Airport screening plan hits turbulence

03/29/2005

Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent
March 29, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Bush administration’s plans for a new air passenger screening system were dealt a blow on Monday by a government report questioning whether a new program of computerized background checks can accurately identify suspected terrorists and protect travelers’ privacy.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report was requested by Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., who has championed civil libertarians’ concerns about passenger profiling.

A new passenger screening system has been sought by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Once in place, the government would take over from airlines the responsibility for checking passengers’ names against watch lists of suspected terrorists.

The report found that nine of the 10 criteria set by Congress—such as accuracy and privacy protection—have not been met “due largely to the current stage of the program’s development.”

One potential problem area, the GAO report concluded, is the accuracy of the government’s terrorist watch lists.

Sabo said the GAO report about the project, dubbed Secure Flight, confirmed his concerns.

“TSA still has a tremendous amount of work to do to check every airline passenger against the government’s terrorist watch lists,” he said. He is critical of the TSA for wanting to match passenger lists against both commercial databases and the terrorist watch list to determine which passengers should undergo further scrutiny. He says he’s concerned about the accuracy of commercial data, such as a name, address or phone number that’s maintained by a private company.

The report casts doubt on the TSA’s schedule for conducting Secure Flight pilot projects with air carriers by August 2005.

“The government itself found that Secure Flight is not ready for takeoff and should be held at the gate,” said Timothy Sparapani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.