Once You're Tagged, Your Plans Are Dead

Once the government gets your identity screwed up, you're already in trouble. Under the next phase of 'security,' CAPPS II, you'll likely be in trouble forever.

The TSA anticipates that about 10% of air travelers are potential terrorists, and the new system, quiescent for months, will point them out for additional scrutiny.

Some 8% of travelers will get branded as "yellow" travelers, and will get special treatment by the TSA's screeners; one or two percent, the agents told the Washington Post, will be denied travel altogether.

They're 'red' risks.

When you buy your ticket, your data -- with whom you're traveling, where you're going, your travel history, your credit history, your method of payment, your departure city, and a host of 'secret TSA criteria' -- will determine whether you'll be allowed to board, or just hassled, or if you'll have your plans nuked, possibly forever.

Brian Turmail, TSA's recently-upgraded head of truth and enlightenment, told the Post, "Not only should we keep passengers from sitting next to a terrorist, we should keep them from sitting next to wanted axe murderers." (The TSA's now doing the police and FBI's work, too!) Turmail didn't mention how many of the 10% of air travelers are suspected axe murderers, or what the population of axe murderers in the population at large is supposed to be.

Delta (and Song), recruited earlier this year to test the TSA's dirty spy system on a volunteer basis, backed out of the deal, amid public outcry. The next quisling airline won't be disclosed to the public, for fear that Americans will go where their dossiers aren't shared with government snoops. After the co-opted airline proofs out the TSA system, the TSA will make CAPPS II mandatory for all Part 121 carriers.

The ACLU doesn't like the intrusions, on practical (rather than constitutional) grounds. Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, was quoted in the Post as saying, "This system is going to be replete with errors. You could be falsely arrested. You could be delayed. You could lose your ability to travel." That's OK -- the TSA can't be sued. Government just makes the rules.

The TSA won't say just what criteria it will use to catch the 10% of air travelers who are axe murderers, terrorist suspects, or political enemies of the totalitarian state; that would breach 'national security.' They also won't say what you'll have to do, once you're flagged, to restore your good name and to be allowed by the government to travel again.

Some of the criteria that are known, though, have to do with buying one's ticket for cash; or buying a one-way, or a standby fare; having a poor credit rating; or being on a list of suspected, or wanted, criminals. The current system, though, uses last names and sometimes just first initials, though, so if you have a common last name, you're probably going to be on the list.

Under CAPPS II, the government will require the airlines to do a lot of its spy-work, with airline payrolls' paying for the added police-state burden. Airlines will have to gather (and presumably verify, under threat of criminal prosecution) your full name, home address, date of birth, home telephone number, and your travel plans, as well as your method of payment -- leaving open the door for the TSA to access bank and account records, financial history, your purchases, even your movie rentals.

David A. Keene, who is the chairman of the American Conservative Union, told the Post that this program isn't about catching axe murderers, or even terrorists: "This system is not designed just to get potential terrorists," he noted. "It's a law enforcement tool. The wider the net you cast, the more people you bring in."

All the intrusion and data-mining must be working, as the TSA's arrests of so many terrorists at airports seems to prove.

It's just a good thing that terrorists are so well-known to the government -- and that they never use fake ID.

FMI: www.tsa.gov