Posted on 08/16/2006 12:27:56 PM PDT by markomalley
Airlines will soon be required to give the government passenger lists for all U.S.-bound international flights before takeoff, the nation's homeland security chief said Wednesday.
The new regulations, which could be in place by early next year, would make permanent a counterterror measure taken after last week's foiled plot to bomb trans-Atlantic flights.
"This is part of our border authority," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"The reason we haven't moved this is because the airlines were concerned about what they would do about passengers who would come up at the last minute, and they don't want to hold the flights up," Chertoff said. "Our position has been: Isn't it better to know before the plane takes off than to turn the plane around? Which I think is correct. So we're on a course to getting this piece nailed down."
Chertoff said the policy switch was already being discussed before British authorities said they had cracked a months-long plot to bomb as many as 10 flights headed for the United States from London. After announcement of the plot, the U.S. government demanded that airlines submit their passenger lists on all inbound flights from the United Kingdom.
Airlines have long resisted handing over the lists, concerned that the time it takes for the government to screen passenger names against terrorism databases will bring costly delays.
Me, too. Lord knows, we were stuck 14 hours in Atlanta after flying back from Europe! If that's routine, why not run the lists? If it's profiling, that's just too bad.
For those who feel left out of all these procedures and alarm levels because they are not officials, elected officials, or officers of the Public Safety Dept, the following is advised. Make a shopping list before going to the store instead of relying on wandering up and down the aisles in hopes of stumbling across something you need. Although it will contribute no more towards anti-terrorism activities than you do at present it will contribute no less. You can mark urgent items with red highlighter and less urgent items with orange highlighter, all in the public spirit of combatting terrorism even though you have nothing to do with combatting terrorism aside from submitting to be searched in airports, to have your toothpaste be searched, to have the spaces between your toes be searched in case a terrorist might be lurking there.
But...but...that is why they make you show id before ticketing, security screening and boarding. Not that an organized group would not have fake id's. Security is supposed to have reliable reasoning behind it and not just some feel good like "something" is being done approach. Of course this is here to stay for next generations as there is no govt or country to surrender.
There have been many suspicious cases of Middle Eastern people rushing up to airline counters to buy tickets at the last minute. This should simply be prohibited. The airlines already close baggage checkin 45 minutes before flight time. Once boarding begins there should be no more ticket sales, period. That would give the airline plenty of time to email the manifest to the US for review. The airlines are desperate and don't want to give up any revenue from last minute sales, but they are forgetting that Pan Am was out of business within a few years after its Flight 103 was blown out of the sky. U.S. taxpayers bailed out the airlines after 9/11 but we might not do it again if we find out that their own greed was the reason that terrorists were allowed to get on their planes.
The woman wrote several messages to the pilot, had some hand cream, a screwdriver, and some matches. I'm sure he had enough of her bullshit and decided to call an emergency. The TSA initial denial was wish fullfillment (Move on, nothing going on here, it'll blow our budget if there is).
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