A
aaronh
Guest
What is the name of your state? Military base overseas.
I am a US Citizen and civilian employee of a US government contracting company. I am working overseas at a US Military installation. I live on the same installation in housing provided by the US government. Recently, the commanding officer, a two star Army General, of the unit that holds our contract has issued a General Order that implemented a search of our personal property every time we leave the post. This has been done under the auspices of “Operational Security”. The goal of the searches is to find any unauthorized classified information that may be intentionally or accidentally leaving the base. This rule applies not only to personnel that actually work in sensitive areas of the base, but also to their spouses, children, guests and anyone else who works for or is visiting someone that works for the Generals unit.
On top of the physical bag search that occurs a few hours before you leave, we also have to turn in all electronic devices, storage media, digital cameras, CDs, DVDs, and anything else that can hold data to the local “Network Help Desk” 72 hours before we leave so that it can be scanned for the previously mentioned classified or sensitive information. You have to provide them with all of the passwords to all of the software installed and any accessories that they would need to operate the devices.
Here is the question: Does a military commander have the authority to force me, a civilian, to turn in my property for 72 hours, thus depriving me of my property, when there is no probable cause or any specific reason to believe that my personal electronic devices will have sensitive government information on them. These devices were never used in a secure area nor is there a belief that they were used in a secure area. Also, the people that are conducting the searches are not Military Police or government law enforcement of any sort. They are the network support staff. The same people you would call in any organization when a printer doesn’t work or your computer acts funny. They have had no specific training and have no understanding of the responsibility associated with viewing other people’s private information. We have to turn in our passwords to every application. This exposes our tax and financial information in programs like Quicken. All of our digital photos are viewed by them.
Several items have been lost or broken during these inspections. That is whole other rant that I don’t need to continue here. The fact that the overall execution of these searches is a joke at best does not lessen that fact that they seem to amount unreasonable search and seizure of my property.
I welcome any comments and suggestions. I will provide more information as questions are asked. I am avoiding too many specifics to avoid actually compromising our operational security. I have had a security clearance for more than a decade. Dealing with reasonable searches has always been okay. This just goes too far.
Aaron
I am a US Citizen and civilian employee of a US government contracting company. I am working overseas at a US Military installation. I live on the same installation in housing provided by the US government. Recently, the commanding officer, a two star Army General, of the unit that holds our contract has issued a General Order that implemented a search of our personal property every time we leave the post. This has been done under the auspices of “Operational Security”. The goal of the searches is to find any unauthorized classified information that may be intentionally or accidentally leaving the base. This rule applies not only to personnel that actually work in sensitive areas of the base, but also to their spouses, children, guests and anyone else who works for or is visiting someone that works for the Generals unit.
On top of the physical bag search that occurs a few hours before you leave, we also have to turn in all electronic devices, storage media, digital cameras, CDs, DVDs, and anything else that can hold data to the local “Network Help Desk” 72 hours before we leave so that it can be scanned for the previously mentioned classified or sensitive information. You have to provide them with all of the passwords to all of the software installed and any accessories that they would need to operate the devices.
Here is the question: Does a military commander have the authority to force me, a civilian, to turn in my property for 72 hours, thus depriving me of my property, when there is no probable cause or any specific reason to believe that my personal electronic devices will have sensitive government information on them. These devices were never used in a secure area nor is there a belief that they were used in a secure area. Also, the people that are conducting the searches are not Military Police or government law enforcement of any sort. They are the network support staff. The same people you would call in any organization when a printer doesn’t work or your computer acts funny. They have had no specific training and have no understanding of the responsibility associated with viewing other people’s private information. We have to turn in our passwords to every application. This exposes our tax and financial information in programs like Quicken. All of our digital photos are viewed by them.
Several items have been lost or broken during these inspections. That is whole other rant that I don’t need to continue here. The fact that the overall execution of these searches is a joke at best does not lessen that fact that they seem to amount unreasonable search and seizure of my property.
I welcome any comments and suggestions. I will provide more information as questions are asked. I am avoiding too many specifics to avoid actually compromising our operational security. I have had a security clearance for more than a decade. Dealing with reasonable searches has always been okay. This just goes too far.
Aaron