Sabocat
13th January 2004, 12:36
WASHINGTON - Responding to news reports this morning that, despite broad opposition from across the political spectrum, the Homeland Security Department intends to go forward with two highly controversial airline screening programs, the American Civil Liberties Union today strongly criticized the move. It called the two programs - called CAPPS II and Trusted Traveler -- wrong-headed both for national security and for civil liberties.
"CAPPS II is illusory security on the cheap," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. "Instead of zeroing in on suspects based on real evidence of wrongdoing, it sweeps every airline passenger through a dragnet. From business class on down to coach, you’re going to be checked against secret government intelligence databases. What happens in cases of mistaken identity or simple computer error?"
CAPPS II, short for Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening Program, will reportedly use a complicated two-step process to rank every airline passenger’s threat level, both domestic and international, as either a green, for standard scrutiny, yellow, for heightened scrutiny, and red, which will presumably result in the detention of the passenger. It also lacks any effective recourse for Americans’ who it falsely flags as terrorist suspects.
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFre...?ID=14699&c=206 (http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=14699&c=206)
A graphical explanation
http://www.dontspyon.us/chart.html
"CAPPS II is illusory security on the cheap," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. "Instead of zeroing in on suspects based on real evidence of wrongdoing, it sweeps every airline passenger through a dragnet. From business class on down to coach, you’re going to be checked against secret government intelligence databases. What happens in cases of mistaken identity or simple computer error?"
CAPPS II, short for Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening Program, will reportedly use a complicated two-step process to rank every airline passenger’s threat level, both domestic and international, as either a green, for standard scrutiny, yellow, for heightened scrutiny, and red, which will presumably result in the detention of the passenger. It also lacks any effective recourse for Americans’ who it falsely flags as terrorist suspects.
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFre...?ID=14699&c=206 (http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=14699&c=206)
A graphical explanation
http://www.dontspyon.us/chart.html