Posted on 08/28/2006 10:48:03 PM PDT by jdm
WASHINGTON - The government needs broader access to airline passenger information to identify potential hijackers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an article published Tuesday.
"How do we thwart a terrorist who has not yet been identified?" Chertoff wrote in an op-ed article in Tuesday's editions of The Washington Post.
"One way is by using more of the detailed information collected by airlines and travel agencies when an individual books a flight," Chertoff wrote. "These passenger name records contain information, such as travel itineraries and payment details, that can be analyzed in conjunction with current intelligence to identify high-risk travelers before they board planes."
The government has collected such data on travelers flying from other countries to the U.S. since the early 1990s, Chertoff wrote. But European privacy concerns have limited the ability of investigators to share such information between agencies or with their counterparts abroad, he wrote.
"Protecting personal privacy is a part of responding to the post-Sept. 11 world, but it should not reflexively block us from developing new screening tools," Chertoff wrote. "Indeed, more data sharing leads to more precisely targeted screening, which actually improves privacy by reducing questioning and searches of innocent travelers."
A suggestion: check if they are Islamic males between the ages of 20 and 40.
If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck...It might be a...
turkey
or a terrorist..
I think there ought to be a special "express" security line for those of us who have been frequent fliers of a particular airline forever. For example, we've been United Mileage Plus members ever since the program was offered over a decade ago. You'd think the airline (and by default, thus the TSA) would know we would not be a terrorist risk by now!!!!
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