[DB]

"An estimated 1 to 2 percent who get "red" coding will be barred from boarding and face police questioning. They may be arrested."

So one out of fifty to one hundred passengers is going to flagged red??? That's going to do wonders for their business...

[RonF]

I often buy airline tickets less than a week ahead of time. That'll get me "yellow", I bet, especially since I'm flying from Chicago to Boston and back.

[Reeses]

It isn't easy being green.

[finnman69]

So if you look like this you get a red flag right?

[kinghorse]

I got no problem with this. But then I'm a white male over 40.

[1Old Pro]

What's the deal with color coding everything?? Is it really so simple that we need only 3 categories?

[Montfort]

It may turn out to be a good thing, but I can't help but suspect that in the end you will not get the best security rating unless you have been barcoded or "chipped" somehow.

Also, I would imagine that law enforcement folks tend to be particularly mean to people when they are SURE they have the right person. This system may give them a sense of false security that they can lean on you hard when you pop up as a red risk because someone stole your identity and purchased suspicious items using your identity. They will think that they are only doing good work when they lean on your like you are Osama himself and make you sit in bright light and deprive you of bathroom breaks or whatever other things police do these days to break down the bad guys. (Pretty nice compared to most of the rest of the world, I know, but then we have a greater degree of freedom here than folks like the even the relatively civilized French would ever understand.)

On the other hand, it will mean that more cases of identity theft will be uncovered, but do you want to be the person who the TSA folks are CERTAIN is a bad guy because of what some hoodlum did using your identity?

[ElkGroveDan]

Great. Will we all now have our own waiting areas and drinking fountains?

[billbears]

'Homeland' Security strikes again. Note this is not part of the 87 billion the President just asked for. For that there will be an entirely different speech looking for another handout. To implement something like this will probably run a good 100 billion at least!!

[Brian S]

Perhaps they should consider "tattoos" for a more permanent "branding"...

[Koblenz]

An estimated 1 to 2 percent who get "red" coding will be barred from boarding and face police questioning. They may be arrested.

Are they going to be charged with anything when they are arrested, or is having a computer program declare you a red flag good enough?

[steve-b]

Most fundamental of all, this sort of profiling system simply won't work against any terrorist who has two brain cells to rub together and enough money to buy a dozen or so "dry run" flights to 1)determine with a high degree of confidence that he's been flagged "green" and 2)establish a track record that makes it even more likely that he'll be flagged "green" when it's show time.

[tdadams]

I suspect I'm probably in a slim majority of people around here, but if given the free choice to apply for a 'trusted traveler' card, I'd do it today. I would object to any mandatory requirement to submit information in order to fly though.

I travel by air a lot. If it would allow me to walk into the airport about 15 or 20 minutes before my flight takes off rather than 2 or 3 hours, and a snaking line waiting to be searched (a la Oakland's airport), I'd be more than happy to get a 'trusted traveler' card.

[jriemer]

Apparently no-one's looking out for the "blue meanies" any more...

[Paved Paradise]

When they start color-coding and then making it into the shape of a Jewish star (as in yellow Jewish star), then I'm putting my foot down.

Seems a bit simplistic to me. I think this system will make it easier for the terrorists as the screeners will start relying on the color coding more instead of their instincts (not that they are any good now). I wish I could be a screener. No one would get on! (ha ha).

[Constitution Day]

Others will be coded "yellow" and face additional screening.

Rosie O'Donnell is pretty excited by that prospect.

The Yellow (by Rosie O'Donnell)

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Ah yes, for certain the idiots will color code "Red" all ninety year old grandmas while simultaneously coding "Green" all 18 to 35 year old Muslims traveling with bombs strapped to their waists.

[BlazingArizona]

This system is already in place in Europe.

[Squantos]

Awwww fuschia !