Oh look at what the Department of Homeland Security is trying to do now!

[Joanne98]

I hope the people of California tell Chertoff and Bush to get out of their state!

http://www.genecowan.com/blog/index.php/weblog/permalink/bringing_back_the_romance_of_train_travel/
Bringing back the romance of train travel
I am really astonished that the so-called “liberal media” hasn’t picked up this story yet. Because if one wanted any further evidence of this country’s slide into total fascism, this is it.

Prior Permission From Government to be Required for Each Flight
By Jeff Diehl
October 22nd, 2007

The Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are quietly pushing for a set of crazy new rules. All travellers in the U.S. will be required to get government-issued credentials and official clearance before every flight, both within the United States as well as internationally.

And Monday we received a new political action alert from Edward Hasbrouk, The Practical Nomad blogger who’s been fighting the plan (and who testified about it at a TSA hearing). “The international Advance Passenger Information System rules were published, as ‘final’ effective February 19,2008, with no further opportunity for public comment even on the changes from the original proposal.”

Hasbrouck sees this as a very ominous development. “The Department of Homeland Security can now evade debate on the similar elements of their Secure Flight proposal by claiming that it’s needed to ‘harmonize’ the domestic and international travel restrictions — as though travel within America was tantamount to and subject to the same government restrictions and controls as crossing international borders.”

The stakes are high — and air travel may never be the same. “The Secure Flight proposal also includes new and odious requirements that travelers display their government-issued credentials — not to government agents, but to airline personnel (staff or contractors), whenever the Department of Homeland Security orders the airline to demand them… ” That alone will create a huge potential for abuse. “The proposed Secure Flight rules would leave travelers hopelessly at the mercy of any identity thief who claims to be an airline contractor (subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, etc.) demanding ‘Your papers, please!’ anywhere in an airport.”

But your personal information faces an even bigger risk. “In addition, the proposed rules would leave the airlines free to keep all the information obtained from travelers under government coercion, even after they’ve passed it on to the government. Your personal data would continue to be considered, at least in America, solely their property. Not yours…”

According to Hasbrouk, the Identity Project — an organization defending our right to travel freely in our own country — has made requests under the Privacy Act and they “have uncovered many more details (and many more problems) with the U.S. government’s dossiers of travel records, which include everything from what books travelers were carrying to phone numbers of friends and associates to whether they asked for one bed or two in their hotel room.”
http://www.genecowan.com/blog/index.php/weblog/permalink/bringing_back_the_romance_of_train_travel/

[williesgirl]

1. It's definitely "Heil" time - disgusting - rec'd

[electron_blue]

2. Is this from the same govt that recently caved on the new passport regs?

No way will this go through before Bush leaves office.

[Joanne98]

3. Homeland Security is watching what you read on airplanes!

http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/09/flight_tracking
U.S. Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read
By Ryan Singel 09.20.07 | 2:00 AM
International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years.

Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed for the trip.

The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening program at the border is actually a "surveillance dragnet," according to the group's spokesman Bill Scannell.

"There is so much sensitive information in the documents that it is clear that Homeland Security is not playing straight with the American people," Scannell said.

The documents show a tiny slice of the massive airline-record collection stored by the government, as well as the screening records mined for the controversial Department of Homeland Security passenger-rating system that assigns terrorist scores to travelers entering and leaving the country, including U.S. citizens.

The so-called Automated Targeting System scrutinizes every airline passenger entering or leaving the country using classified rules that tell agents which passengers to give extra screening to and which to deny entry or exit from the country.

The system relies on data ranging from the government's 700,000-name terrorism watchlist to data included in airline-travel database entries, known as Passenger Name Records, which airlines are required to submit to the government.

According to government descriptions, ATS mines data from intelligence, law enforcement and regulatory databases, looking for linkages in order to identify "high-risk" targets who may not already be on terrorist watchlists.

ATS was started in the late 1990s, but was little known until the government issued a notice about the system last fall. The government has subsequently modified the proposed rules for the system, shortening the length of time data is collected and allowing individuals to request some information used by the scoring system.

The government stores the PNRs for years and typically includes destinations, phone and e-mail contact information, meal requests, special health requests, payment information and frequent-flier numbers.

The Identity Project filed Privacy Act requests for five individuals to see the data stored on them by the government.

The requests revealed that the PNRs also included information on one requester's race, the phone numbers of overseas family members given to the airlines as emergency contact information, and a record of a purely European flight that had been booked overseas separately from an international itinerary, according to snippets of the documents shown to Wired News.

The request also revealed the screening system includes inspection notes from earlier border inspections.

One report about Gilmore notes: "PAX (passenger) has many small flashlights with pot leaves on them. He had a book entitled 'Drugs and Your Rights.'" Gilmore is an advocate for marijuana legalization.

Another inspection entry noted that Gilmore had "attended computer conference in Berlin and then traveled around Europe and Asia to visit friends. 100% baggage exam negative.... PAX is self employed 'Entrepreneur' in computer software business."

"They are noting people's race and they are writing down what people read," Scannell said.

It doesn't matter that Gilmore was reading a book about drugs, rather than Catcher in the Rye, according to Scannell. "A book is a book," Scannell said. "This is just plain wrong."

The documents have also turned Scannell against the Department of Homeland Security's proposal for screening airline passengers inside the United States.

That project, known as Secure Flight, will take watchlist screening out of the hands of airlines, by having the airlines send PNR data to the government ahead of each flight. While earlier versions included plans to rate passenger's threat level using data purchased from private companies, DHS now proposes only to compare data in the PNR against names on the watchlist, which largely disarmed civil libertarians' opposition to the program.

That's changed for Scannell now, who sees Secure Flight as just another version of ATS.

"They want people to get permission to travel," Scannell said. "They already instituted it for leaving and entering the country and now they want to do it to visit your Aunt Patty in Cleveland."

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/09/flight_tracking

[Wiley50]

13. I wonder what procedures they have planned for corporate jet charter flights

of course, we proles will be herded like cattle

but what of those of us who can travel by private jet

the contrast is probably very interesting

[populistdriven]

16. It's fun to watch movies just hitting the theater on your laptop

pulls the nazi's out of the woodwork

[IDemo]

18. Just cover what you're really reading with a "Mein Kampf" bookcover

They'll shoo you right through, no problem.

[Joanne98]

34. LOL

[formercia]

44. If anyone questions your choice of reading material.

Tell them your studying for the civil service exam.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Jesus...this is really getting to a "your papers please" moment.

I wonder when DHS will adopt black leather and jack boots for their uniforms? I guess the terrorists won, after all.

[Disturbed]

5. A USA RWing Fascist Police State is impossible.

Isn't it?

[tyedyeto]

14. If you have to question it....

it's probably already in place.

[Karenina]

6. Error: You've already...

WELL. FUCKIN' :kick: then!

[Yael]

7. This is some scary stuff, folks

Currently, the Advanced Passenger Information System, operated by the Customs and Border Patrol, requires airlines to forward a list of passenger information no later than 15 minutes before flights from the US take off (international flights bound for the US have until 15 minutes after take-off). Planes are diverted if a passenger on board is on the no-fly list.

The new rules mean this information must be submitted 72 hours before departure. Only those given clearance will get a boarding pass. The TSA estimates that 90 to 93 per cent of all travel reservations are final by then.

The proposed rules require the following information for each passenger: full name, sex, date of birth, and redress number (assigned to passengers who use the Travel Redress Inquiry Program because they have been mistakenly placed on the no-fly list), and known traveller number (once there is a programme in place for registering known travellers whose backgrounds have been checked). Non-travellers entering secure areas, such as parents escorting children, will also need clearance.

More at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/12/flying_into_data_hell/

From 15 minutes to 72 hours? Welcome to the police state...

[DKRC]

24. Nothing overt like blue tattoed numbers-

just everything about you transmitted as you board.

I met a woman in my hometown who showed me her arm with her numbers. That was almost 30 years ago and I remember how seeing that ink in her skin made me feel. I placed my palm over them as she told me about those days. She'd escaped and fought with the French resistance against the last bunch of evil bureaucrats in jack boots.

Here we go again.

[Yael]

25. God bless her

Runs chills up my spine to see the tats. :(

[earth mom]

8. Is it fascism yet? Oh HELL YEAH!

:puke:

[ixion]

9. fascism is a greater threat to the US than communism ever was

bastards! :grr:

[rucky]

10. A Prison from Sea to Shining Sea

what a fucked up concept

[formercia]

45. The American Gulag

A prison without walls, where you don't get 3 hots and a cot only 24/7 real-time monitoring.

[bonito]

11. Kicking

[SalmonChantedEvening]

12. People who make mothers throw away breast milk

Should have no further means to harass the public on a whim.

Gosh. I wonder who might be ineligible to fly based on their beliefs..... :grr:

[alfredo]

21. They do that with the no fly list.

[file83]

15. Thanks a lot, Pelosi.

You know what I'm talkin' about.

[Stephanie]

17. Is this for real?

I don't recognize this source. Is this true?

[tritsofme]

31. Probably not.

nt

[warren pease]

37. Oh, it's quite real...

Of course, until the source listed in the OP reported it yesterday, you had to learn about it from the international press. Here's an http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/12/flying_into_data_hell">article from the Register (UK) on 10/12 that tells all about it.

wp

[MelissaB]

42. Thanks so much for the link!

:hi:

[mmonk]

19. I've been told there's no such thing as echos.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

20. what about buses and trains?

[AwakeAtLast]

22. Late night kick

:kick:

[spanone]

23. 19 hijackers did a pretty fucking amazing job of dismantling our Constitutional rights

course they had the help of chenee & bu$h*

[shance]

26. They'll keep stomping on our rights as long as we keep allowing it.

Mobilize. Unify. Don't let them divide us.

The two party system is simply a device to keep Americans divided so those who have hijacked positions of power along with our land and our natural resources can continue to live off of the backs of most working Americans.

[NotGivingUp]

35. you're absolutely right. the curtain has been drawn.

i can't believe some people still cant' see it.

[lala_rawraw]

27. I thought I left the Soviet Union...

papers please?

[Canuckistanian]

28. "Ihre Papieren, bitte!"

"Umm.... I mean, your papers, please".

When are people going to get it? I'll bet 99% of the people NEVER HEARD of this rule change, let alone have had a chance to comment on it.

The question I keep asking is, who is going to reverse all these policies? Or will they be reversed at all?

[conscious evolution]

29. Ihad to sign a DHS form

to buy a car yesterday.
This country has gone insane.

[warren pease]

36. Yeah, and I had to sign one to refi my house... seems like the patriot act requires..

that "To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify and record information that identifies every customer.

"What this means to you: When you apply for a loan, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth, and other information that will allow us to identify you. We may also ask to see your driver's license or other identifying documents."

The next page, ironically, is a statement about the 1977 Truth in Lending act. Juxtapose the two and see how far we've fallen as a society in 30 years.

wp

[Kip Humphrey]

30. "Papers please! ...Hmm, says here you're a progressive activist. Come this way..."

[LSK]

32. except 9/11 could have been stopped without all this BS

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2116124&mesg_id=2116124

[Mojorabbit]

33. You can put

your 2 cents in here
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/secureflight/index.shtm

[Elspeth]

38. This has nothing to do with 9/11. This is about controlling a nation used to free movement

It goes along with the high school surrounded with barbed wire.

[seafan]

39. Here's more from an archived thread about this.

The upcoming Dept of Homeland Security "Secure Flight" program. Hello to personal travel tracking., September 26, 2007

[formercia]

40. If you're afraid to fly...

You can always take the train.......

http://www.hmh.org/ex_show.asp?id=63

Not one of the old antiquated NAZI rail cars but the latest thing in prisoner transport. It has 3 decks and 135 pairs of shackles, so there won't be any fighting as to who gets a window seat on the way to the camps.

[Uncle Joe]

41. What about when we need to go potty, because I've been holding my hand up

for an hour and nobody's noticed and I would feel safer if they would put a camera in my bathroom in case of a terrorist attack.

[JDPriestly]

43. When I was in high school, I was taught that the U.S., unlike the USSR

had freedom of travel. We are becoming more and more like the USSR, a totalitarian state. Why? Why would anyone want to go to the trouble of controlling the travel of folks like me? I don't get it. I've never hurt anyone in my life. I just don't understand this at all. And what is this going to do the the travel industry? It is a long way, but I have the choice of driving, taking a train or flying in a plane to visit my kids. If I have to go to all this trouble, I might as well just take a train or drive. We are already showing our drivers' licenses. Isn't that enough?