Free Republic

Secure Flight to Replace Discredited CAPPS II Former U.S. Representative Bob Barr, who serves as the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Privacy and Freedom at the American Conservative Union, has provided written comments to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regarding that agency's latest proposal for a system to screen persons who fly on commercial airlines. Barr notes in his comments that the proposed system, dubbed Secure Flight, is less privacy-invasive and constitutionally-problematic than its predecessor, the now-discredited CAPPS II system. The earlier proposal, which Congress refused to fund, would have subjected every person seeking to fly within or into or...

... The now-defunct ... Capps II sought to make sure that air passengers are flying under their own identity and are not wanted as a terror suspect. It would have asked passengers to provide four pieces of information -- name, address, phone number and birth date -- when they make their reservation. That information would've been run against commercial records, to see if it matches up, then checked against government intelligence files to determine whether a passenger has possible terror connections. Depending on the outcome of those two checks, a passenger could have been screened more closely at the airport.......

Why scrap a program that identified nine of the 19 hijackers? Ask civil libertarians. Even as the Bush administration warns of an imminent terror attack, it is again allowing the "rights" brigades to dictate the parameters of national defense. The administration just cancelled a passenger screening system designed to keep terrorists off planes, acceding to the demands of "privacy" advocates. The implications of this for airline safety are bad enough. But the program's demise also signals a return to a pre-9/11 mentality, when pressure from the rights lobbies trumped security common sense. The now-defunct program, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening...

<p>A top homeland security official told Congress that five major domestic airlines turned over sensitive passenger data to the agency or its contractors in 2002 and 2003, contradicting numerous statements by airline and government officials and confirming some of the worst fears of privacy advocates.</p>

<p>If you'd be happy to fly seated next to the next Mohamed Atta, then don't worry about the crusade to cancel the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System. If you do want terrorists kept off planes, start worrying about the smear campaign now underway in the name of "privacy." Our nation's intelligence agencies failed to "connect the dots" before 9/11. And a left-right alliance of privacy extremists is doing its best to keep it that way: These "privocrats" have shot down nearly every proposal to use intelligence more effectively, terming them an assault on "privacy."</p>

<p>The wonderful folks at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) — an agency created in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, who are just now preparing to implement the already discredited Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System ("CAPPS II") — have finally discovered what most government bureaucracies learn in their first days. They have discovered taxpayer-citizens are but wallets to be opened and fleeced at will.</p>

<p>A top Homeland Security official yesterday defended an airline passenger profiling system criticized in a report, saying it should not be graded until tested, but privacy concerns have grounded that phase.</p> <p>The General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, flunked the Computer Assisted Pre-Screening Passenger System (CAPPS II) on seven of eight criteria set by Congress, including delays of the test.</p>

<p>Two recent incidents involving commercial airliners raise some disturbing questions about the security of commercial air passengers, and about the direction in which the government is heading in response.</p> <p>In one incident, a note found aboard a commuter jet forced its diversion from Washington's Reagan National Airport to Dulles International Airport. The other, a few days later, caused significant delays in flights from France to the U.S. because a woman passenger's jacket contained some wires. The first incident was the result of an apparently deranged person writing an apparently threatening note; the second of a legal piece of clothing with wires imbedded to in it to keep the wearer warm.</p>

Military Background Augmented Success as Lobbyist Who Could Open Doors Wesley K. Clark could not keep quiet for long. The meeting with Vice President Cheney on July 16, 2002, had started with casual banter. But the retired four-star general quickly cut off the chitchat, grasping his chair and sliding it next to Cheney's. "Mr. Vice President, we know you only have a short time, and we have some very important matters to discuss," Clark said, according to a person who attended the session. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to just jump into the meeting." Cheney nodded, and Clark...

WASHINGTON -- The government will order airlines to provide background information on passengers for a new security system that aims to keep dangerous people off planes, Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson said Monday. Hutchinson said he wants to begin testing the system this spring. It could be fully operational by summer, according to spokesman Dennis Murphy. Hutchinson said building the system is a Homeland Security Department priority. "The information that is given by a passenger to the airlines is important for us to have -- in terms of name, address, date of birth -- so we can properly assure the...

February 2004 The sorry record of the Transportation Security Administration When 9/11 exposed the holes in American airport and airline security, the Bush administration and Congress responded with the usual Washington panacea: a new federal agency. Congress quickly deluged the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) with billions of dollars to hire an army of over 50,000 federal agents to screen airport passengers and baggage. But before the agency was even a year old, it was clear that it had "become a monster," to quote the chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, John Mica (R-Fla.). Arrogant, abusive, incompetent, and expensive, the...

Northwest Airlines provided information on millions of passengers for a secret U.S. government air security project soon after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, raising fresh concerns among some privacy advocates about the airlines' use of confidential consumer data. nation's fourth-largest carrier publicly asserted in September that it "did not provide that type of information to anyone." But Northwest acknowledged Friday it had already turned over three months of reservation data to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center by that point.

CAPPS II could be operating in our nation's airports as soon as next month, the Washington Post reports. This is the long-threatened system that will, as you check in for a flight, take your full name, home address and telephone number, date of birth and travel itinerary and check it against a set of existing government and private databases to see if you are (probably) who you claim to be and if you have any known connection to bad guys. The system will then categorize you as either green (go through security with only the new "normal" level of prodding,...

(CBS) Precautions in the name of air security are about to taken to a level unimaginable in the United States only a few years ago. The Washington Post reports the Bush administration is expected to order as soon as next month the first step in setting up databases on all air passengers, to be used to color-code each air traveler according to his or her potential threat level. Passengers coded red would be stopped from boarding; yellow would mean additional screening at security checkpoints; and green would mean an only standard level of scrutiny. Airlines and airline reservation companies would...

<p>The nation's terror alert level was raised to orange in the weeks leading up to the holiday season because of threats that Al Qaeda (search) was possibly looking to use explosives on Air France flights, Fox News has confirmed.</p> <p>For the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, a U.S. intelligence source was able to give officials such specific information about how Usama bin Laden's (search) terror group may be planning imminent attacks in the United States using commercial airliners, U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News. The source provided strategic and tactical details of how the terror network wanted to carry out terror attacks on American political and economic targets.</p>

<p>An unpopular U.S. proposal to collect personal information on airline passengers to screen for terrorists is proving to be even more troublesome in Europe, where revealing the data violates privacy laws.</p> <p>European airlines are being asked to provide detailed "passenger name records," but are concerned about how that information will be used and whether it will be fed into the new Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS II).</p>

reedom and the right to privacy as guaranteed in the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment are under constant attack in this computer driven, micromanaged age so perhaps there's no kind way to sugar coat such questions on Homeland Security as to why are intrusive programs being developed to spy on all Americans when our borders are still leaking like sieves? And why are we hiring former Soviet KGB agents as consultants on these programs? The Fourth Amendment clearly states: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not...

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...

Clark Worked For Ark. Data FirmAcxiom Role Part of Surveillance Debate By Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 27, 2003; Page A08Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark helped an Arkansas information company win a contract to assist development of an airline passenger screening system, one of the largest surveillance programs ever devised by the government. Starting just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Clark sought out dozens of government and industry officials on behalf of Acxiom Corp., a data powerhouse that maintains names, addresses and a wide array of personal details about nearly every adult in the...

Little Rock’s Acxiom Corp. has spent most of the two years since the attacks of Sept. 11 looking for government contracts to help fight the war on terror. It has found the contracts. Now it has a fight on its hands. The data-management company is involved in a growing dispute over the release of information on millions of airline passengers to a Defense Department contractor last year. Acxiom sold that contractor demographic data on roughly 2 million airline passengers — about 40 percent of those involved — as part of its role in the war on terror. As a...