U.S. pushes forward on passenger risk database

[aquapong]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/01/12/security.usa.air.reut/index.html

Monday, January 12, 2004 Posted: 12:00 PM EST (1700 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. government is moving forward on a computerized system containing background information on air travelers despite resistance from airlines and privacy advocates, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The government will require airlines and air travel booking companies to let officials see passenger records possibly as soon as next month, the newspaper said. Passengers through U.S. airports would be scored with a number and a color that ranks their perceived threat to the aircraft they are traveling on, the paper said.

A separate program is due to be launched this year that would give frequent fliers quicker passage through security checks if they volunteer personal information to the government, the newspaper said.

Privacy and consumer advocates say the programs could be discriminatory because some passengers would be screened more carefully than others.

The two programs would supplement the fingerprinting and photographing of travelers arriving in the United States that was launched last week.
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What's next, colored arm bands? Writing my reps now...I hope you are as well. I'll post a form letter when I'm done composing it.

 

[aquapong]

1/13/04

Congressman Joseph Pitts
204 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515

Congressman Pitts,

On 1/12/04, Reuters news agency reported that the Dept of Homeland Security mandated that airlines give personal information such as name, date of birth, and social security number to the Transportation Security Administration. With this information, the TSA will be performing threat assessments and ‘consumer checks’ on each individual passenger. Each passenger would then be assigned a color code logged somewhere indicating the supposed threat that person poses to the aircraft.

The airlines as a whole initially decided that this was an undue invasion of privacy and resisted the Dept of Homeland Security’s request. According to this article, it seems that the Dept of Homeland Security is now mandating, as opposed to requesting, that this personal information is relinquished for all airline passengers.

I agree with the airlines. This is an undue invasion of privacy and this mandate needs to be countered by Congress. This mandate would cause many perfectly good citizens to come under closer scrutiny simply because they have a petty criminal record, licensed with the ATF for owning a Class 3 firearm, or have had credit problems. For no discernable and valid reason, these citizens will be watched more closely by TSA employees and air marshals alike.

I understand the need for increased intelligence gathering for the war on terrorism, but it need not be at the expense of our personal liberties. I urge you to research this mandate and oppose it in any way possible.

Your constituent,

 

[Croyance]

Yes, I have been watching the measures that Bush & Co. are trying to push through with dread.
What is the use in being secure if you are no longer what you were? The Land of the Free can coexist with a police state?
And as Benjamin Franklin observed, we will no be any safer.
As a side note, I would like an independant audit of the intellegence intercepted this holliday season, just to show we were actually protected from something.
No, arm bands are not next. ID chips planted around the spine (like the ones you can get for dogs and cats) are next. And a chip in your brain that keeps repeating the slogan of the Department of Homeland Security "Be afraid, be very afraid - but go about your normal, daily buisness"