Post by POA on Apr 20, 2004 4:23:28 GMT -5
Published on Monday, April 19, 2004 by ReclaimDemocracy.org
Beware America: Proposed Air Security Program Would Endanger Both Freedom and Safety
by Jeff Milchen and Jeffrey Kaplan
The ongoing controversy over who knew of which terrorist threats and when has obscured one specific and telling finding from the commission investigating the 9/11 attacks. The commission revealed earlier this year that nine of the 19 hijackers were identified as safety risks by already-existing security measures when they checked in for their flights. Luggage checked by those nine men was inspected, but the killers boarded their flights with no trouble because none were questioned or searched personally.
If security personnel couldn't employ information identifying suspect passengers to keep even one of those killers from their mission, how can the Bush Administration justify the proposed Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System II (CAPPS II), a massive surveillance program that would create dossiers on every U.S. airline passenger? It's a critical time to ask, for CAPPS II soon could compromise both the privacy and safety of most Americans.
On March 17, the federal government announced that it will require airlines to collect and hand over selected information on all passengers to the Transportation Security Administration, an agency of the "Homeland Security" Department, to begin testing of CAPPS II.
This would initiate the largest surveillance program in U.S. history.
CAPPS II purportedly would help focus security resources by identifying airline passengers who pose the greatest risk of committing terrorist acts. The 2 million or so passengers flying to or from a U.S. airport each day would receive a risk assessment of green, yellow or red. Passengers rated green would receive routine screening. A yellow rating generates additional scrutiny. Red means say goodbye to your ticket and hello to law-enforcement agents--you won't be boarding your flight.
Here's how it works: When you make a flight reservation, the booking agent or airline records your name, address, phone number, date of birth and travel destination (that's just for starters--the TSA could later expand the requirements). The data goes to the TSA, which forwards it to a company contracted to verify your identity. The TSA then feeds your data into a computer program to generate your risk assessment using government databases and algorithms.
So what criteria can label you yellow or red, and how does one challenge inaccurate data? Incredibly, the TSA provides passengers no right to know why they are deemed a security threat or to examine the accuracy of the government's data.
This is just one glaring problem cited recently by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) -- an independent investigative arm of Congress. A GAO report on the CAPPS II plan faulted the TSA for lacking a credible budget, a timeline, adequate privacy protection policies, and any procedure for citizens victimized by false data to correct their record. Of eight critical concerns identified by Congress, the GAO said only one was addressed adequately. TSA officials insist the failures could be corrected.
Since even the most narrowly devised criteria will produce far more false positives than IDs of true security threats, CAPPS II is generating resistance well beyond privacy watchdogs, including business travel associations. Among their concerns: If only 2 percent or so of passengers are coded red, as the TSA claims, 12 million people would be detained annually!
To appease businesses, the TSA will test a "registered traveler program" this summer whereby individuals able and willing to pay a fee and submit to a more invasive background check will be given a special ID card that entitles them to use an"express lane."
TSA officials claim CAPPS II has been scaled back in response to earlier criticism that passengers would be forced to check their Fourth Amendment rights along with their bags. The TSA initially will not collect credit histories, for example, and promised to discard information soon after a passenger's travels.
This promise is meaningless, however, since the "Patriot Act" empowers the government to procure these records at will from the contracted companies (which may retain and sell those records). At a minimum, the government would be creating dossiers of our lifetime travel histories. And though the information the TSA says it will collect initially may seem inoffensive, the registered traveler program would coerce people to "volunteer" much more information in order to avoid second-class treatment and even longer airport lines.
Critics also are alarmed by TSA officials' admission of plans to employ CAPPS II well beyond airports and for broader law enforcement purposes like catching common criminals -- contradicting earlier promises to focus only on aviation security. Some critics even question whether government may legally detain a passenger unless a criminal charge can be filed against them.
[continued in followup]