Tens of thousands mistakenly placed on terrorist watch lists [article]

[e5hosting]

By Anne Broache
http://news.com.com/Tens+of+thousand...3-5984673.html

WASHINGTON--Nearly 30,000 airline passengers have discovered in the last year that they were mistakenly placed on federal "terrorist" watch lists, a transportation security official admitted Tuesday.
Jim Kennedy, director of the Transportation Security Administration's redress office, revealed the errors at a quarterly meeting convened here by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.

Marcia Hofmann, staff counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said this appeared to be the first time such a large error has been admitted. "It was a novel figure to me," Hofmann said. "The figure shows that many more passengers than we've anticipated have encountered difficulty at airports. The watch list still has a long way to go before it does what it's supposed to do."

Kennedy said that travelers have had to ask the TSA to remove their names from watch lists by submitting a "Passenger Identity Verification Form" and three notarized identification documents. On average, he said, it takes officials 45 to 60 days to evaluate the request and make any necessary changes.

Travelers have been instructed to file the forms only after experiencing "repeated" travel delays, he said, because additional screening can occur for multiple reasons, including fitting a certain profile, flying on a one-way ticket, or being selected randomly by a computer.

Of the 30,000 people who said they were mistakenly placed on the list, none ever had been kept from boarding an airplane, Kennedy said. Their names appeared only on a "selectee list," where members are singled out for additional screening. Names on the "no-fly" list, however, are unilaterally barred from flying. The office said it hasn't been informed of any cases where people have disputed placement on the "no-fly" list.

After submitting their notarized forms and identifications, and waiting for evaluations, the vast majority of the 30,000 people mistakenly placed on the watch list have now been added to a "clearance" list. That doesn't mean their names are erased from the watch list. In fact, travelers who go through the paperwork are told, Kennedy said, that "it will not quote 'remove' you from the list because the person we're still looking for is out there."

Instead, their names are put on the separate clearance list, which means they typically can't check in for flights at an unmanned kiosk and must approach the ticket counter to explain their situation and have an airline employee match their name to the clearance list.

A total of about 60 applicants had to be denied, as security officials couldn't determine that the applicants weren't actually the same as those named on the list, Kennedy said.

According to government statistics, about 1.8 million people travel on 30,000 separate commercial flights through the nation's airports every day. It is unclear how many names on the TSA's "selectee" and "no-fly" watch lists.

Skepticism continues to swirl around a proposed passenger screening program known as Secure Flight, which government auditors and watchdog groups have criticized for failing to lay out clear goals or address privacy and data security concerns. New York-based lawyer Lisa Sotto, the acting committee-chairman, called it "the most interesting topic to this group and the one that we're most concerned about."

Kennedy's remarks came after the advisory committee unanimously adopted a list of five broad recommendations for the Secure Flight program, which include: making the program more transparent to the public and airlines, which receive the daily watch lists; keeping the goals of the program narrowly focused; collecting minimal data; providing proactive, efficient ways for people to dispute wrongful delays or prohibitions from boarding flights; and regular audits by the Homeland Security Privacy Office.

Part of the reason government officials are clamoring for Secure Flight is that it is "designed to minimize the number of instances where people are misidentified as potential terrorist threats," Kennedy said, though he didn't elaborate on the reasons for that claim.

The recommendations to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff are non-binding. Chertoff was scheduled to speak to the committee on Tuesday but cancelled at the last minute.

[pornguy]

The US is becomming a bigger cluster fuck than it was before.

[je_rome]

and still the terrorists are able to continue with their activites. I think its like killing a housefly with a bulldozer

[reynold]

Originally Posted by je_rome

and still the terrorists are able to continue with their activites. I think its like killing a housefly with a bulldozer

"Using cannons to kill a mosquito"

[Just Mike]

SHIT! if you dont get removed fromthe list after providing the government additonal information to prove you are not a terrorist what the fuck is the incentive to go through the hoops?

* Great you give them more info about you and then you are still ona "LIST" I love beuracracy

Id rather deal withthe 5-10 mn delays they have to give them info that wont help me in the long run.