TSA is as unpopular with
Americans as the IRS. As long as the TSA refuses to tell the truth about what's really going on in airports
and on airplanes, the flying public will refuse to trust the TSA. And that's going to continue to be revealed in the
public's opinion.
Commuter
Flights Grounded Thanks To Bumbling TSA Inspector. Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes on nine
American Eagle regional jets were damaged because "an overzealous TSA employee attempted to gain access to
the parked aircraft" by using the TAT probes has would-be handholds.
TSA is both incompetent and vindictive.
Homeland Security Meets The
Sopranos. Last spring, shortly after airing a news report that embarrassed the TSA and the
Federal Air Marshal Service, CNN's investigative reporter Drew Griffin was suddenly placed on the TSA's terrorist
watch list. Last week, CNN ran a follow-up piece. Anderson Cooper interviewed Griffin — a
reporter who had suddenly moved from telling an important story to being part of it. ... The TSA does target
people who critique or criticize the TSA.
America's
Cure For Everything: Punish The Innocent. I don't want to wait for hours while the
Transportation Safety folks subject little old ladies in wheelchairs to intrusive searches. I'd
much rather see these bureaucrats check Muslims who want to board the plane. Not every Muslim
or Arab is a terrorist. But, so far, in the War on Islamic Fascism, every terrorist has
been Muslim. … If profiling isn't acceptable because it's not Politically Correct, here
is another idea: Put the Muslims on one plane and put the rest of us on a different one.
The
Airport Security Follies: Consider for a moment the hypocrisy of T.S.A.'s confiscation
policy. At every concourse checkpoint you'll see a bin or barrel brimming with contraband containers
taken from passengers for having exceeded the [3 ounce] volume limit. Now, the assumption has to be
that the materials in those containers are potentially hazardous. If not, why were they seized in the
first place? But if so, why are they dumped unceremoniously into the trash? They are not
quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are simply thrown away. The agency seems to be saying
that it knows these things are harmless. But it's going to steal them anyway, and either you accept
it or you don't fly.
IG Issues Scathing Report on TSA.
The Office of the Inspector General (IG) issued a report Tuesday [6/24/2008] regarding ongoing employee problems at the TSA. The
results are not surprising. Low morale among screeners is compromising national security.
The
Transportation Security Administration Reorganization Act of 2005: Most independent observers
I am sure agree with Congressman Lungren after seeing the repeated reports of failure by the TSA to
accomplish its goal of securing our airports and airliners from the known threats of terrorism. After
more than four years on the job, explosives still cannot be readily identified by existing technology and
security continues to be regularly breached on TSA's watch, with no hope for improvement in sight.
TSA can't find real
bombs either. The excuse we hear from the Transportation Security Administration when yet another
report comes out finding that its screeners miss the majority of simulated bomb components that testers attempt
to bring through airport checkpoints is that the tests are designed to be difficult and nobody would be able to
get away with it if they were real bomb components. Yet investigators with no insider knowledge were able
to smuggle real bomb components, sufficient to assemble powerful improvised explosive devices based on liquid
explosives, past the TSA at 19 separate airports, according to a report released November 15 [2007].
TSA Censoring Posts
on CNN Air Marshal Story. When a firearm goes on in a cockpit of a plane while it is on approach for landing,
and TSA comes out publicly and claims, "The aircraft and the passengers were never in any danger," does TSA really believe
the public is that stupid to believe such propaganda? Does TSA really believe that they will have any credibility
left after such comments?
Rare Marshals. Air
Marshals are leaving the agency in droves. Less that 1% of flights are now covered by armed marshals, a
CNN investigation reveals. … TSA, which is in charge of the Air Marshal Service, denies the allegations.
Why Have 67,000 TSA Employees Left Their
Jobs? Over the course of its six-year life, the Transportation Security Administration has hired 110,000
employees, and 67,000 of them have quit or been fired. Frightening odds for the first-line of defense against
terrorists.
ABC:
8,000 Foreigners Received Illegal Pilot Licenses. In one of the most damaging reports ever filed about the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), ABC news headlined yesterday with "9/11 Redoux: 'Thousands of Aliens'
in U.S. Flight Schools Illegally." The article paints a pathetic portrait of the TSA in a free-fall, unable to handle
the most basic of its Constitutionally-mandated jobs.
The Editor says...
I must have missed the aviation section in the Constitution. What part of the
Constitution mandates the TSA?
Congress
Investigates TSA in Conflict of Interest Case. Congress has released a report detailing flaws in a TSA website
so riddled with security flaws that Congressman Henry Waxman calls it "mindboggeling." The site was set up to help
passengers remove their names from faulty watch lists but was so riddled with security holes, it could easily have been
hacked into.
Time to Profile Airline Passengers?
In 2003, the TSA, charged with protecting U.S. airplanes, launched a passenger profiling system known as
Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, now operating in twelve U.S.
airports. … While methods that target the whole population have general value — SPOT
did discover passengers with forged visas, fake IDs, stolen airline tickets, and various forms of
contraband — its utility for counterterrorism is dubious.
Airport
Security: Winging It. Sadly, in today's federal bureaucracy the motto seems to
be, "punishment for failure is not an option." Consider everybody's favorite, the Transportation
Security Administration. TSA was born out of failure. After the federal government dropped
the ball on 9/11, the answer was clear: Federalize airport security! Airports got an influx
of new federal employees and air travelers found themselves subject to a series of rules they couldn't
understand.
TSA can't believe MacBook Air is a real laptop; owner misses
flight. The TSA has been known to take issue with products designed in Cupertino before, but for one particular
traveler, it was Apple's thinnest laptop ever that caused the latest holdup. Upon tossing his ultra-sleek slab of
aluminum underneath the scanner, security managed to find enough peculiarities to remove it from the flow, pull it aside and
wrangle up the owner for some questions.
Senate defeats bid to strike
TSA union rights provision. With heavy backing from organized labor, Senate Democrats prevailed
Tuesday in keeping a provision in a massive homeland security bill that gives federal airport screeners
collective bargaining rights, moving them one step closer to a veto showdown with the White House.
TSA taking closer look at
travelers' mannerisms. Looking for signs of "stress, fear and deception" among the hundreds of
passengers shuffling past him at Orlando (Fla.) International Airport one day last month, security screener
Edgar Medina focused on four casually dressed men trying to catch a flight to Minneapolis.
Bush May Veto 9/11 Security Plan
Over Airport Screener Unions. President George W. Bush may veto legislation to adopt many of
the remaining recommendations of the Sept. 11 Commission unless Senate Democrats drop a plan to allow
airport screeners to join unions, a Bush administration official said. A provision in the security
legislation now before the Senate would give government-employed airport security screeners the right to
bargain collectively for union contracts and whistle-blower protections.
TSA
Disaster. A new Government Accountability report shows that private
airport screeners do a better job at detecting dangerous object than the bureaucrats
at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This report is the last in
a long series, all of which demonstrate the poor performances of the 45,000-employee
bureaucracy. So isn't it time for Congress to acknowledge its mistake and
abolish TSA?
TSA Kept an Illegal
Secret Database Of Air Passengers. Documents show a federal agency has done
exactly what Congress told it not to do — and what it said it wouldn't do.
Singing CAIR's
Tune, On Your Dime. On a weekend when the Bush administration achieved a new CAIR-friendly low,
a prominent Democrat, following the lead of other prominent Democrats, distanced herself very publicly from
the unsavory Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Transportation Security Administration is the
executive agency created after 9/11 to protect American travelers. Yet, Americans viewing its website
this weekend could not have felt very protected.
The Pretense of
Airport Security: The Transportation Security Administration is a joke, and
not a funny one, either. As you pass through the TSA's airport checkpoints, you can
expect to overhear mutters about the "gestapo," the "morons," and similar commentary from
outraged but powerless travelers who have chosen to swallow their self-respect and submit
to pointless, degrading invasions of their persons and property in order to avoid offending
the thugs who, whenever they choose, can prevent passengers from proceeding with their
travel. Something is horribly wrong with a population willing to tolerate such
routine degradation and thuggery, especially when the alleged benefits of the
humiliation are entirely bogus.
Keep Your Eye on
the TSA. Created in haste in an effort to restore the confidence of the traveling public in the
security of commercial aviation after 9/11, the TSA stands as a testament to the hubris of government in
believing that decades of neglect of commercial aviation security could be fixed simply by willing it so.
Now that it appears that the departure of Admiral Stone as the TSA's head will bring with it a reduction in
the TSA's role in aviation security, we must ask what future mischief is in store for commercial aviation.
TSA
budget proposal rewards incompetence. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks,
Congress ordered all but five commercial airports to switch from privately employed screeners
to a government workforce. Three years after the federal takeover, TSA is inundated with
complaints. The GAO reported several times on the agency's ineffectiveness at providing
quality airport screening, while the Department of Homeland Security's own inspector general
showed that passenger screening by the TSA needed to be improved to keep explosives and weapons
off commercial aircraft.
Taking an ice
pick to airline security: Truth is stranger than fiction. … The Transportation
Security Administration is looking at new rules that would again allow passengers to carry on
… ice picks, razor blades, martial arts throwing stars, bows and arrows, and knives under
five inches long … which would appear to include box cutters. The same TSA that seems
to delight in taking away our tiny nail clippers — to save us from doom
at 30,000 feet — now suggests it might be A-OK to bring an ice pick on board.
Editor's Note: Is
the TSA completely incompetent from top to bottom? In my opinion, this latest move of theirs is
a red herring. By proposing this ridiculous over-relaxation of their own rules, the TSA is apparently
trying to generate backlash and create a massive public outcry for tighter security.
TSA supports
unionizing airport screeners — well, some of them. While most of the Bush
administration has been fighting against increased unionization of security-related
positions since 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration is headed the other
way in a small case with national implications. TSA isn't only going against
the overall Bush Administration position; it's reversing its own stated policy.
Welcome
to the war on image. In a recent meeting with Daniel Sutherland, head
of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties division of the Department of Homeland Security,
American University's Akbar Ahmed had some suggestions, beginning, according to an online
report in the Pakistani Daily Times, with pretty much eliminating Muslim profiling at
airports. … "You simply cannot humiliate Muslims like this," Akbar said, describing
a "peak level of anger" in "the young generation on the edge." Just one more
pat-down and they'll blow.
Keep Your Eye on
the TSA. Created in haste in an effort to restore the confidence of the traveling public in
the security of commercial aviation after 9/11, the TSA stands as a testament to the hubris of government
in believing that decades of neglect of commercial aviation security could be fixed simply by willing it
so.
The
Transportation Security Administration Reorganization Act of 2005. For many of the reasons set
forth in the proposed law's mission statement, and other reasons not stated, the bill concludes that
neither "the needs of the traveling public" nor those of security have been met.
Background information:
Complete
List of Prohibited Items. Things you can't take to prohibited in-airport
sterile areas and in the cabins of aircraft under the TSA regulations.
Jive about airport security:
It seems as though the Federal Aviation Administration's and Department of Transportation's operative
assumption is that there's an equal chance that any person, including pilots and crewmembers, who boards a
plane is a potential hijacker. That's why FAA and DOT security regulations require that everyone, including
pilots and crew, be searched and "hijacking weapons" — like fingernail files, wine corkscrews and
knitting needles — be confiscated.
Airport insecurity:
I don't think I can stand another news story on "beefed up" airport security. Playing in airports around the
country since Sept. 11 are fabulous stage productions — part mystery, part thriller, part
action — but mostly comedy. The airlines (who, unbeknownst to many are the ones responsible
for airport security) know it's necessary to create the illusion of greater safety. So they put on fabulous
shows consisting of a wide variety of scenes — from invasive but ineffective and unnecessary body
searches to the dramatic discarding of deadly nail files.
PC shield for
terrorists: Most air travelers regard "airport security" as a bad joke. It is worse.
It is an insult. The refusal to focus on the group to which Muslim terrorists are known to belong treats
native-born citizens as the enemy and ensures the lack of security. Pointless searches of grandmothers,
young children, U.S. representatives, presidential appointees, pilots and Marine generals divert resources from
security and send the message that the government has no idea whatsoever who terrorists might be.
Does the Punishment Fit the Crime?
As the majority of the items banned from commercial aviation by the TSA are generally considered incapable of causing the
serious harm we are trying to prevent aboard airliners, we need to re-think the justification for imposing burdensome
fines on passengers who almost certainly took their scissors or miniature Swiss Army knife to the screening
station without any intention of violating the law.
Mineta Strikes Again:
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has made another controversial decision that seems to place politics
and political correctness above national security. Mineta, President Bush's only Democrat in the Cabinet
and a holdover from the Clinton administration, has steadfastly opposed ethnic profiling as a tool in airport
security screening. He has described it as "surrendering to actions of hate and discrimination."
So grandmothers and nuns get frisked, while young Arab males sail through security.
EPIC Questions Secrecy of TSA
Privacy Advisory Group. In a letter to the Transportation Security Administration's
privacy officer, EPIC has asked why the Secure Flight
Privacy/IT Working Group is not being operated in accordance with federal law intended to ensure
transparency of government advisory committees.
Another
Blow to the TSA's Stewardship: With another example of poor timing, and even
worse judgment, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that, effective
this month [April 2005], its partial ban on cigarette lighters, which allowed passengers
to carry lighters using absorbed fuel inside airline cabins, will now be extended to include
all cigarette lighters. Be warned: Dad's Zippo, which survived World War II, will be
confiscated if you attempt to carry it on your person or in your checked bags — and you
may be fined if you protest the loss of this heirloom too loudly at a screening station.
Rhetorical question: In
such a case, when an old Zippo lighter is confiscated from an airline passenger, who utlimately
takes possession of it?
TSA Finds Data On Air Passengers Lacked
Protection. A new government report says officials in the Department of Homeland Security didn't
do enough to keep airline-passenger data secure when using it to test a traveler-screening program. DHS's
Inspector General says the Transportation Security Administration gathered 12 million passenger records
from February 2002 to June 2003 and used most of them to test the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening
System, or CAPPS 2, which was designed to check passenger names against government watch lists.
Passengers weren't told their information was being used for testing. TSA officials shelved CAPPS 2
last year amid complaints it was an invasion of passenger privacy.
TSA
Lied About Protecting Passenger Data. This is major stuff. It shows
that the TSA lied to the public about its use of personal data again and again and again.
Suspicious airline incidents
will head straight to TSA. To ensure it has a bird's eye view of every potential
problem, the Transportation Security Administration is now requiring all airlines and airports
to report immediately any potential security threats. The move is controversial: It
is praised by security experts as a key step in ensuring another 9/11 does not happen, while
airlines see a bureaucratic nuisance in the requirement to rapidly report incidents that may
be insignificant.
This is an analysis of security risks at airports, written in November, 2000.
Security Up in the Air.
Airport personnel are not well supervised. The poor control of ramp employees in particular creates an
enormous breach in security. While it is required that passengers and flight crews walk through metal
detectors before accessing gates and other restricted areas of the airport, the same cannot be said of other
airline employees. At some airports, employees working the ramp side of the facility access their time
clocks and locker areas through back gates or entrances under the terminal, and if there is a security station
at these entrances, the employee's identification card is all that is needed for entry. In some instances,
doors are locked and entry is granted by punching in a code number provided to employees. Such a system
allows multiple exits and entries throughout the day and also allows employees to bring in uninspected parcels.
TSA widens test of biometric IDs. The U.S.
government is spending $25 million this fiscal year to road test a universal secure identity card loaded
with biometric and personal data and tied to government "watch lists." Though the program is aimed at
simplifying the security checks that airport personnel and other transportation workers must go through, privacy
experts are warning of unintended consequences.
Imperial Transportation Bureaucrat Says Yes to
Lavish Offices, No to Armed Pilots. Undersecretary John Magaw, the chief of the new Transportation
Security Administration, has been very busy lately. He just spent $410,000 of your tax dollars installing
lavish fixtures in his new office suite at the Transportation department headquarters. Of course this is
nothing new in Washington. Self-indulgent bureaucrats routinely get away with wasteful extravagance.
It's rare, however, when they are caught red handed, and it's important to expose such behavior whenever possible.
Taxpayers deserve better and should demand his resignation.
TSA
Orders Air Passenger Data for Test. Even though the move was expected, civil
libertarians are protesting a directive by the government ordering airlines to turn over
personal information on their customers that can include credit card numbers and addresses
and even indicate a traveler's religion.
Trusted Traveler Program: If you fly
out of Logan Airport and don't want to take off your shoes for the security screeners and get your bags opened
up, pay attention. The U.S. government is testing its "Trusted Traveler" program, and Logan is the fourth
test airport. Currently only American Airlines frequent fliers are eligible, but if all goes well the
program will be opened up to more people and more airports.
Airline baggage limbo:
Two years after the TSA took charge of safety in the skies — including luggage inspections —
critics point to increased thefts and misplaced belongings and a backlog of tens of thousands of claims against the
agency. At least 15,000 claims remain in limbo pending a dispute between the federal agency and the airlines
as to who should pay for the missing goods, TSA officials say. Airline industry officials say the number is
closer to 27,000 claims, of which only "a couple of hundred" have been settled.
Don't Pay for an Airline Ticket with
Cash. Willie Jones paid cash for a ticket to Houston, where he planned to purchase plants
and shrubbery for his business. But by paying in cash, Jones immediately aroused suspicions that he was
a drug dealer. Carrying large amounts of cash and being an African-American apparently fits the DEA's
profile of such a criminal.
Privacy group sues TSA, Justice over airline
passenger data. A public interest organization has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the
Transportation Security Administration and the Justice Department, seeking the immediate release of information
about government efforts to collect airline passenger data since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Thank you for choosing United, Mr.
bin Laden. Last week, 9-11 commissioner John Lehman revealed that "it was the policy
(before 9-11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young
Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory." Hmmm… Is 19 more than two?
I Fit the Profile: The label my friendly
hometown airline had affixed to my bags had unexpectedly made me a marked man, someone selected for some unknown
special treatment. The routine was broken; the power had shifted; the violation had begun. I suddenly
felt as if in the grip of a giant vise, a terrible feeling I had last experienced as a teen-ager before fleeing
Communist Hungary.
Flying on Someone Else's
Airplane Ticket: The photo-ID requirement on airplanes was established
in 1996 by a still-secret FAA order. It was a reaction to TWA Flight 800, which
exploded shortly after takeoff, killing all 230 on board. This was [officially] an
accident — after 18 months the FBI concluded that there was no evidence of a bomb
or missile — but the ID requirement was established anyway. The idea is that
checking IDs increases security by making sure that the person flying is the
person who bought the ticket.
TSA-Approved Locks: Since 9/11,
airport security has started opening checked luggage more. If they find a locked suitcase, they break the
lock. But some travelers lock their suitcases, as they don't want the bags either accidentally opening up
in transit or being opened up by some baggage handler looking for something to filch. In an attempt to
satisfy both of these requirements, there's now a key escrow lock. You lock and unlock your suitcase
normally, but there's a special TSA key that allows airport security to unlock it, too.
Clearing the Way for Real Airport Security:
The Transportation Safety Administration has erected a giant smokescreen designed to give the illusion of
security — while deliberately obstructing the measures really required to stop terrorists.
TSA Takeover Complete, But Is
Flying Safer? In spite of the fact that there are more than 44,000 new passenger screeners
and 158 federal security directors serving the country's 429 commercial airports, not all security
experts agree that the federal presence means flying is safer.
Same story:
TSA
Takeover Complete, But Flying Not Necessarily Safer: Kelly
McCann, who trains bodyguards, government agents and military special forces,
said screeners must know how to ask specific questions designed to root out passengers
with unwelcome intentions. "They've been well-trained on the machines. They've
been trained to be courteous. They've been trained to more properly handle the traveling
public," McCann noted. "But, I've been traveling recently and I haven't seen any
situation where they ask you anything different than they used to."
"What
we're doing is nothing more than a show. By embarking on the
fantasy that we can solve this problem strictly by screening, we're
doing nothing but wasting the taxpayers' money. It sure isn't making
the traveling public any safer."
-- Captain Tracy Price, Chairman
Airline Pilot's Security
Alliance 1 2
TSA May Order Airlines to Share Data.
Delta Airlines had originally agreed to participate in the program but withdrew following a firestorm of
criticism over passenger privacy violations.
Passenger Profiling Violates Rights, Doesn't Improve
Safety. Because even some of the most critical government and commercial databases contain faulty
data, authorities who rely on systems like CAPPS II run the risk of misidentifying individuals and
"tagging" them as security risks, even forbidding passengers to board planes. Once available, travel authorities
or others may use this sensitive data for purposes other than identifying potential threats to passengers aboard
airplanes.
EPIC's web page about Passenger
Profiling. CAPPS-II originally shared many of the same elements of the Defense Department's
"Total Information Awareness" program, which aimed at profiling innocent people. While there is an
important threshold question if any of these profiling programs will actually be effective, there is also a
vital need to engage in a public debate over the appropriateness and the privacy and security risks of such
systems. A crucial first step for the debate is greater transparency from the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA).
TSA: Taxpayer-soaking agency.
The Transportation Security Administration is a fiscal black hole, and fiscal conservatives ought to be enraged.
Fiscal
Fiasco at TSA: Amidst concerns that the Transportation Security Administration
has pulled budgets out of thin air and wasted millions of dollars, prominent lawmakers on
Capitol Hill are now beginning to scrutinize the billions of tax dollars that
have been spent to make our nation's airports more secure.
TSA
proposes database to track all airline passengers: Flight information
from all airline passengers, including financial data, can be collected and analyzed
under a little-seen regulation proposed by the Transportation Security Administration
to track potential terrorists. The federal government wants to keep information
for 50 years on passengers it believes pose threats to national security, while
information on other passengers would be stored in a database for the duration of their
travel and eliminated after their return.
Feds
Testing Air Passengers Check System: The government is getting ready to
test a new risk-detection system that would check background information and assign a
threat level to everyone who buys a ticket for a commercial flight.
The No-Fly List
When I started collecting information about the No-Fly List, the number of people on the list
was believed to be less than 20,000. In the most recent articles, the number is estimated
at over 80,000. Nobody [who will talk about it] knows for sure how people get on the
list, just as nobody knows why certain people are frequently audited by the IRS; however, in
the case of the IRS, there is
abundant evidence that
many IRS audits are politically motivated. Maybe that is the case here as well.
The latest:
U.S. Government to Take Over Airline
Passenger Vetting. The Department of Homeland Security will take over responsibility
for checking airline passenger names against government watch lists beginning in January, and will
require travelers for the first time to provide their full name, birth date and gender as a condition
for boarding commercial flights, U.S. officials said Wednesday [10/22/2008]. ... To bolster their
case for the new program, U.S. officials for their first time disclosed that the no-fly list includes
fewer than 2,500 individuals and the selectee list fewer than 16,000.
We'll Have to Check, Sir.
Pity the innocent air traveler whose name repeatedly registers as a match on the government's mammoth
terrorist watch list. One major airline registers 9,000 false hits every day, according to Michael
Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security. These travelers and thousands more must routinely step
aside and provide firmer proof of identity. … The terrorist watch list keeps growing, exceeding 900,000
and adding up to 20,000 a month, by some estimates.
The TSA's useless
photo ID rules: The no-fly list -- a list of people so dangerous they are not allowed to fly
yet so innocent we can't arrest them -- and the less dangerous "watch list" contain a combined 1 million
names representing the identities and aliases of an estimated 400,000 people. There aren't that many
terrorists out there; if there were, we would be feeling their effects. Almost all of the people
stopped by the no-fly list are false positives.
Air marshals' names tagged on 'no-fly' list.
Some federal air marshals have been denied entry to flights they are assigned to protect when their names matched
those on the terrorist no-fly list, and the agency says it's now taking steps to make sure their agents are
allowed to board in the future.
Mandela
still on U.S. terrorist lists. Nelson Mandela, South Africa's Nobel Prize-winning symbol of hope
for leading the fight against apartheid, is reported still on U.S. terrorist watch lists. His inclusion means
Mandela must have special permission to enter the United States, USA Today said Thursday [5/1/2008].
Update:
U.S. Congress removes Mandela
from terrorist list. Former South African President Nelson Mandela received a gift for his 90th
birthday as U.S. Congress finally approved the removal of his name from the country's terrorist list, local
media reported on Friday [6/27/2008].
Unlikely Terrorists On No Fly
List. Anyone who has passed through an airport in the last five years and has been pulled aside
for extra screening knows that the government and the airlines keep a list of people they consider to be
security threats. Every time you check in at the ticket counter your name is run through a computer
to make sure you are not on something called the "No Fly List."
The No-Fly List. For months,
the TSA, a federal agency established a year ago to protect the nation's transportation system from terrorism,
denied it had a blacklist of people to be singled out by security staff for special inspection and questioning.
But in mid-November, in an interview with this reporter, spokesman David Steigman acknowledged that the
government has "a list of about 1,000 people" who are deemed "threats to aviation" and not allowed on
airplanes under any circumstances.
I Got Trapped in the Secret 'No Fly List'.
On August 19th [2004], at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Edward Kennedy brought to public attention,
the existence of this notorious 'no-fly list.' It has been reported in the news media that more than 350
Americans have suffered harassment by the execution of this 'no-fly list.'
"No Fly" List
Revelations: The FOIA lawsuit, brought by two San Francisco peace activists and the ACLU of Northern
California, is now history. But an interesting history it is. It's a tale of the federal government's
response to the events of September 11th — its often unorganized efforts to coordinate the screening
of airline passengers using what became known as the "no fly" list. After they were stopped at the San
Francisco airport and told that their names were on the government's "no fly" list, Plaintiffs Janet Adams and
Rebecca Gordon sued to obtain access to documents maintained by the FBI and the TSA about themselves —
and about the "no fly" list in general. Even in the face of this lawsuit, the TSA and FBI was willing to
release few documents to the public.
Conversation with Kip Hawley,
TSA Administrator, Part 3. Let's talk about ID checks. I've called the no-fly list a list of
people so dangerous they cannot be allowed to fly under any circumstance, yet so innocent we can't arrest them
even under the Patriot Act. Except that's not even true; anyone, no matter how dangerous they are, can fly
without an ID ?or by using someone else's boarding pass. And the list itself is filled with people who
shouldn't be on it — dead people, people in jail, and so on — and primarily catches
innocents with similar names. Why are you bothering?
Faulty 'No-Fly' System Detailed.
The federal government's "no-fly" list had 16 names on it on Sept. 11, 2001. Today, it has more
than 20,000. The list, which identifies suspected terrorists seeking to board commercial airplanes,
expanded rapidly even though the government knew that travelers were being mistakenly flagged, according to
federal records. The records detail how government officials expressed little interest in tracking or
resolving cases in which passenger names were confused with the growing number of names on the list.
Papers
Show Confusion as Government Watch List Grew Quickly. More than 300 pages of internal
documents, turned over by the Justice Department on Friday as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil
Liberties Union, provide a rare glimpse inside the workings of the government's so-called no-fly list.
Federal officials have maintained tight secrecy over the list, saying little publicly about how it is developed,
how many people are on it or how it is put into practice, even as prominent people like Senator Edward M.
Kennedy have been mistakenly blocked from boarding planes.
U.S. Watch Lists Sow Frustration
and Fear. For years, Elizabeth Kushigian never had a problem flying back-and-forth to Costa Rica,
where she runs a local micro-lending nonprofit. But in 2004, she suddenly found it impossible to re-enter
the United States without being ordered into a special isolation room at Miami International Airport. There,
she'd wait for extra scrutiny. "I was in the line where you come in and stamp your passport, and each time
they would scan the passport and look at (the) screen and stiffen," Kushigian says.
Blacklist Grounds
American Passengers. Replying to questions from Salon magazine, David Steigman, a spokesman for
the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said, "We have a list of about 1,000 people." The
agency was created a year ago by the U.S. Congress to handle transportation safety during the war on terror.
"This list is composed of names that are provided to us by various government organizations like the FBI, CIA
and INS — We don't ask how they decide who to list. Each agency decides on its own who is a
'threat to aviation.'"
Transfer of terrorist
no-fly list 'earmarked'? To secure congressional funding for a pet project, Rep. John Murtha,
D-Pa., made a surprising claim: The little-known National Drug Intelligence Center was about to take
charge of the "vitally important" terrorist no-fly list. Murtha's news, in a letter he sent to the House
Intelligence Committee last month, came as a surprise to the nation's intelligence community.
No-Fly List
Checked for Accuracy, Cut. The Bush administration is checking the accuracy of a
watch list of suspected terrorists banned from traveling on airliners in the U.S. and will probably
cut the list in half, the head of the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday
[1/17/2007]. … Cutting the list in half is "nice but not all that meaningful," said Barry
Steinhardt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. He noted that various
estimates of the list's size, which is classified, have ranged from 50,000 to 350,000 names.
Pushing National IDs: As [Justin] Rood points out,
this extensive list contains numerous mistakes. "U.S. lawmakers and their spouses have been detained
because their names were on the watch list," Rood observed. "Reporters who have reviewed versions of the
list found it included the names of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, at the time he was alive but in
custody in Iraq; imprisoned al Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui; and 14 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001
hijackers, all of whom perished in the attacks."
Trimming the
"No-Fly" List: How many people have been a "false positive" on the TSA's no fly list
and then inconvenienced? The purpose of the government's "no-fly" list is to identify people
considered too dangerous to be allowed on commercial flights. Apparently, thousands of people
have been mistakenly linked to names on terror watch lists when they crossed the border, boarded
commercial airliners or were stopped for traffic violations, a government report said
Friday.
Why the System, Though More
Efficient, Still Does Not Accord Travelers Sufficient Due Process: For those who have
been wrongfully detained or delayed at the airport, or when traveling to Canada or Mexico, relief
may be in sight. Beginning February 20, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will
launch the new DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP).
Associations
Offer Qualified Support For DHS Watch-List Redress Plan. The Department of Homeland
Security on Feb. 20 plans to launch the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, offering travelers
faster means to correct watch-list misidentification or point of entry issues, or rectify
situations where passengers "have been unfairly or incorrectly delayed, denied boarding or
identified for additional screening at our nation's transportation hubs," DHS said.
80,000+ red-flagged
on "No Fly" Lists. The latest figures that I have seen are that at least 80,000
Americans are now on FBI and Homeland Security's red-flagged "no fly" lists with another 325,000
on yellow-flagged "watch lists" (the latter being subject to body and luggage searches). Hundreds
more names are added every week. The criteria for being put in these lists is secret, and there
is no official procedure for getting off a list.
Men named David Nelson are being
searched at airports across U.S.. Throughout Southern California and across the country, men
named David Nelson report they have been harassed, questioned by FBI agents, pulled off airplanes, searched
and then searched again when attempting air travel.
20,000 Put on government "no-fly"
lists. The reason [Senator Edward] Kennedy was put on the list was that a suspected terrorist
had allegedly used his name as an alias. You would think that airport security would be able
to tell the difference between a fake and real Edward Kennedy, given that Senator Kennedy has one of the
best known faces in America. He has also been taking the same flight between Boston and Washington, D.C.
for the past 42 years. But no, the computer said not to allow anyone with his name to board.
There's
no getting off that no-fly list. Sarah Zapolsky was checking in for a flight to Italy when
she discovered that her 9-month-old son's name was on the United States' "no fly" list of suspected
terrorists. "We pointed down to the stroller, and he sat there and gurgled," Zapolsky said,
recalling the July [2005] incident at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. "The
desk agent started laughing … She couldn't print us out a boarding pass because he's on the no-fly
list."
Editor's Note: In order to make that decision, the airline ticket agent would have to believe that the nine month
old baby was a terrorist and a potential threat. This could easily be used as proof of the ticket agent's
insanity. People who stubbornly follow instructions, no matter how absurd, are dangerous
individuals. They're the people who make wartime atrocities possible.
Tens
of thousands mistakenly matched to terrorist watch lists. About 30,000 airline passengers
have discovered since last November that their names were mistakenly matched with those appearing on
federal watch lists, a transportation security official said Tuesday [12/6/2005].
You are now on the
No-Fly List. The National Press Photographers Association has gotten numerous reports
from members who say they've been hassled by police since the Sept. 11, 2001. In early
June, about 100 photographers crowded onto Manhattan subway trains and snapped pictures of each other in
protest of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed ban on photos on public transit.
Congresswoman
Has No-Fly List Troubles. A California congresswoman said she was briefly denied access to a
United Airlines flight last week because her name appeared on a "no fly list" set up after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat who has been a critic of the no-fly list, said her
staff had booked her a one-way ticket from Boise, Idaho, to Cincinnati through Denver. But they were
prevented from printing her boarding pass online and at an airport kiosk.
Grounded along with
other fellow terrorists. When my wife's favorite aunt died last November we immediately
made plans to head for St. Louis for the funeral. We drove the 700 miles to
St. Louis. I am not allowed to fly on an airplane within the United States
because the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration
consider me a threat to the security of the United States. Yep. I'm on the
official "no-fly" list, along with some 80,000 other Americans.
More
on the No-Fly List. Edward Allen's reaction to being on the government's "no-fly" list should
have been the tip-off that he is no terrorist. "I don't want to be on the list. I want to fly
and see my grandma," the 4-year-old boy said, according to his mother. Sijollie Allen and her son had
trouble boarding planes last month because someone with the same name as Edward is on a government terrorist
watch list.
4-year-old shows up on
government 'no-fly' list. Sijollie Allen isn't the first mother to have travel plans delayed
because of a 4-year-old son. … "Is this a joke?" she recalled telling Continental Airlines agents
Dec. 21 at Bush Intercontinental Airport. "You can tell he's not a terrorist."
Travelers gripe about no-fly
errors. What if you were denied a boarding pass right up front because a government
database thinks you're a threat to America? That's the most common gripe from nearly 100 passengers
who filed complaints with the Transportation Security Administration between November 2003 and May 2004,
according to documents obtained recently by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Tens of
thousands mistakenly put on terrorist watch lists. Nearly 30,000 airline
passengers discovered in the past year that they were mistakenly placed on federal "terrorist"
watch lists, a transportation security official said Tuesday [12/6/2005].
Expanding
the No-Fly List: The no-fly list created by U.S. authorities, which singles
out passengers who are potential terrorist threats, is the target of frequent criticism
that it's incomplete and unreliable. But that hasn't stopped it from expanding
dramatically. Aviation sources say the list has grown to more than 31,000, up
from 19,000 last September.
The
No-Fly List: Imagine a list of suspected terrorists so dangerous that we can't
ever let them fly, yet so innocent that we can't arrest them — even under the
draconian provisions of the Patriot Act. This is the federal government's "No Fly"
list. First circulated in the weeks after 9/11 as a counterterrorist tool, its
details are shrouded in secrecy. But because the list is filled with inaccuracies
and ambiguities, thousands of innocent, law-abiding Americans have been subjected to
lengthy interrogations and invasive searches every time they fly, and sometimes
forbidden to board airplanes. It also has been a complete failure, and has not
been responsible for a single terrorist arrest anywhere.
"Please
step to the side, sir". Several documents produced by the Transportation
Security Administration late in March [2003] indicate that the TSA actually keeps two
main watch lists — one "no-fly" list of people "to be denied transport," and
one "selectee list" of people who need "additional screening prior to boarding," according
to an internal memo released by the agency. These lists have "expanded
almost daily" since November 2001, the memo says.
No-fly
lists easily circumvented, passengers say. The whole notion that keeping a
list of names contributes to safety is kind of questionable, especially
when terrorists use aliases all the time.
Look Who Made
the "No Fly" List: Senator Ted Kennedy — one of the most recognizable
figures in American politics — told a Senate committee hearing on
Thursday [8/19/2004] he had been blocked several times from boarding commercial
airline flights because his name was on a "no-fly" list intended to exclude
potential terrorists.
Judge Rebukes Government
Over No-Fly List. A federal judge ruled Tuesday [6/15/2004] that the government
is stonewalling attempts by the ACLU to acquire information about the government's secret
no-fly list, which bars potential terrorists from boarding commercial flights. The
FBI, TSA and other agencies have cited security concerns in not disclosing to the ACLU
how two of its clients got on the list.
ACLU
to sue government over "no-fly" list. American Civil Liberties Union's
officials declined to comment in advance of their planned announcement Tuesday [4/6/2004]
that they would file a class-action lawsuit challenging the list of travelers that the
government has barred from flying because they're considered a threat.
Mr. bin Laden,
you're clear to fly. Apparently bin Laden is not on the FBI's
secret "no-fly list". According to airline-security documents obtained by Insight
magazine, the name Osama bin Laden was punched into the computer by an airline official and,
remarkably, that name was cleared at the security checkpoint all passengers must pass
through before being issued a boarding pass.
ACLU
Seeks Government Data on Secret "No-Fly" List: The ACLU
is asking a federal judge to demand that the TSA, FBI or the
Justice Department disclose who is on the list, how they got on it and
how they can get off it.
Proof of a No-Fly List: Man
Claims to Have Bomb, Is Barred from Flying. A man was barred from flying
for 24 hours after he made a comment about an explosive device in his hand-held computer
as his plane was about to take off from Salt Lake City on
Friday [01/30/2004], officials said.
U.S. terror
watch list keeps eye on all groups: The U.S. master terror watch list, used
to stop suspected terrorists from entering the country, includes not only suspected
al Qaeda members but other suspects from a wide spectrum of organizations around
the world, a top federal law enforcement official says. [Questions arose] about
the master list and other watch lists including the TSA's "no-fly list" that were raised
last week when it was reported that FBI agents had briefly detained a harmless federal
employee who has an Irish last name.
Amtrak Antics: With the
Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) No-Fly list kicking an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 terrorists
off American aviation, those folks have to get where they're going somehow. They could drive, of
course, but there's a limit to how much carnage one can wreak with a car, even an SUV. And wreaking
carnage is what terrorists are dying to do, right? So they're probably opting for trains and
busses. Figure half are enduring Greyhound, while the other 40,000 to 50,000 are hopping Amtrak.
Infants Among Those Caught Up
in "No-Fly" Confusion. Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports
throughout the United States because their names are the same as, or similar to, those of
possible terrorists on the government's "no-fly list." Because of these screenings,
parents have missed flights while scrambling to have babies' passports and other documents
faxed to allow them to board.
Same story:
Even
Babies Aren't Exempt From "No-Fly" List. Infants have been stopped
from boarding planes at airports throughout the United States because their names
are the same as or similar to those of possible terrorists on the government's "no-fly"
list. It sounds like a joke, but it's not funny to parents who miss flights
while scrambling to have babies' passports and other documents faxed.
Editor's Note:
According to this story,The
Transportation Security Administration, which administers the list,
instructs airlines not to deny boarding to children under 12 -- or select them for extra
security checks -- even if their names match those on a list.
... So why didn't the screeners know this?
The latest example:
8-Year-Old Boy Held From Plane for Appearing on
No-Fly List. Bryan Moore was set to catch his first plane trip when he arrived at an airport in
Cortez, Colorado to fly home after visiting his sister, said the report. "They almost got me scheduled
in and then the lady just bowed her head and said, 'We can't get you on this plane, you're a terrorist,'" Moore
said.
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