Submitted Comments
218 From Liam W, Cherry Valley, Ny, 21 October 2004, 01:45:12 PM PST
Since when did the Executive Branch have the right to stop Americans from traveling? More than 120,000 names are on terrorist watch lists that the TSA will use to screen fliers. Nowhere does the TSA mention testing the right of passengers to seek redress of an error. It is also mute on how a flier who is wrongly placed on the watch list could have his or her name removed. No one who flew in June of 2004 gave their permission for that information to be turned-over to the government. This appears to be an illegal data dump as no Privacy Act notice was given. The TSA has a horrible record on privacy. During the past two years, the TSA secretly obtained millions of travel records from several airlines and airline-reservation systems and passed these records on to private contractors.
TSA already has millions of travel records and ran testing on these records. Why do they need more records? What were the results of the earlier testing? No one within the TSA has been punished for the earlier, secret privacy invasions. The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), still hasn't completed their investigation into all of TSA's previous privacy violations. The terrorist watch lists are a mess. TSA will use lists that have been proven to be inaccurate in order to test a system that has no proven effectiveness: garbage in, garbage out.
The millions of tax dollars that will be spent on 'Secure Flight' would be better spent on things we know will work, such as cargo screening, better training for TSA employees, and point-to-point baggage matching. This is America, not Communist China. Internal border controls are un-American.
217 From Ward W, The Woodlands, TX, 21 October 2004, 01:40:41 PM PST
As important as it is to fight terrorism, it is equally important that the civil and legal rights of Americans be protected. The "Secure Flight" systems appears to do neither while violating many civil and legal rights of potential airline passengers. Unless the TSA has secured a release to use the private information provided by passengers that they plan to use to test the "Secure Flight" system, the TSA will be violating the right to privacy that the US Supreme Court has upheld.
Additionally, the US Supreme Court has ruled that citizens have the right to be left alone, that is, unmolested by the government in it's efforts to fight crime. Terrorism is a criminal act, and therefore falls under this ruling. Previously, the TSA has stopped several so-called terrorists, such as Senator Edward Kennedy or peace activist Cat Stevens from flying domestically, but has had no procedure in place to redress the listing of citizens who are on the list in error. The "Secure Flight" system is designed to work by leveraging this list of several hundred thousand individuals, and yet, there do not appear to be that many US citizens actually involved in terrorist acts, and the TSA STILL has not managed to implement a way to have names removed from the list when they appear in error.
No, we need to have a centralized database of known terrorists and their confirmed aliases to prevent them from entering our airplanes, but this system is NOT what it is billed as. The funds that would be spent to implement this would be far better spent on screening methods that we KNOW work, such as cargo screening, and explosives detection, not on harrassing even more innocents in the name of fighting terrorism.
216 From Melrose, MA, 21 October 2004, 01:39:17 PM PST
I am an honest, tax-paying, law-abiding American. Regardless of whether or not I have "nothing to worry about", my personal records should not be released to any organization - private or public - without my expressed written consent. When I heard that during the past two years, the TSA secretly obtained millions of travel records from several airlines and airline-reservation systems and passed these records on to private contractors, I was outraged.
Open a phone book in New England and there are thousands of people with my ethnic name. What if a person with the same name as me appears on the list? Nowhere does the TSA mention testing the right of passengers to seek redress of an error. It is also mute on how a flier who is wrongly placed on the watch list could have his or her name removed.
Until honest, trustworthy citizens like myself have not only a way of securing our own private information but also a way of quickly and easily correcting errors, the "Secure Flight" initiative should be grounded.
215 From Joe B, Minneapolis, MN, 21 October 2004, 01:32:17 PM PST
(reposting - original post got garbled)
I'll be flying this holiday season for the first time since the news reports of Senator Ted Kennedy being turned away because his name was found on the no-fly list. It was clearly an error. I'm fairly sure I won't have the Senator's experience. I'm fairly sure my experience will be different because one, I'm probably not on the no-fly list and two, if I am, I will undoubtedly remain on the list as I lack the Senator's influence. The real concern however is that I am forced to use the word "fairly" and "probably" when I discuss the no-fly list. When I arrive at the airport this Thanksgiving there will be a moment when I will wonder if I will be allowed - by the executive branch of my government - to fly home and visit my parents. Perhaps another mistake has been made or God forbid, some official has come across my name on a web site such as this and said to himself, "anybody who wonders if they are on the no-fly list is very suspicious and probably up to no good. We should add his name to the list!"
When I stand at the ticket counter it will be on my mind because it now is actually a possibility that I will be denied a seat on the plane. Period. This is not the concern of a citizen living in a healthy, free and democratic society.
Let's stop, turn around and go back, now, while we still can. I like to ask proponents of schemes like "Secure Flight," do you not understand that your version of liberty is in direct conflict with our constitution? If then answer is no, then perhaps you are well meaning but misinformed. If the answer is yes, or "a little," then perhaps you are not so well meaning.
To those of you at the TSA, I would expect you to execute your duties as a civil servant with much caution and high regard for the Constitution - if, for nothing else - out of simple self-interest.
After all, these are your rights and freedoms too.
214 From Paul W, Santa Fe, NM, 21 October 2004, 01:31:02 PM PST
1. Who gave the Executive Branch the right to stop Americans from traveling?
2. More than 120,000 names are on terrorist watch lists that the TSA will use to screen fliers. Nowhere does the TSA mention testing the right of passengers to seek redress of an error. It is also mute on how a flier who is wrongly placed on the watch list could have his or her name removed.
3. No one who flew in June of 2004 gave their permission for that information to be turned-over to the government. 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 several airlines and airline-reservation systems and passed these records on to private contractors.
5. TSA already has millions of travel records and ran testing on these records. Why do they need more records? What were the results of the earlier testing?
6. No one within the TSA has been punished for the earlier, secret privacy invasions.
7. The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), still hasn't completed their investigation into all of TSA's previous privacy violations.
8. The terrorist watch lists are a mess. TSA will use lists that have been proven to be inaccurate in order to test a system that has no proven effectiveness: garbage in, garbage out.
9. The millions of tax dollars that will be spent on 'Secure Flight' would be better spent on things we know will work, such as cargo screening, better training for TSA employees, and point-to-point baggage matching.
10. This is America, not Communist China. Internal border controls are un-American.
213 From Stephen P, Gaithersburg, MD, 21 October 2004, 01:29:45 PM PST
We the people will not tolerate the fascist agenda of the Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security or any other government entity. Treating innocent United States citizens as terrorists does not increase security, it only diverts resources from the actual threats.
212 From Jeffrey M, Bethany, WV, 21 October 2004, 01:27:26 PM PST
The Secure Flight program seems to confuse identity with security, all in an effort to control travel within the United States, which is odd, given that this didn't used to be a totalitarian state. How are the watch lists compiled? How do people mistakenly placed on a watch list get removed? How can the government justify survelliance upon and obstruction of the movements of its citizens?
211 From Jay W, Petaluma, CA, 21 October 2004, 01:23:18 PM PST
More than 120,000 names are on terrorist watch lists that the TSA will use to screen fliers. Nowhere does the TSA mention testing the right of passengers to seek redress of an error. It is also mute on how a flier who is wrongly placed on the watch list could have his or her name removed.
No one who flew in June of 2004 gave their permission for that information to be turned-over to the government. This appears to be an illegal data dump as no Privacy Act notice was given.
The TSA has a horrible record on privacy. During the past two years, the TSA secretly obtained millions of travel records from several airlines and airline-reservation systems and passed these records on to private contractors.
The terrorist watch lists are a mess. TSA will use lists that have been proven to be inaccurate in order to test a system that has no proven effectiveness: garbage in, garbage out.
The millions of tax dollars that will be spent on 'Secure Flight' would be better spent on things we know will work, such as cargo screening, better training for TSA employees, and point-to-point baggage matching.
208 From George, Raleigh, NC, 21 October 2004, 01:19:16 PM PST
This amounts to an illegal search since I do NOT authorize the airline to give you my personal information, nor do I authorize the TSA to have it.
207 From Ian H, Atlanta, GA, 21 October 2004, 01:18:26 PM PST
This terrorist screening has gone too far. It is not worth the monetary cost, or the loss of civil liberties.
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