Submitted Comments

131 From Hugh H, 20 October 2004, 04:52:12 PM PST

I resent being treated like a criminal while you don't have the wherewhithal to properly screen the cargo I'm flying with. Your smoke and mirrors illusion of security does nothing to make anyone safer. Your proposed screening measures are also a gross violation of passengers' civil rights. Do the right thing and scuttle "Secure Flight".

130 From Chris, Mn, 20 October 2004, 03:40:16 PM PST

This is another bad idea in a long history of bad ideas from the TSA and Homeland Security. This is still the USA and not Communist China. The government is not entitled to this information in any way, shape, or form. Why do you believe there is a relationship between gun ownership and terrorism? If that is really the case, then start arresting all police officers and military personel. So, please try to find terrorists another way, or better yet, allow all CCW holders to fly armed.

129 From M, Oregon, 20 October 2004, 01:22:55 PM PST

Is this still America,land of the Free? 1.Since when did the Executive Branch have the right to stop Americans from traveling? 2. I understand that more than a 120,000 names are on terrorist watch lists that TSA will use to screen fliers. Nowhere dose the TSA mention testing the right of passengers to seek redress of an error. It is also mute on how placed on the watch list could have his or her name removed. 3. No one who flew in June 2004 gave their perrmission for that information to be turned-over to the goverment. This appears to be an illegal data dump as no Privacy Act notice was given. 4. The TSA has a horrible record on privacy. During the past two years, the TSA secretly obtained millions of travel records from airlines and airline-reservation systems and passed these records on to priviate contractors, why ? 5.TSA already has millions of travel records and ran testing on these records. Why more & what were the results of the earlier testing. Is this a back door way to create a registration data base of honest gunowners & their guns, which are checked legally in their baggage when flying? 6. No one within the TSA has been punished for the earlier, secret privacy invasions. Accountabilty? 7.The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security(DHS),still hasn't completed their investigation into all of TSA's previous privacy violations. 8. The terroist watch lists are a mess. TSA will use lists that have proven to be inaccurate in order to test a system that has no proven effectiveness:garbage in garbage out. 9. The millions of our tax dollars that will be spent on 'Secure Flight' would be better proven on things we know will work, such as cargo screening, better training for TSA employees, and point to point baggage matching. The traing and arming of our pilots it's the law get on with it! 10. This still is Amercia,not Communist China. Internal boarder controls are un-American.

128 From Mark Y, NC, 20 October 2004, 12:49:39 PM PST

Wouldn't it be more prudent to just do some simple profiling first, such as looking at Muslims, foreigners, and high-risk extremist groups in the US, before infringing on the privacy of normal, everday US citizens?

127 From Mark Y, NC, 20 October 2004, 12:49:26 PM PST

Wouldn't it be more prudent to just do some simple profiling first, such as looking at Muslims, foreigners, and high-risk extremist groups in the US, before infringing on the privacy of normal, everday US citizens?

126 From Georgia V, Port Townsend, WA, 20 October 2004, 10:34:05 AM PST

We are all to be treated like suspected terrorists when we purchase tickets to fly. It isn't enough that we are practically strip searched every time we fly, now we are to be subjected to privacy invasions worthy of any facsist dictatorship or third world despot. The USA, once the home of the free.

125 From anonymous, 20 October 2004, 09:38:41 AM PST

If state and national senators and congressman are mistakenly placed on the list or flagged because their names are close to those "terrorists" how than can we the public be sure we will not be misidentified too. Nowhere does the TSA mention a passenger's right to seek redress of an error and how a flier who is wrongly placed on the list have their name removed for the watch list. This is unacceptable. Freedom is what sets the United States apart from the terrorist nations. We should not be taking pointers from the way those nations are set up and unjustly restricting citizens mobility.ould not be playing into

124 From Joe R, Pinehurst, TX, 20 October 2004, 09:30:57 AM PST

Article One, Section Eight of the U.S. Constitution enumerates specific powers and authorities granted to the federal government. The first ten amendments list specific prohibitions to any jurisdition of United States Government against the unalienable rights U.S. Citizens.

Lacking any enabling amendment, it is therefore redundantly obvious that no jurisdiction of U.S. Government has the constitutional authority to invade the privacy of its peaceful, law abiding citizens.

But then... So what?

1. In direct conflict with the first amendment, political speech has been criminalized.

2. In direct conflict with the second amendment, governments of all jurisdictions infringe on the keeping and bearing of arms by peaceful, law abiding citizens.

3. In direct conflict with the fourth and fifth amendments, governments of all jurisdictions routinely (and without due process of law) search and confiscate the property of citizens who have not been found guilty of any crime.

Safe Air Travel insuring polite passengers and crew: Could be easily achieved by distributing stun guns or similar weapons to each crew member and boarding passenger who would voluntarily accept the responsibility for them.

123 From Stephen W, San Diego, CA, 20 October 2004, 09:29:03 AM PST

Like many other attempts before - this is bad security. You're going to infringe upon our rights, make domestic travel considerably more uncomfortable, and STILL won't be any more effective at catching bad people. Instead you'll inconvenience millions of innocents.

This isn't the solution, please end this madness at once.

122 From Steve H, Medford, MA, 20 October 2004, 08:46:08 AM PST

The motivation for the Secure Flight program is understandable, but in my opinion misguided.

It has been amply demonstrated that many names already appear on government "No-Fly" lists in error. The senior United States Senator from my home state has been prevented from boarding an airplane not once, not twice, but FIVE times in the last year, because his name is sufficiently similar to an alias perhaps once used by a person who was perhaps once accused of some sort of crime somewhere. If Senator Kennedy isn't safe from harassment by TSA bureaucrats, no one is.

Instead of spending millions of dollars on an illegal scheme to invade travelers' privacy and bring a demonstrably false sense of security to the traveling public, why doesn't the TSA concentrate its efforts on improving training for airport employees, screening cargo containers, and implementing existing common-sense approaches for improving the safety and reliability of public transport in these United States?

To travel freely within the borders of this nation without being commanded to produce one's residency documents is a fundamental right. No government agency should be in the business of creating a vast system that can, on the whim of the executive, be used to limit the rights of millions of citizens to travel freely.

Thank you for your consideration.


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