Secure Flight Program Suspended

[alicia-w]

Security concerns have caused the government to suspend plans for an ambitious program to check every domestic airline passenger's name against government watch lists.

Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley told the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday that he has directed that the program's information technology system "go through a comprehensive audit."

Hawley did not say whether any security flaws or breaches had been discovered.

"We don't believe any passenger information has been compromised," Amy von Walter, spokeswoman for TSA, told reporters.

The program called Secure Flight has been troubled from the start.

It is strongly opposed by civil libertarians who fear the program would grow into a massive domestic surveillance system in which the government tracks people whenever they travel.

Nearly four years and $200 million after the program was put into operation, Hawley said last month that the agency hadn't yet determined precisely how it would work.

Government auditors gave the project failing grades -- twice -- and rebuked its authors for secretly obtaining personal information about airline passengers.

Currently, airlines check the names of passengers against watch lists that the government gives them. Under Secure Flight the government would take over from the airlines the task of checking names against watch lists.

The September 11 commission later urged the administration to expedite the task because, it said, the watch lists currently used by airlines aren't complete.

But checking names against watch lists hasn't been as easy as it sounds, partly because airlines collect only limited information about passengers.

Also, the number of names on the watch lists increased into the tens of thousands since the September 11 attacks. That problem has resulted in passengers from infants to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy being mistakenly told they couldn't fly because they have the same name as someone on the watch list.

The project has also drawn protests from privacy advocates and civil libertarians because its stated purpose has changed, often expanding.

Project managers once said that it would be used to track down violent criminals, and then backed down. They've also proposed using commercial data, such as that supplied by Choicepoint, to locate members of terrorist sleeper cells among people who buy airline tickets.

[gtalum]

Hopefully they'll drop the deeply flawed "watch lists" altogether.

[alicia-w]

they should fix them instead of dropping them.

[gtalum]

they should fix them instead of dropping them.

Why fix them? Anyone can travel under an assumed name fairly easily. I know a guy who can whip up a very real-looking fake drivers' license for $50.

Having the names of "terrorist suspects" on file doesn't do a thing to improve security and has a very high probability of tripping false alarms and costs us a fortune in manpower and lost productivity.

[alicia-w]

do you have any proof that they dont improve security? wouldnt you think that since there havent been any terrorist incidents in this country since 9/11, that some security measures have worked? i think they have an equally high probablity of catching some of these folks.

[gtalum]

do you have any proof that they dont improve security?

The fact that no on eoff the lists have ever been caught and tried, for starters. Secondly, it has caused years of grief for people mistakenly on the lists.

wouldnt you think that since there havent been any terrorist incidents in this country since 9/11, that some security measures have worked?

Not really. There's no evidence that any plots have even been attempted in the past 4 years. There's certainly no evidence that anyone has been caught from these lists. And despite 4 years of searching, Bin Laden is still running free.

i think they have an equally high probablity of catching some of these folks.

Then why haven't they? They've actually just made it extremely difficult for thousands of law-abiding Americans to travel by air.

[alicia-w]

i travel several times a month and i dont find it that much more difficult to travel by air now than 5 years ago.

[gtalum]

i travel several times a month and i dont find it that much more difficult to travel by air now than 5 years ago.

I travel several times a month as well, and do find it more difficult, but we've been over this before. The people on the lists who don't belong there find it virtually impossible to fly. That ain't right. Anyone who is legitimately on the lists will just fly under an assumed name, so its ineffective.