Intelligence Official Will Lead TSA Profiling Effort

The federal Transportation Security Administration has hired an intelligence official with database expertise to oversee development of the agency's computer profiling system, a proposed network of supercomputers intended to instantly assess every passenger's background for potential ties to terrorism, officials close to the project said yesterday.

Ben H. Bell III, who recently served as deputy director of a technology-oriented terrorism task force at the Justice Department, is expected to work out technical and policy kinks that have delayed what some officials regard as the most ambitious domestic data-surveillance system ever begun by the federal government.

HMMMM - they can't do the obvious profiling, i.e., search the 25 year old wild-eyed Arab guy with the suicide headband, not the 60 year old fat white nun. That's unconstitutional (supposedly).

But they can do a search on every single passenger's housing information, relatives, credit history, etc. for links to 'terrorist' organizations, and that's ok?

Too many questions...In order for this system to work, the government will have to store, constantly update, and analyze detailed personal info on every single American, whether they fly or not. Isn't that a violation of the Fourth Amendment?

If the data analytics can spit out a terrorist 'probability' on everyone based on this information, why wait to check until they're at the airport?

How the hell is this system even relevant if the terrorists are foreign?

And then what the hell do you do with someone who has a terrorism 'probability' based on some algorithm and they are a US citizen? Arrest him? Prevent him from flying even though he is accused of no crime? This is wierd...too much like 'Minority Report' for comfort.

A national ID card is inevitable. Conservatives who fight it are going to ultimately lose.

I wouldn't count on it.

Once the Lieberals *really* assess what their much-touted Nazional-Socialistiche ID Card *really* will produce, *they* are going to start having "second thoughts".

Remember, every one of their precious beloved "minorities" is going to end up having to produce their Nazional-Socialistiche ID Card in order to vote, in order to obtain a driver's license, in order to obtain welfare, in order to obtain Nazional-Socialistiche free health care, in order to... etc. etc. And we all know what a burden that's going to be on all those poor underprivileged downtrodden minorities whose card is likely to be stolen by the neighborhood crack dealer... etc. etc. Just imagine poor Jose' Manuel Rodriguez Gonzalez-Domingo and his pregnant wife and their 8 small children with the big brown eyes having to starve, JUST because Jose' misplaced his Nazional-Socialististiche ID Card.

I *really* think that once the Lieberals *really* assess what their much-touted Nazional-Socialististiche ID Card *really* will produce, they are *really* going to start having "second thoughts".

Really.

(Yes, I realize I'm assuming they ever had a first thought... but it's Christmas, and I'm trying to be charitable...)

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