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Grubble Grubble
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003 :::
rant
I am torn between shock, outrage, and pure unadulterated terror. The death knell of civil liberty strikes again.
We have become a police state.
Please read the following article by Sara Kehaulani Goo, of the Washington Post. It is not printed in its entirety, but for those who wish to read the full article:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/963728.asp?0cv=CB20
Fliers to be rated for risk level
WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 — In the most aggressive and, some say, invasive - step yet to protect air travelers, the federal government and the airlines will phase in a computer system next year to measure the risk posed by every passenger on every flight in the United States.
THE NEW Transportation Security Administration system seeks to probe deeper into each passenger’s identity than is currently possible, comparing personal information against criminal records and intelligence information. Passengers will be assigned a color code — green, yellow or red — based in part on their city of departure, destination, traveling companions and date of ticket purchase. Most people will be coded green and sail through. But up to 8 percent of passengers who board the nation’s 26,000 daily flights will be coded “yellow” and will undergo additional screening at the checkpoint, according to people familiar with the program. An estimated 1 to 2 percent will be labeled “red” and will be prohibited from boarding. These passengers also will face police questioning and may be arrested. The system “will provide protections for the flying public,” said TSA spokesman Brian Turmail. “Not only should we keep passengers from sitting next to a terrorist, we should keep them from sitting next to wanted ax murderers.”
CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAM
The new system, called Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System II (CAPPS II), has sparked so much controversy among both liberal and conservative groups that the TSA has struggled to get it going. Delta Air Lines backed out of a testing program with the agency earlier this year, and now the TSA will not reveal which airlines will participate when it tests a prototype early next year. If all goes as planned, the TSA will begin the new computer screening of some passengers as early as next summer and eventually it will be used for all domestic travelers.
TWO-STEP PROCESS
The TSA will check each passenger in two steps. The first will match the passenger’s name and information against databases of private companies that collect information on people for commercial reasons, such as their shopping habits. This process will generate a numerical score that will indicate the likelihood that the passenger is who he says he is. Passengers will not be informed of their color code or their numerical score. The second step matches passenger information against government intelligence combined with local and state outstanding warrants for violent felonies.
Even conservatives are worried about this program. Read this quote:
‘This system is not designed just to get potential terrorists. It's a law enforcement tool. The wider the net you cast, the more people you bring in.’
— DAVID A. KEENE
American Conservative Union
How long before that net is cast to catch political dissenters and civil disobedients? The memories of J. Edgar Hoover and Eugene McCarthy are alive and well in America today.
/rant
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