On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 09:29:17AM +0100, Daniel Pocock wrote: > Looking at the laptop ban[1], it appears to target airlines rather than > individuals and it could impact people going to DebConf this year. > Some of the airports on the list (Dubai, Abu Dhabi) are transit points > for many people from Asia going to the US and Canada or from Australia > going to Europe. > In fact, looking at the cheapest flights on Kayak.com from Mumbai to > Montreal, they go via one of the affected airports, Ataturk Airport, > Istanbul, Turkey although not all of the itineraries propose a stop in > the US. > Can anybody make suggestions about how to minimize the impact on DebConf > and DebConf visitors? For example, could there be a computer lab or > other facility where people can work without a laptop, maybe booting > from their USB stick or using remote desktops? How could these things > be facilitated in a security conscious manner? > These security hassles can change from time to time and at short notice > too. I suspect that each time one of Trump's bans is overturned by the > courts he will bring in some new rule like this to ensure he appears to > be "doing" something and to keep attention on his newest antics rather > than the court cases. There has been no indication that this is in any way driven by the Trump administration. The Trump administration has a genuinely racist agenda to keep people from certain parts of the world out of the US; inconveniencing business travelers who have laptops and money is not consistent with that agenda. This rule has all the hallmarks of a DHS/TSA-driven rule responding to information shared between the intelligence agencies of the US and its allies. The erosion of civil liberties with respect to air travel is frustrating, but please don't conflate targeted - if opaque and inexplicable - air safety measures, with political posturing and immigration policy. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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