Will Compensate For Attorneys' Fees
An agreement has been
reached between representatives with the Federal Aviation
Administration and Transportation Security Administration, and the
American Civil Liberties Union over a lawsuit originally brought
about to uncover information about the government's no-fly
list.
Under terms of the settlement, the agencies will compensate the
ACLU for attorneys' fees in cases involving Rebecca Gordon and
Janet Adams, two San Francisco-area peace activists who publish a
newsletter critical of the Bush administration. The Associated
Press reports both were detained while checking in for a flight to
Boston in 2003.
They and the ACLU sued the FAA and TSA under the Freedom of
Information Act, demanding the government release information on
how people can get on -- and off -- the watchlist.
Neither the FAA or TSA would comment on the settlement.
Documents released by the agencies in October 2004 revealed the
government has "two primary principles" -- whether various
intelligence agencies view an individual as a potential threat to
US civil aviation, and whether enough information has been provided
to support that claim -- but no "hard and fast" rules for
determining who gets put on the secret watchlists.
As Aero-News reported at that
time, the agency also relies on an archaic technology
called Soundex (dating back to 1918) to flag names that sound
alike, but are spelled differently.
A total of 301 pages of redacted documents also showed the list
grew from approximately 16 names on September 11, 2001 to nearly
600 by the end of the year. As many as 20,000
It's somewhat
surprising the agencies released any information, as both
the FAA and TSA initially balked at providing anything to the ACLU.
It took a decision by US District Court Judge Charles Beyer -- who
reviewed the secret government data in private and subsequently
said the government was making "frivolous claims" about why the
information could not be released -- to get the information
released.
The ACLU sought compensation for the fees it incurred in
defending the two women after it had obtained all the information
the organization believed it could get out of the government...
including how the government determines how a person can be removed
from the list:
When the FBI is convinced the person is, in fact, NOT a threat.
How reassuring.