More stupidity at the airports?

[IrishGold]

The government wants to assign a threat level to each passenger who boards a commercial flight in the U.S.

The Office of Management and Budget says no; at least until it can figure out if such scrutiny will lessen the threat of terror, and if it's worth taxpayer money.

Mark Forman, associate director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the Transportation Security Administration hasn't been very forthcoming about how said program, or the technology it employs, will work.

"I have a huge spotlight on that project," Forman told the House subcommittee on technology and information policy. "If we can't prove it lowers risk, it's not a good investment for government."

The program, called CAPPS II - Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System - was OK'd by congress after September 11th, but the OMB can veto funds for information technology projects it doesn't consider efficient or effective.

The Associated Press reports that CAPPS II, which will be operational by the end of 2003, "will collect data and rate each passenger's risk potential according to a three-color system: green, yellow, red. When travelers check in, their names will be punched into the system and the boarding passes encrypted with the ranking. TSA screeners will check the passes at checkpoints.

The vast majority of passengers will be rated green and won't be subjected to anything more than normal checks, while yellow will get extra screening and red won't fly."

TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said his agency will meet with the OMB to answer its questions on CAPPS II and iron out any misunderstandings or problems. "There's no more important single program on our agenda today than CAPPS II when it comes to delivering increased security and service to the traveling public," he said.

The unusual thing about CAPPS II is that it has opponents on both sides of the political spectrum.

Everyone from the Americans for Tax Reform, the Free Congress Foundation, the Eagle Forum, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Privacy Information Center have gotten together and written Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the Select Committee on Homeland Security, to demand greater scrutiny of the TSA's plan.

"Congress should carefully and deliberately assess the program's effectiveness as a security measure, its cost in economic terms, and its cost to civil liberties before allowing TSA to move forward with CAPPS II," wrote the group.

They feel that terrorists will adapt to any laws we make, and in light of that we can't invade our citizens' privacy unnecessarily with a anti-terror system that will become obsolete as soon as it is engaged.



Well, let's look at this. Seeing as how ethnic profiling isn't allowed, and currently they are limiting most of their searches to little girls and grandmothers, it will be interesting to see who gets the yellow or red flags.

Middle eastern men between the ages of 23 and 35? Nawww, that would make to much sense!