Air Marshals Place Innocents on Secret Watch List

An anonymous reader writes "The Denver Channel 7 News reports that federal air marshals are operating under a quota for reporting a minimum number of suspicious travelers which is resulting in innocent people being placed on a secret government watch list. From the article: 'These unknowing passengers who are doing nothing wrong are landing in a secret government document called a Surveillance Detection Report, or SDR.'"

Comments

Re:WTF

[andrewman327]

TFA also says that this system only exists in Vegas. They should have no trouble finding strange activity there!

Re:oblig. 1984 reference

[Tackhead]

> > "Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong," said one federal air marshal.
>
> 2006.07.25 DenverChannel malsaid "unorthodox" as "suspicious". rectify.

2006.07.25 cvd6262 malsaid oldspeak "unorthodox" as "facecrime" rewrite fullwise.

It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could igve you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself, anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face, was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime"

ref unbook 1984, author unperson orwell

Please read the related article.....

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

There is an article linked to from that page about how horribly mismanaged the Federal Air Marshals Service is.

This is the problem with Management by Objectives

[hey!]

If any layer of the organization, the game becomes hitting the numbers set for it rather than achieving the mission of the organization, then chaos will ensue at that and all lower levels.

It may take the form of playing games with when sales can be booked as income. It may be mucking with projections. It may be slamming the phone on the customer to goose up the number of calls per hour you handle.

Measurable objectives are important, but they're only half the story. You need leadership too. Strong programs of performance measurement, in the absence of strong leadership, degenerate into numbers games that can be beaten.

Re:From the Marshall's Journal

[Abcd1234]

Yeah, but you do realize that you don't knit an afgan, you crochet it. You think that these guys know their technology, but they on't even know their point needles from their hooked ones.

You might want to re-check your facts. To quote, "An Afghan is a blanket, wrap, or shawl of colored wool, knitted or crocheted in geometric shapes.". Look here for just one example of a knitted afghan. Many more can be found with an appropriate Google search.

Re:Ayn Rand was an optimist.

[ethereal]

Being on a "watch list" is worse than being an accused (but innocent) criminal, since there's no formal way to challenge that status. The quote seems apt to me.

HERE is the program for the broke patriots

[megaditto]

Too cheap to fly? Got a car? Love America and hate terrorists?

Sign up for Highway Watch brought to you by DHS and the American Trucking Association!

http://www.highwaywatch.com/newtoHWW/index.html

Re:Justice, in America?

[StikyPad]

What are you talking about?!?!? The U.S. incarceration rate in 2004 was the highest in the world, at 724 per 100,000 population. Second was Russia, at 532 per 100,000. Obviously we're doing something right, catching all those criminals. We're number one!

Re:It's not so bad...

[Damvan]

Why the hell is this modded up?

Construction building inspectors are employees of the individual cities they work in, not the State government. So there can't be a quota in California unless all the cities in California agree, and agree to keep in "unofficial" Knowing California, that would be impossible. It might occur in some cities, but a unified "unofficial" statewide conspiracy? Get real.

Re:Sounds Like Flagged - Not Listed

[Anonymous Coward]

An unticketed person is allowed past security when they are at the airport to pick up a minor that has been flying as a "protected minor" (or some such terminology). Such minors are checked in by an adult at their point of origin, followed around by designated airline personnel for their entire flight and handed over to a designated adult at the destination. The designated adults are printed a special pass (not a real ticket since it won't let them on any flight) to let them past security to the gate to meet the airline personnel, fill out some paperwork and pick up the minor. I would assume the "younger brother" mentioned by the parent qualifies as such a minor.

Convict Lease

[Atario]

What you are suggesting is called "Convict Lease", and is a legally fig-leafed form of slavery, and, it should go without saying, an egregious violation of human rights besides. Not only is it wrong on the face of it, it encourages the state to arrest and convict more people, to inflate the legal-slave supply.

To quote a current internet meme: Perhaps you've not thought your cunning plan all the way through.

Re:Guy I know is on the list

[BandwidthHog]

My mom’s boyfriend is on the list. He drives a fuel tanker, so he gets briefings from Homeland Security as they are considered terrorist targets. When he gets on a plane he’s a suspected terrorist, but when he’s in his truck the feds want him armed.