ACLU v. Passenger Screening

[reprehensor]

http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=12108&c=39


The Bush Administration is moving forward with a secretive new system for conducting background checks on all airline passengers that threatens to create a blacklist of Americans who cannot travel freely. This new government program, called Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System or CAPPS II -- would search secret intelligence and law enforcement databases and rate every airline passenger a red-, yellow- or green-level threat.

Using easily falsified information such as name, home address, home phone number and date of birth, this system would screen your name through credit databases and then run your information through secret government databases to make a judgment about your security risk. These secret databases would probably be compiled using intelligence and law enforcement records that could include personal information gleaned from commercial data such as purchase history and banking records.

Based on all of this information, you may be allowed to travel, be forced to undergo special security scrutiny, or be referred to law enforcement and possibly detained. If you are branded a "risk" due to false information, the process for correcting the error is unclear and could result in significant delays or detention for many innocent people.

The Bush Administration is pushing this program forward despite opposition by airlines, Members of Congress and privacy advocacy organizations.

Take Action! Act Now to Stop the CAPPS II Program!

-----------------------------------------------

Faxes to send at link.

[wryter2000]

1. This does it for me

I will never set foot on another airplane if this is enacted. I could have conquered my fear. And if necessary, I would have put up with the lines and the indignities. But no way in bloody hell will I allow myself to be color coded. I only hope they don't kill Amtrak. If they do, I'll never go anywhere I can't drive to.

[liberalhistorian]

2. I sent detailed faxes

to my congressman and both of my senators yesterday when I got the ACLU email, I expressed my total disgust and dismay and discussed how easily such information could be falsified, incorrect, inaccurate, out-of-date, etc., etc.

I also discussed how we're not permitted to know the criteria by which a color is assigned (for instance, what if you don't have good credit, or have had minor misdemeanors or traffic tickets, or have written letters or expressed disagreement with governmental leaders and/or policies, as I have done, etc.), and therefore cannot defend ourselves or attempt to clear ourselves if the information isn't correct or is inaccurate. I told them that we cannot protect our freedoms by destroying them, and that this is just the kind of thing the 9/11 attackers and the terrorists want us to do.

I said a lot more in my fax, but you get my drift. I don't know how much good it'll do, because all my reps are repukes, but I'll be damned if I don't try to do everything possible to stop this bullshit, fascist, police state program from being implemented.

And I also let them have it on economic grounds, which seems to be the only language repukes can understand, because, even though I've flown many times in the past, I absolutely refuse to fly if that system is implemented, and I know plenty of others who feel the same way. That's the major reason why most of the airlines are against it and have fought its implementation as well.

[hlthe2b]

3. Can SOMEONE please tell me how a person's credit rating

predicts whether they are a terrorist security risk? Given the lousy credit of millions of Americans thanks to the Bush economy and record unemployment, who is going to have A1 credit to fly?

[liberalhistorian]

4. I wondered the same, myself,

and I have no idea, either. But given that our credit is being used in almost every other area of our life now, including employment, insurance, and even in doctor's offices and hospitals, it doesn't surprise me.

[HFishbine]

5. Wes Clark Lobbied for This

Retired 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 United States and their households, according to interviews and documents.

Clark, a Democrat who declared himself a presidential candidate 10 days ago, joined Acxiom's board of directors in December 2001. He earned $300,000 from Acxiom last year and was set to receive $150,000, plus potential commissions, this year, according to financial disclosure records. He owns several thousand shares of Acxiom stock worth more than $67,000.

Clark's consulting role at Acxiom puts him near the center of a national debate over expanded government authority to use personal data and surveillance technology to fight the war on terrorism and protect homeland security.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7380-2003Sep26?language=printer