Posted on 09/27/2003 12:12:38 PM PDT by John Beresford Tipton
Security Aide Prods Airlines to Yield Data on Travelers By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 ? Needing information on airline passengers for a test of the government's new computerized screening system, the Transportation Security Administration, rebuffed by JetBlue Airways, is looking for a substitute that can provide it, the agency's administrator said today.
But the official, Adm. James M. Loy, said that because no one airline wanted to single itself out as the provider, he hoped to get the data from the industry as a whole. And if he cannot get the airlines' cooperation, he said, he will simply order them to turn over the information.
The new screening program, the Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling System II, or Capps II, will seek to determine which travelers will be forbidden to fly on suspicion of terrorism, or at least warrant extra screening.
The security agency now wants to test the system, but was told on Monday by JetBlue, which had agreed to be a test airline, that it would now decline.
That notification followed JetBlue's acknowledgment last week that it had turned over information on more than a million passengers, without their knowledge, to a Defense Department contractor that was working on another government security project. The contractor then matched the JetBlue information against other databases to determine passengers' Social Security numbers, occupations and family size.
Meeting with reporters this morning, Admiral Loy said that he had spoken to David Neeleman, JetBlue's chief executive, and that he understood that from the airline's point of view, "now was not the time to voluntarily jump into the middle of the bonfire." He said he was asking the big airlines' trade group, the Air Transport Association, to step forward with the data instead.
The security agency is still working on the details of Capps II. Currently it is considering a system in which the airlines would provide it each passenger's name, home address, phone number and date of birth. A contractor for the agency would seek to match that information against commercial databases, to "authenticate" it, though credit and medical records would not be sought, the agency says.
The contractor would then give the agency a "score," somewhat like a score on a mortgage application, indicating the degree of confidence in a given traveler's identity. Officials say that the contractor would not be allowed to store or use the passenger records for commercial purposes and that the agency would discard all data within days after the passenger's trip.
The security agency hopes to have the proposed program in place by next summer, but first it must respond to public comments on that proposal, of which more than 8,000 have already been submitted.
Capps II, married to a computer program that matches passenger names against a list of suspected terrorists or people with outstanding warrants for violent crimes, would be used to classify travelers into green, yellow and red categories. Those on the yellow list would receive closer scrutiny at the airport, and those on the red list would be forbidden to fly. Admiral Loy said he hoped the yellow category would amount to no more than 3 percent or 4 percent of air travelers, and the red category "an infinitesimally small level."
A spokesman for the Air Transport Association, Doug Wills, said the industry favored having the government run the program directly, without a contractor, because, he said, the information would be more secure in government hands. But he said the industry favored a "robust prescreening system to identify terrorist threats."
Admiral Loy said his agency was also making progress in other areas of aviation security. It has completed criminal background checks on its screeners, for example.
He said the agency had also cut the number of screeners by the equivalent of 6,000 full-time employees, to meet Congressional mandates. The creation of his agency, six weeks after the te
He must think is is King George III, or possibly even Admiral Poindexter. Where have we been raising such fascists?
Oh, this is good: Admiral Loy retired from the Coast Guard as its Commandant on May 30, 2002. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta immediately appointed him to the newly created post of Deputy Under Secretary for Transportation Security and Chief Operating Officer of TSA.
SO he RETIRED in 2002. My bad.
HEY PRESIDENT BUSH! A NORM MINETA APPOINTMENT! HOW'S THAT WORKIN' OUT FOR YA?
Shoot, if we're going to have a checkpoint society, why stop there? It needs to check against all warrants, especially those deadbeat dads and People Who Say Less Than Positive Things About Hillary (PWSLTPTAHRHHRC). / sarcasm
I also hope they are a bit more discriminating than just name. Although my surname is fairly rare, it turns out there is another fellow in my county with the exact same name -- but with a rather poor credit history. More often than I like, I have to provide proof that I am not him. As much as I travel, this could be really irritating.
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