to countruies which implement the death-sentence. Luckily, there are only a hanful of barbaric states left who do such a thing, such as china and N.-Korea, etc. Even fewer countries which claim to be democratic still practise it, such as...the USA.
But, what did they do? The govenments made a deal, where the USA 'promised' they wouldn't actually deal out the capital punishment to that citizen. That was *before* any sentence on guilt or lack thereof was made. Actually, this should anger americans as much, because this means their government arbitrarily decided to NOT treat a person who (alledgely) commited crimes on USA soil according to their own law, and that that EU-person got an illegal advantage which no ordinary US citizen gets.
For me, however, the anger comes at the fact they *did* extradite him to the USA, clearly in violation of the rules and laws of that country and the EU. If the USA wanted him so badly, they could abolish the death penalty. speaking of which, if I'm not mistaken, some more progressive non-bible-belt states in the USA already have forbidden such practises, as any civilised society would do. Or does it ultimately remain a federal decision? Maybe some US slashdotters can fill me in on this.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Don't try to gain unauthorized access into the freaking Department of Defense network, and then basically admit to it.
For a smart guy, he's rather stupid.
"Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
From TFA
...has always maintained that he was motivated by curiosity and that he only managed to get into the networks because of lax security.
So by that rationale, if I can kick in your front door to get into your house, is it your fault for not having a better door lock/frame?
maintained that he was motivated by curiosity .I wonder how easy it is to get into...(insert anything here).
Hmmm...
B.S. The guy is a hacker who purposely broke into a system he was not supposed to be in. He knew it. He knew it was improper and illegal.
It's no different that getting into bank accounts, credit card accounts, school records, etc.
If you excuse him, then no one can bitch and moan about hackers and vulnerabilities in Windows, OS X, Linux, or anything else.
If we are serious about computer security and viruses, and everything else, this guy must go to trial and probably go to jail.
l.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
He is both incompetant and a bit crazy (he was looking for UFO evidence...) Why go to all this trouble to lock him up?
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
This guy has clearly committed a crime, and I certainly think that there ought to be some repercussions regarding that. Nonetheless, I can't help but feel that he's being treated very unfairly. The guy is crazy, as evidenced by the fact that he was actually cracking the machines to look for complete conspiracy theory stuff; he wanted to find information about UFOs, anti-gravity technology and "free energy". In addition, he cracked the machines using a simple perl script to find machines with blank or default passwords, which demonstrates that he's not some elite danger-to-society hacker genius.
I think it's awfully sad that this guy is going to be shipped off to a foreign prison for 45 years, for what honestly seems to be a matter of US pride.
This is no surprise really. Sadly, Britain has become another state of the US and a bitch that bends over at every available opportunity when the US government asks, and people like Blair and John Reid have been happy to go along with it. The favours are not returned, needless to say (witness the current Iran hostage problem).
The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) have even stated that there is insufficient evidence to go ahead with a prosecution, but as soon as the US steps in (using some very murky agreement related to terrorism the last I looked) the seas (or should I say, the legs) part. If there are grounds for deportation then fine, but sadly, if this guy had sneezed he would have been on the next plane if the US asked.
As a British person I find all this humiliating to see, and quite frankly, treacherous now. I'm not having a go at the US or Americans here. This is a British problem, and one related to standing up for itself, self respect and knowing what its own self interests are. The US are merely looking out for theirs.
Yes, he's guilty. No, busting him won't solve the larger problem. American prosecutors seek to deter criminals by coming down hard on a test case, but the biggest threat to them is probably foreign espionage. American hackers are more interested in Second Life and World of Warcraft accounts than busting into their government's networks.
technical writing / development
"I found a list of officers' names," he claims, "under the heading 'Non-Terrestrial Officers'."
"Non-Terrestrial Officers?" I say.
"Yeah, I looked it up," says Gary, "and it's nowhere. It doesn't mean little green men. What I think it means is not earth-based. I found a list of 'fleet-to-fleet transfers', and a list of ship names. I looked them up. They weren't US navy ships. What I saw made me believe they have some kind of spaceship, off-planet."
"The Americans have a secret spaceship?" I ask.
"That's what this trickle of evidence has led me to believe."
"Some kind of other Mir that nobody knows about?"
"I guess so," says Gary.
"What were the ship names?"
"I can't remember," says Gary. "I was smoking a lot of dope at the time. Not good for the intellect."
I've been watching this story for some time now. As an American living in Europe, and as a forensic psychiatrist, I really feel sorry for this guy. I know how they treat prisoners at home as I've worked with them, and I know how they treat them over here as I work with them now. If he gets shipped over to the States, he will have his human rights violated. Being a high-profile prisoner, they'll never let him serve any part of his prison term in the UK and his family will never be able to visit him. Basically, he'll never see the light of day again. With all the threats made against Gary, especially what this idiot in New Jersey said, and with all of his supporters, I don't see why he hasn't won his fight against extradition. It must have to do with politics. America has to be putting significant pressure on the British government to make this one go their way. We, unfortunately, would never see these reasons reported in any newspaper thus we can only speculate.
He's never said that he didn't do what he's accused of, and he's always said that he only did it out of curiosity. He didn't even steal anything, let alone national secrets. It's really a shame that he didn't pick a target somewhere within Europe to satisfy his curiosity. They would have been a little more lenient and his subsequent time in prison could actually be bearable. After all, why should he go to prison? He's already very sorry that he did such a thing, he's beginning to fall ill because of the immense stress and feeling of impending doom of getting extradited, and prison is not only about punishment, it's about rehabilitation.
Who is going to jail for the Sony rootkit/trojan incident?
Or is it one rule for Sony (remember their rootkit thing) and one rule for wacko people looking for UFOs?
An hour long audio interview of Gary McKinnon (2006) is here: http://www.binnallofamerica.com/boaa6.24.6.html
Shhh! Don't let the Brits know about our secret off-planet spa......&(^^^)&&&&&&&*HG*&^(^*&^*&TT^%$$*
Look into this light:
|===(*)===|
Flash!
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Thanks,
MIB
My blog
From the blog:
About this blog
This blog website is intended to support British citizen Gary McKinnon, who is facing "fast track" extradition to the USA (after over three four years since his initial arrest !).
Gary was indicted by a US court in November 2002, accused of "hacking" into over 90 US Military computer systems from here in the UK.
The unjust treatment of British citizens (and others) when facing the might of the US Military "justice" sysem, which practices detention without trial in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, and stands accused of making use of torture by allied regimes ("extraordinary rendition") is an ongoing scandal. It cannot be excused even by a "war on terror".
It seems only just that Gary should face any charges in a British court, and to serve any sentence, if he is found guilty, in a British prison.
Wikipedia Entry: Wikipedia entry for McKinnon Synopsis: Gary McKinnon, also known as Solo, (born in Glasgow in 1966) is a British hacker accused by the United States of perpetrating the "biggest military computer hack of all time." Following legal hearings in the UK it was decided in July 2006 that he should be extradited to the United States. In February 2007 his lawyers argued against this ruling in an appeal to the High Court in London [1], which was turned down on April 3 [2].
Interview (Saturday July 9, 2005)
From what I just read, he just looks like a typical nerd who is good at hacking systems.
I think that once again, the judge didn't realize how this represents a violation of human rights and the plaintiffs should bring more proofs of their accusations before to proceed, I am no pro-terrorist, but it is not because you are the army that you should have the right to bring people outside of civil courts (remember Guantanamo Bay and people who were falsely accused, remember the so-called WMD that we never found), unless you have real reasons to conclude that he is a threat and did sell/use information he collected.
It is much more of an infamy to use such reasons to bring him outside of a civil court using the deaths of the 9/11 than to let him go.
Though, I would be totally fine with a prison sentence
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
I'm not terribly familiar with the case, but from what I've read the guy just looked around and caused no damage. The US motivation for wanting to lock him up then probably has to do with what he's seen (after all, he was looking at highly classified documents), so there might be something to the secret spaceship theory after all...
Personally, I'm convinced that he was snared by a "honeypot" operation, which would explain the lax security and the "stuff" he uncovered. Assuming that wasn't all down to the pot.
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Seriously, would the UK bend over like this if the People's Republic of China or Singapore asked them to? Maybe it's really the 51th state after all.
That's the OP's fervent opinion, and he proves it to his complete satisfaction by heartfelt repetition. Works for him, I guess, but it's not persuasive outside of the choirbox.
--
phunctor
advocating for better rhetoric since 1967
Wikipedia says The US estimates claim the costs of tracking and correcting the problems he allegedly caused were around 700,000 USD. It then goes on to say that he hacked the government websites with a Perl script, and found default passwords on their "secure" network. Good think McKinnon found them before China did. (Or did he?)
Maybe they should treat him as a $700K security consultant.
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
IF he didn't pilfer and sell any secrets (a big IF, i'm not that familiar with his case), then the US should just hire him. If he pilfered and tried to resell secrets, then let him rot in jail. But otherwise, he's kind of like that Abagnale guy from "Catch me if you Can," the check forger: why let him rot in prison, when his hacks have proven to be useful in hardeing your security? Employ the dude. Put his skillset to useful work.
Look at it this way Mr. Pentagon bureacrat: would you rather this British dork hack your computers pointlessly? Or a real enemy of the United States? He's already helped you, he has further value to you.
As a US citizen, I thank the guy for helping to harden my country's military information infrastructure, even though my government is too myopic to admit that this guy has helped us in a roundabout way, and has further value, if it can get over it's idiotic approach to computer security.
Cripes, we're talking about the MILITARY: moles, spies, double crosses, the whole sorry history of military information is full of this sort of thing. And as any aficionado of military history will tell you, many times has crucial battles been won by using to your advantage people or things that on the surface appear detrimental, but can be coopted to serve for you.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Yes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Misuse_Act_1 990
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Inversely, you can always tell people who read alot, but don't consult the dictionary for pronounciation much. They occasionally mis-pronounce words that they may have read a hundred times - words like "eviscerate" and "apostle". Just an observation - not a criticism.
...was your idea of torture then you obviously have no idea what the word means. What happens to US soldiers, where they are beaten, beheaded, dragged around, and tied to a bridge.... that is more along the lines of what that word really means.
Thanks for playing, too bad there's not a -1 Naive Liberal.
Looks like we do it all the time, and to many different countries. Next please.
+8 Fuckwit!
America doesn't have to have it as much as they have to let you think they could have it.
Peoples imagination about things that are somewhat plausible make great covers for things that are real.
The news that Gary McKinnon lost his appeal is newsworthy and Slashdot-worthy. The "Gary McKinnon" link should have been to some place like Wikipedia, though, that has at least a policy of neutrality, and not to the "Free Gary McKinnon" web site, which has zero neutrality.
Does anyone think, for just a millisecond, that the USA would do the same? Extradite one of its own citizen to be tried in the UK?
You mean like this US citizen, who was extradited to South Korea to answer murder charges, where they have the death penalty? http://seoul.usembassy.gov/december_24_2002.html
That took 5 seconds of googling to find, FYI.
How come a sovereign country, like the UK, is extraditing one of its own citizen -- regardless of his crimes -- to another country to be tried there?
It is not regardless of his crimes but because of them, and extraditing people for committing crimes not on foreign soil has been done for centuries. Otherwise, we'd end up with people committing crimes and then hopping the next plane back to their home country.
If you're going to hop on a plane and travel elsewhere, it is your personal responsibility to make sure you adhere to local laws (just like as a citizen who lives in MA, if I go to NJ, I have to abide by NJ laws- and if I break a NJ law, NJ has the right to request I be extradited to appear in NJ to answer criminal charges- or arrest me if they find me on NJ soil.) Most governments prepare guides to visiting a particular country, with regards to respecting customs/manners, any safety concerns- but also things to watch out for that could get you into a lot of trouble.
Similarly, if you're going to go hacking into government computers as a foreign country with which your home country has friendly diplomatic relations, you should not be in the least bit surprised if you find your ass on a plane in handcuffs to appear in your own defense at a criminal trial.
I also find it really hysterical to hear a UK citizen get uptight about one's rights, considering you're the most "surveilled" people in the world...
Please help metamoderate.
He committed a crime period. If he didn't want to face a penalty of the crime then shouldn't have committed it! It's plain and simple. It's why the cliche "Do the crime, do the time" exists. It has nothing to do with Britain being "America's bitch" or anything else. The man was a complete F'in moron for breaking into a any government's system in the first place. I'm 110% sure, he *thought* he was a 31337 H4x0r. Now he has his *31337* ass in trouble and I have no pity on him. The crime was stupid and I have ZERO pity for stupidity. If you're ignorant I suggest you educate yourself, if your stupid... Well, jail and Bubba are waiting on you!
How about this scenario? I show up at your house while you're at work. You're locks aren't strong enough to keep me out. Your windows aren't bullet proof. Your walls aren't made out of titanium. Now, since I'm well equipped for this sort of thing - complete set of lock picks, bricks for smashing widows, and a saws all to just cut holes in the walls, I'll just break into your house, go poking around "because I'm curious" and "your security is lax". Now imagine for a moment you come home to find the mess that I've made of your domicile? Are you going to be happy? What about the time and expense it takes to clean all that up and repair your house?
I think his punishment should be working until he's paid back every penny of the expense of cleaning up his little intrusions. If it were in my hands, he'd be making restitution and not serving time in the traditional sense.
2 cents,
QueenB
HDGary secures my bank
How come a sovereign country, like the UK, is extraditing one of its own citizen -- regardless of his crimes -- to another country to be tried there?
Because there's a treaty?
Best Slashdot Co
Then even if found guilty, the penalty will be small, and there's a decent legal defence of double jeapordy to prevent a second punishment in the US.
There's not just one secret spaceship! There are 3 now...Daedalus, Odyssey, and Apollo. Prometheus was blown up. Don't forget, they *did* mention fleet. ;)
Esp. considering how little media attention it gets.
;) Anyway, they (government) couldn't pull that shit off here. You might make fun of our propension to demonstrations and strikes, but that's how we keep the man in check.
I wonder if the guy can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, I hope they would cancel this scandalous extradition considering the terrible track record of the US justice system.
Note that before this case I believed that no country extradited its own citizens, because that's how it is here in France. Might have to do with brits being subjects, not citizens, I guess
"Okay, you just bought yourself a 317: Pointing out police stupidity." - Chief Wiggum
America will throw the book at McKinnon because they are embarassed of their lax security practises on such high profile systems. They will make an example of McKinnon because he used little more than a brute force 2-line PERL script to bombard many desktops with obvious passwords (e.g., "password" or "" [blank]).
America is even more ashamed of this security breach because the many same systems were infiltrated by Mathew Bevan using the exact same tactics over 10 years prior. That's right - these government and military and NASA computers have had no password policy after 10 years and 2 break-ins. Adding the number 1 to the end of these passwords would have stopped McKinnon dead in his tracks.
McKinnon is not a sophisticated programmer or cracker. He simply challenged seemingly high security systems with very low-tech kludgey scripts to see what would happen. He got lucky, then he got audacious, and then he got careless.
Get ready for another Mitnick-scale high profile court case on this one. McKinnon won't fry, but he won't see the sun for quite some time.
The full judgment is at http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2007/762 .html
So why is it a crime?
Because your wife is wearing clothes that show her ankles, should she be deported to Afghanistan for trial?
barbaric /brbærk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[bahr-bar-ik]
-adjective
1. without civilizing influences; uncivilized; primitive: barbaric invaders.
2. of, like, or befitting barbarians: a barbaric empire; barbaric practices.
3. Marked by crudeness or lack of restraint in taste, style, or manner.
Ofcourse, you are right that this 'proves' nothing, unless one is of the opinion, that killing another human being while one has the equal option of not killing him, while it's impossibly to prevent that innocent lives will be killed as well, is basically an action of state-sponsored revenge, and thus it's an action which exhibits a primitive influence, as well as marked by crudeness.
You, however, can be of the opinion that the government sponsored killings of humans is an act of civilisation. Feel free to do so.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
FYI, the DoD has no classified information connected to the Internet. They have a completely separate network called the SIPRNET for that. It's possible that some classified information was mishandled, but I doubt that's what he saw. The US wants to lock him up because he embarrassed them publicly by disclosing how weak the security is on the non-classified side.
That's pre 7-11 thinking....
'The Americans have a secret spaceship? I ask'
'I guess so," says Gary'
'What were the ship names'
'I can't remember, says Gary'
'I was smoking a lot of dope at the time. Not good for the intellect'
They should let him light up a spliff in the dock, that way his memory should return.
davecb5620@gmail.com
The US tortures people. That alone should be enough reason not to extradite anybody there.
There is a spellbook here; eat it? [ynq]
The US wants to lock him up because he COMMITTED CRIMES. This should be fairly obvious, I would think, given even a cursory glance at the history of crime and punishment, or even maybe looking up the word "crime" in the dictionary, but evidently that's well beyond the expendable effort of most slashdotters.
Surely there is more to that story?!?! Any right minded individual/country would just say f*ck you. We can deal with semantics all day long but if this is indeed true and the UK doesn't stand their ground on this then I believe the world bears part of the blame for the American government's elitist attitude. They are so used to countries bowing under pressure, they don't care. I'm an American but am asking the world governments to grow a pair and stand up for a change.
I know it seems much more complicated than that but it isn't. Problem is I guess, most other countries are too busy worrying about their agenda they don't bother.
Thoughts?
...But I think the guy should be extradited to the US to stand trial. Why? Becuase he knew what he was doing was illegal (not only according to US law, but UK law as well), he did it anyway, and then hid behind the whole "it was just my curiosity" faux-argument. Of course, I believe that any crime committed should warrant extradition, because that's just the right thing to do. I also believe that you should be judged on the laws of the land where the event took place, not on laws in your own homeland. What this means is that if you're going to do something that's legal where you live, but not legal in come other place, you make damn sure that all the pieces line up squarely in the land of legality: if I perform some act in, say, Thailand, that is perfectly legal there I should not face prosecution at home (in the USA) because that same act may be illegal. In essence: obey the law of the land of the country in which you are in or are acting. He acted "in" the USA, against US servers and security (which was pretty lame, I'll admit); and thus he should be extradited and pay the price of what the US courts allow. Now, mind you, what he did shouldn't warrant a 45 year time in the pokey...that's just crazy. Let's save that kind of sentence for the violent offenders among us.
It would be as if you were driving in your car, using a laptop to hack into the department of defense, and then the UK extradited you to the US for committing a crime against the federal government.
no, no military here. your points are well taken. military as the movie "office space"
;-)
thanks for the education
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Especially those who damage DOD computers.
His defense has been raising the Guantanamo bogeyman for too long. This is a regular criminal case, not a terrorism one, and the government has said it will prosecute it as such. It's time to lay off the fake, strawman Guantanamo angle and realize that he is simply another criminal suspect who should be extradited to stand trial.
The government's high-security systems are not accessible from the public Internet. They are collections of government networks securely linked together to form completely separate mini-Internets. Computers joined to these networks are a bit more strictly controlled.
through embarrassment!
While I believe in the rule of law, I also believe in applying that law with understanding and compassion so that the punishment is appropriate. For too long, our justice system has been used to make "points" rather than to actually dispense justice, especially when someone powerful (or some powerful organization) is caught with its hands in the stupidity jar
If Gary is going to have the book thrown at him, then everyone who had authority over the security policies for the network should also be subject to the same scrutiny by the public with appropriate punishment also applied to each one of them.
If we are going to live by the rule of law, then its damned time we started walking the walk
Coldmoon over Dark water...
The U.S. government has a history of overzealous prosecution in hacker cases, particularly ones in which the hacker exposes incompetence within the government. Why should a UK citizen be subject to U.S. capriciousness in this regard, especially considering that he didn't commit the "crime" on U.S. soil?
Worse, the U.S. apparently cares far more about punishment than rehabilitation, particularly in cases like this, where I presume they feel that since they're not competent to protect their own systems, they have to scare off those with the ability to compromise them. So McKinnon, having done no real damage (despite the bogus claim of $700K) is going to have to pay for the U.S. government's incompetence and vindictiveness.
For the record, I live in the U.S. and I'm speaking from first-hand experience.
Who is he, and why should I care?
This was actually my thought too; they were probably trying to find terrorist hackers and idiot kiddy script runners using the network, but of course they won't say it was a honeypot operation because they're the US government. In any case, just being "curious" isn't an excuse to break into a computer, just because you could.
If the fucker did it, send him over, let him be tried and jailed.
The fucker.
So, by that rationale, if I drive a car into your bay window and up your stairs to see if you've got that new album by Phunk Me in your room, it is your fault that you didn't have concrete instead of glass, and that the steps damaged my suspension?
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
He's not the only one who should have his nads in a vise about now for bad judgment. Several other parties were actively involved in setting it up so he could get in:
He was able to get into the government computers because someone else saw fit to deploy unsound technology proven to be unfit for a networked environment. The individuals involved in making the decision to roll MS Windows into the production environment there functionally enabled McKinnon and others to get in and root around, need to be sharing his cell.
Let's not pretend that there was only one crime committed.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
In such cases, "probable cause" is interpreted in practice as "proof". The only way to get proof is the trial. I suppose they could be tried in their absence, but that wouldn't count either because that would also be unconstitutional (right to face their accuser).
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Also note that you can become one of these detainees, and have your constitutional rights as a citizen thrown out the door without anything more than an unsubstantiated accusation of terrorism.
There are no checks and balances left in place to stop blatant abuse of this situation so that anyone can be at risk, and I suspect that you'd hear a lot more about this if there weren't "gag orders" and such to keep people quiet.
With these kinds of things going on, just how far from a police state do you think we are? The current administration is trampling under foot the Constitution of the United States and people are happily pacified by their televisions and video consoles.