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TSA Announces Pilot of Trusted Traveler Program
Bob the Super Hamste writes "CNN reports that the TSA has announced the pilot of their trusted traveler program. This is the program where an individual gives up additional information to the government and then gets expedited security. The pilot program will only be available to certain frequent fliers on Delta passengers flying out of Atlanta and Detroit, and to American Airlines passengers flying out of Miami and Dallas. Plans are in the work to expand this to other airports and other airlines as well."
All other travelers presumed guilty.
This is a perfect solution that balances the public wish for appearance of freedom, with the government and corporate wish for the appearance of security.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
We all know how this will go. Fewer lines will be allocated to normal lines, pushing people to give up tons of personal information in order to return to the speeds they previously had (as everyone will want the faster lines), instead of the skyrocketing time of the normal lines. It's the carrot approach to getting people to give up all their rights and personal information.
Until I am PROVEN GUILTY of not being one. I don't have to "opt in" for what should be my no-questions-asked constitutional rights.
Step 1: Create new "elite program" requesting additional privacy invasion
....
Step 2: Initially limit ability into "elite program" to create artificial demand
Step 3: Make it more painful for those not in "elite program" to travel
Step 4: Create new "platinum elite program" requesting even more privacy information
Step n: All your base are belong to us
In all seriousness, this is the slippery slope everyone talks about.
Swallow first one poison in the name of security.
Now we're offered more poison in the name of a cure from the effects of the first.
Any terrorist with half a brain trying to plan an attack on an airplane now knows exactly how to do it: Forge an identity or recruit a new terrorist that can meet the Trusted Traveler requirements. Then use the Trusted Traveler identity to bypass the security that might catch your terrorist plot. Bruce Schneier writes a great deal about this: If you create an easier-than-standard path through security constraints, the bad guys, just like the good guys, will take the easier route, every single time.
I am officially gone from
It's like watching all of the scariest bits of 1984 and Brave New World all coming together.
A world in which citizens have no liberties, and think that's how it should be. The state controls everything and tells you what to think. McCarthyism meets the Keystone Kops.
If the Americans are voluntarily giving up all of their liberties for this farce of security ... then the rest of the world us screwed. Because governments which have slightly less compunction about running roughshod over their citizens will be quite willing to do this as well ... in fact, they'll be required to in order to allow a flight into the US. Give it time, and the US will require these like the other heightened security measures.
So, the great bastion of personal liberties is essentially leading the charge to stripping them away from themselves and dragging everybody else along with them. All in the name of protecting those very liberties they're giving up.
I grieve for what America used to stand for. I also grieve for how it bodes for the rest of us.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I still think the TSA should be abolished and that no one should be subject to screening before any form of travel by the government.
Will this system be separate or does it allow for equivalences? I have friends in security with actual government clearances and deep background checks. I have a concealed carry permit which subjects me to a mild background check and regular automated checks for arrests, convictions, restraining orders, and other such naughty behaviours.
Of course lets not forget that I shouldn't have to dork around with any of this anyway. If I buy a ticket I should be allowed on the damn plane without a metal detector and without a screening unless that is part of the terms of the sale.
The Founding Fathers would be horrified by that logic. They would agree that regulations on the airlines fall under the power of Congress, but they would object to the government extending those regulations to the passengers. There are a lot of things that have been justified under the Commerce Clause that those who wrote the clause said were outside of the authority granted to the federal government.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Yeah, it's a little bit of "divide and conquer" in the works here. 10, 15, perhaps 20% of air travelers get this "trusted" status. The rest of the herd has to tolerate the indignities, and obviously they deserve it. If they were "trustworthy", after all, they would be like "us", cutting in at the head of the line.
So, with a special class of elites to show off, the TSA will get away with yet greater indignities imposed on the unwashed masses.
Didn't Orwell work this same thing into his story?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
You are absolutely correct. This is simply more government blackmail in disguise.
This system would establish a new class of people who are allowed to travel without question while most of the people are left to undergo "screening".
The system, even as ideally envisioned, is a breeding ground for abuse, because people who give even decently manufactured information to the TSA will get privileged access. Just like RFID passports, it gives the illusion of more security while actually reducing real security, because intelligent criminals will then be trusted without question.
The TSA needs to be abolished, not allowed to create discriminatory, security-harming policies.
There are enough people gathered in a tight wad at airport security lines these days to present a far tastier target for terrorist attack than the planes themselves. Imagine a wheelie-suitcase full of explosive (with whatever precautions would be necessary to evade the bomb-sniffing dogs outside the airport -- I'm sure with an appropriate program of multiple layers of airtight seals and thorough chemical washing this could be done) and shrapnel set off in the middle of a security line; you'd probably kill at least a hundred people and close down the airport for a long time, causing millions of dollars in economic damage. Set it off close to the front and you stand a good chance of ruining a lot of expensive x-ray equipment in addition.
Why go after the hard target when there are much easier fish to catch?
Right.
You realise that, from a purely statistical perspective, airline terrorism is non-existent.
If risk mitigation were an aim, why create the giant, soft-target of a couple thousands - bottled up in airport queuing areas?when they can
Governments feel secure completely control behaviour. Corporations feel secure, when they have governments captive.
All of them advance their agenda, without the slightest real concern for your individual or collective "safety".
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Funny, but this is not capitalism.
TSA/DHS annual budget: 43.1 billion.
NASA annual budget: 17.3 Billion.
We'd rather molest the children than secure their future.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."