If Russell gets on the plane...

[KBCraig]

If Russell gets on the plane, will he have a cell phone?

http://news.com.com/FBI+warns+of+cell+phones+aloft/2100-1039-5726850.html?part=dtx&tag=ntop&tag=nl.e703

FBI warns of cell phones aloft

By Declan McCullagh
Story last modified Tue May 31 16:19:00 PDT 2005

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are objecting to a proposal to permit the use of cellular telephones and other wireless devices on airplanes.

Unless telecommunications providers follow a lengthy list of eavesdropping requirements for calls made aloft, the FBI and Homeland Security don't want cellular or wireless connections to be permitted.

In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission sent last Thursday, the police agencies said any rule permitting "in-flight personal wireless telephone use must consider public safety and national security" concerns.

A consensus is building to relax rules that since 1991 have banned mobile phone use on U.S. commercial flights.

At the moment, technical and social reasons keep cell phones muted during flight: Few passengers relish the prospect of sharing a row of seats with a yappy fellow traveler. Also, concerns about overwhelmed cellular towers and interference with avionics systems have resulted in the current prohibitions.

The FCC is considering proposals to relax those restrictions. One possibility, for instance, would be to permit "pico cells" inside a commercial airliner that would create a cabin-wide hot spot for voice and Internet links.

The FBI and Homeland Security say that the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, requires that airlines follow strict wiretapping guidelines. The police agencies, for instance, want to be able to eavesdrop on conversations no "more than 10 minutes" after the call is made.

"There is a short window of opportunity in which action can be taken to thwart a suicidal terrorist hijacking or remedy other crisis situations onboard an aircraft, and law enforcement needs to maximize its ability to respond to these potentially lethal situations," the agencies say in their letter.

Other requirements the FBI and Homeland Security are requesting that the FCC mandate include: identifying the seat number of the passenger making the call, making sure police can "expeditiously interrupt" a conversation, cut off service to all passengers except government agents on a plane, and so on.

"That's not what Congress had in mind when they wrote the statute," said Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group in San Francisco.

Opsahl called the police agencies' request a "wish list" that extends far beyond what CALEA requires. "If the FBI succeeds in this context, what's to stop them from getting more wiretapping powers than they currently do in other contexts?"

"What's to stop them"? Indeed.

*shudder*

Kevin

[Russell Kanning]

Maybe someone else can do this one

[Lloyd Danforth]

Russell, Kat, and Kira have like 16 computers, no, TV, and, absolutely, no Cell Phones!

[Russell Kanning]

I had a cell phone when I was driving a truck and that was it.

[Kat Kanning]

We have a 12 inch TV, we just don't get any television on it.  We do watch movies.  And there are only 3 computers

Cell phones are eeeeevil!

[Lloyd Danforth]

OK, so, I exagerated a little.

[Dreepa]

TSA has my cell phone.  When they searched my bags in Chicago last Friday they never put it back in my bag.
They had to mail it too me.  I think it is home by now.

[Russell Kanning]

good times

[citizen_142002]

Hey Russell,
                 I've been doing some thinking about this event. If security tells you that you cannot board the flight, and they physically block you from doing so, then what will you do?

[Russell Kanning]

Probably go around them.

[Lloyd Danforth]

We have a 12 inch TV, we just don't get any television on it.? We do watch movies.? And there are only 3 computers

Cell phones are eeeeevil!

[Lloyd Danforth]

Probably go around them.

That will, probably, be construed as assault. Prison.

[Russell Kanning]

That might be the way it goes.

[John]

We have a 12 inch TV, we just don't get any television on it.? We do watch movies.? And there are only 3 computers

Cell phones are eeeeevil!

Kinda reminds me of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".
Sometimes you just got to kick the devil's ass.
And, some of us can!

[Kat Kanning]

See the sacrafices I made to help Mike!