Homeland security" is way too often crutch leaned on by people wanting to limit the freedoms of the press and the public. And that's how it's being used in Texas City, the refinery town between Houston and Galveston, to attempt to limit press coverage of BP facilities there.

Pro Publica, the nonprofit online news site that recently won the Pulitzer Prize, is reporting that one of its freelance photographers was detained by police in Texas City after taking pictures from a public road. The officers wanted to see the pictures in his camera and asked what the story was about, and -- even worse -- the police department tells Pro Publica that reviewing such photos by tourists and journalists is "standard practice" by that department.

I could go on and on and on about the First Amendment and press freedom and the evils of prior restraint. But I'll just sum it up real quick: Folks, pardon my French, but this is a crock.

The police in this case, the story goes, were called in by BP, who thanks to "homeland security" can conveniently rely on taxpayer-funded resources to confront journalists who might be producing negative press coverage about BP. It's an intimidation tactic veiled in the lingo of patriotism and security.

As Pro Publica's Stephen Engelberg points out, Osama and his buddies don't need photos shot from some public road to zoom in on the BP Texas City refinery, or any oil refinery, when they can get zoomed-in satellite photos off Google. (I would add to that, I bet Osama and his buddies can get even higher-quality satellite images from the intelligence services of certain nations that are quietly friendly with al-Qaida. But that's my own suspicion.)

As we wrote in an entirely different context the other day, the authorities do not have the right to look through a news photographer's camera or a reporter's notebook to see what they've photographed or who they've interviewed. That goes for Texas City, Tallahassee, Toledo, Terra Haute, Tacoma, Tucson and everywhere in between. Any police officer anywhere who tells you differently is wrong. (The group photo of the Texas City Police Department on its Web site shows the men and women lined up in front of a building that bears the phrase “duty, honor, country” above the entrance. Guys, the First Amendment is still a key part of the “country” thing.)

Meanwhile, we applaud the efforts of the Galveston Daily News to challenge the authorities’ stance on this issue, which was mentioned in the Pro Publica piece. The Daily News has a long history of public service journalism and leadership on freedom of information issues. (Texas Watchdog was proud to be co-sponsors with the Daily News last month on an open government seminar held in Galveston by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and the state attorney general's office.)

As for BP, if it’s so gravely concerned about information about its refinery getting out to terrorists, it might not want the terrorists to know that, say, the Texas City plant is the third-largest refinery in the nation, employing 2,000 people at a 1,200-acre facility  with 20 process units that can churn out 475,000 barrels of oil a day and more than 7 billion gallons of petroleum products a year including diesel fuel, jet fuel, and enough gasoline to constitute about three percent of America’s gas supply. You can find all that detailed information on BP’s own Web site. And if you’re in some cave in Tora Bora and you’re trying to figure out where the plant is, well, it’s listed in the AT&T White Pages as I write this (BP Products NA, 2401 Fifth Ave. S, Texas City, TX). Even quicker: Type “BP Texas City” into Google maps’ search window and it’ll go straight to it.

And while we're at it, BP, how are things going down there in the Gulf? Let's see, 85.8 million gallons of oil as I write this (according to PBS' embeddable oil slick widget). Also, 1,505 dead birds, 447 dead sea turtles and 54 dead mammals.

And as for any so-called journalist who has shown police the photos in their camera without protest or otherwise unthinkingly done whatever police have demanded in the name of supposed "homeland security," please go swallow a tarball.

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Jennifer Peebles can be reached at 281-656-1681 or at jennifer@texaswatchdog.org.