AP: Without Notifying Public-Feds Have Assigned "TERROR RATINGS" To Travelers Including Americans

[kpete]

AP: Feds rate travelers for terrorism

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years.

The scores are assigned to people entering and leaving the United States after computers assess their travel records, including where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.

The program's existence was quietly disclosed earlier in November when the government put an announcement detailing the Automated Targeting System, or ATS, for the first time in the Federal Register, a fine-print compendium of federal rules. Privacy and civil liberties lawyers, congressional aides and even law enforcement officers said they thought this system had been applied only to cargo.

The Homeland Security Department notice called its program "one of the most advanced targeting systems in the world." The department said the nation's ability to spot criminals and other security threats "would be critically impaired without access to this data."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061201/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/traveler_screening

[rockymountaindem]

1. Huh.

:wow:

[magellan]

2. Between the Feds and hysterical passengers

...we'll never catch a real terrorist.

When was the last time a terrorist flew and was caught while carrying an American passport?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. It's probly cross-compiled with your grocery buying habits

to check for excessive use of falafel & hummus.

[Life Long Dem]

4. He is going without checks and balances lately

He has the supreme court in his back pocket so he just bypasses everyone.

[Kelly Rupert]

5. I usually get SSSS on my tickets.

4 of the last 6 flights. And I don't buy walk-ups or one-ways, either. I must be a Super Risky Terrorist.

[bluerum]

6. Talk about institutionalized profiling. nt.

[stillcool]

7. jeepers...

transportation ain't what it used to be. "Seating preference"? Does that mean window or aisle?