Secure Flight starts this Sunday; "may" require birth dates

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Gilmore <gnu () toad com>
Date: October 21, 2004 5:41:47 PM EDT
To: eff-privacy () eff org
Cc: Subject: [E-PRV] Secure Flight starts this Sunday; "may" require 
birth dates

Two important things in this story: TSA spokesperson says TSA will
take responsibility for checking names "on Sunday"!!  And second, "We
may have to compel the date of birth before they fly".

        John

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=SECURITY-10-21-04&cat=AN

    Homeland Security may require birth dates from fliers

/By LANCE GAY/
/Scripps Howard News Service/
/October 21, 2004/

*WASHINGTON* - The Department of Homeland Security is considering
requiring airline passengers to give their birth dates along with their
names to help federal agents stop terrorists from boarding flights.

The extra requirement could cut the number of innocent passengers
subjected to additional airport security after they match names on
federal watch lists used to try to identify terrorists as they enter the
country, officials said Thursday.

Some 2,000 passengers - including such high-profile fliers as Sen.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska - have been
falsely snared by the terrorist watch lists.

"We've got to use the best information available to us. We may have to
compel the date of birth before they fly," said Justin Oberman, director
of the Transportation Security Administration unit developing the new
"Secure Flight" program.

At a briefing on the new program, Oberman said that on Sunday, the TSA
will take over from the 82 airlines the responsibility for checking
airline passengers against the names of those on terrorist watch lists.

He said the Secure Flight program will be tested for a few months and
then the agency will propose regulations, giving the public, interest
groups, passenger organizations and the industry their chance to 
comment.

Civil liberties groups are skeptical that just checking passengers'
names will keep terrorists off aircraft. Barry Steinhardt, director of
the technology and liberty project at the American Civil Liberties
Union, said it's not fair for the government to use classified data that
can't be reviewed to put passengers on "no-fly" lists.

The 9/11 commission said nine of the 19 hijackers in the 2001 attacks
were identified as potentially dangerous under an old system
administered by the airlines, but were permitted to fly.

Congress allocated $35 million for TSA to test the program in the
transportation spending bill that President Bush signed this month.

Oberman said the agency is also establishing a procedure for passengers
who have been falsely identified to clear their names from the no-fly 
list.

"We're going to jump on this right away," he said. "There will be a
mechanism for clearing them. It should only happen once."

The agency is handling about 30 calls a day from passengers who feel
they are routinely selected for secondary security screening or have
other problems with the list.

Oberman said the list will not be used for ordinary law enforcement
purposes, for instance, to identify deadbeat dads or those wanted on
warrants.

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