Officials to order data on airline passengers

By Leslie Miller
The Associated Press

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The Transportation Security Administration unveiled details of its previously announced Secure Flight program, its second attempt at finding a better way to screen passengers without infringing on privacy.

Airlines and privacy groups are skeptical about whether the new plan will solve the old problems.

The TSA plans to order airlines to turn over the information in November. Passenger names will be checked against watch lists maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, which is administered by the FBI. Those lists include names of people to be selected for additional screening, known or suspected terrorists, and people prohibited from flying because they pose a direct threat to aviation.

Airlines currently check passenger names against watch lists. Because intelligence information is classified, however, airlines don't have access to names of all known or suspected terrorists.

Secure Flight replaces a plan that would have checked passenger names against commercial databases and assigned a risk level to each. It was abandoned because of privacy concerns and technological issues.

Air Transport Association spokesman Doug Wills said airlines are reviewing the plan and will later comment formally.

The TSA was given power to order airlines to submit such data under laws passed by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The amount of data in passenger records varies by airline, but it typically includes name, flight origin, flight destination, flight time, duration of flight, seat location, travel agent and form of payment. It also can include credit-card numbers, itinerary, address, telephone number and meal requests.

Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology-and-liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the system is too intrusive.

"Why is it necessary for the TSA to know that you've ordered a kosher meal, or who you're sleeping with in your hotel room?" he said.
 
Steinhardt said the system still will allow people to be misidentified as potential terrorists, as some are now.

For example, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., were stopped at airports because people with their names appeared on watch lists. Kennedy said it took him three weeks to clear up the confusion.

"There are many people who are still going to find themselves in no-fly hell," Steinhardt said.

The TSA says it plans to set up procedures by which passengers can correct misinformation and by which civil liberties and personal data can be protected.

Plane diverted; singer shows up on watch list

WASHINGTON — A plane bound for Washington from London was diverted to Maine yesterday after passenger Yusuf Islam — formerly known as pop singer Cat Stevens — showed up on a U.S. watch list, federal officials said.

United Airlines Flight 919 had taken off from London and was en route to Dulles International Airport when the match was made, said Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Federal officials said Islam, 56, was denied admission to the United States on national-security grounds, but they provided no further details.

Homeland Security spokesman Dennis Murphy said Islam would be put on the first available flight out of the country today.