Prior Permission From Government to be Required for Each Flight

[Jack]

From the "Land of the Free?" file:

The Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are quietly pushing for a set of crazy new rules. All travellers in the U.S. will be required to get government-issued credentials and official clearance before every flight, both within the United States as well as internationally.

And Monday we received a new political action alert from Edward Hasbrouk, The Practical Nomad blogger who's been fighting the plan (and who testified about it at a TSA hearing). "The international Advance Passenger Information System rules were published, as 'final' effective February 19,2008, with no further opportunity for public comment even on the changes from the original proposal."



Hasbrouck sees this as a very ominous development. "The Department of Homeland Security can now evade debate on the similar elements of their Secure Flight proposal by claiming that it's needed to 'harmonize' the domestic and international travel restrictions — as though travel within America was tantamount to and subject to the same government restrictions and controls as crossing international borders."

The stakes are high — and air travel may never be the same. "The Secure Flight proposal also includes new and odious requirements that travelers display their government-issued credentials — not to government agents, but to airline personnel (staff or contractors), whenever the Department of Homeland Security orders the airline to demand them… " That alone will create a huge potential for abuse. "The proposed Secure Flight rules would leave travelers hopelessly at the mercy of any identity thief who claims to be an airline contractor (subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, etc.) demanding 'Your papers, please!' anywhere in an airport."

But your personal information faces an even bigger risk. "In addition, the proposed rules would leave the airlines free to keep all the information obtained from travelers under government coercion, even after they've passed it on to the government. Your personal data would continue to be considered, at least in America, solely their property. Not yours..."

According to Hasbrouk, the Identity Project — an organization defending our right to travel freely in our own country — has made requests under the Privacy Act and they "have uncovered many more details (and many more problems) with the U.S. government's dossiers of travel records, which include everything from what books travelers were carrying to phone numbers of friends and associates to whether they asked for one bed or two in their hotel room."

Unfortunately, Monday, October 22 was the deadline for posting public comments on the proposed rules.

But it's never too late to express your outrage... against another act in the continuing project to turn the United States into North Korea.

Prior Permission From Government to be Required for Each Flight - 10 Zen Monkeys

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking significant steps toward implementing a key 9/11 Commission recommendation - uniform watch list matching by TSA - also known as Secure Flight.

The program is designed to conduct uniform prescreening of passenger information against federal government watch lists for domestic and international flights. Currently, air carriers are responsible for checking passengers against government watch lists.

Under Secure Flight, TSA will receive information for each passenger. TSA will then determine any matches of information with government watch lists and transmit matching results back to aircraft operators. To this end, the TSA has issued the Secure Flight Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) (3.7Mb, pdf), which lays out the Department of Homeland Security's plans to assume watch list matching.

Secure Flight will match limited passenger information against government watch lists to identify known and suspected terrorists, prevent known and suspected terrorists from boarding an aircraft, facilitate legitimate passenger air travel, and protect individuals' privacy. Secure Flight will:

* Identify known and suspected terrorists;
* Prevent individuals on the No Fly List from boarding an aircraft;
* Identify individuals on the Selectee List for enhanced screening,
* Facilitate passenger air travel by providing fair, equitable and consistent matching process across all aircraft operators; and
* Protect individuals' privacy

The NPRM initiates a public comment period that will enable the traveling public to voice comments and concerns. Initial implementation of Secure Flight is expected to occur in late 2008.

TSA has extended the final day for submission of public comments to the Secure Flight Notice of Proposed Rule Making by 30 days. The new deadline is Wednesday, November 21. Click here to read the notice of extension (145Kb, pdf). Instructions for submitting comments can be found by clicking here (3.6Mb, pdf). Comments will be evaluated and used in preparing the final rule.

TSA: Secure Flight Program

[Thanatos]

Huh? Alright, I can't possibly believe anybody thinks this is a good idea.

I am so tempted to get a plane and offer paid in cash charter flights to people. The market for people who want to go see their dying grandmother and don't really want to wait for the Feds to rubber stamp their stuff is going to be huge.

[Osborn F Enready]

If people are dependent on a service, they will tolerate ridiculous demands.

Cut off the airlines, and stop using them.

[Milton Bradley]

The one good side to all of this is that all the corporate representatives that fly around for free on tax dollar will now have to suffer more, and I do like that aspect of this development.


Suffer bitches!

[Milton Bradley]

This is so screwed up, and transparent. Think about it for a second..., what are you going to do, boycott? Great, then they'll just subsidize the whole industry.


All the people involved in this little scam need a bullit between the eye balls.

[Milton Bradley]

Damn, did I kill another thread?


OK, was it because I got the answer right the first time, or is there some other reason nobody feels like contributing to this thread.

[grandpa]

Myabe it was the "bullit between the eye balls" statement.
Don't worry, I've killed plenty of threads with my radical views. You're not alone.

Plus, it seems like a slow day today.

Grandpa h.

[Milton Bradley]

Myabe it was the "bullit between the eye balls" statement.
Don't worry, I've killed plenty of threads with my radical views. You're not alone.

Plus, it seems like a slow day today.

Well, I firmly stand by my point that somebody needs a bullit. That's not going to change any time soon.

[ZNFYRH]

When people cannot afford the money or time involved with the alternatives to plane travel, they will submit to the government action.

This is, unfortunately, a conflict between principle and practice. The people who need to fly don't have the luxury of principles.

[Milton Bradley]

I guess you just can't run a profitable airline unless we issue in the Police State. :rolleyes:

[Athena]

I have heard it is necessary to show legal ID before traveling Grey Hound. Free America is no longer free, and considering citizens are being passive, well.... shit, it is stupid as hell that our young are dying in Iraq. Really, did the Iraqi government have as much control over citizens as our own government has taken?

[Osborn F Enready]

Anybody who can't put principle above practice, unless life or death is in the balance, is a pretty shallow, or internally dishonest fellow.