The FBI closed its six year long investigation of an award-winning documentary filmmaker after failing to find any crime or threat to national security. During the six years, the government subjected Laura Poitras to numerous border searches and interrogations. Airport delays numbered over 50 from 2006 to 2012. Poitras and the EFF contend that she was singled out for her films about post-9-11 life in Yemen and Iraq that ran counter to the U.S. government positions. (Electronic Frontier Foundation, December 6, 2017, by Jamie Williams and Karen Gullo)
Poitras filed a Freedom of Information act complaint against government agencies in 2015 after failing to get them to release documents that would shed light on the motives for their harassing her. The complaint yielded hundreds of pages of highly redacted records none of which provided any revelations. (Columbia Journalism Review, July 17, 2015, by Jack Murtha)
For earlier FAC coverage, click here.