Domestic air travel no-fly list
Sat, 2006-07-08 11:00
#1
M. Spector
Domestic air travel no-fly list
Sat, 2006-07-08 11:00
#2
M. Spector
Planning to travel by air between two Canadian airports this summer?
You'd better be on good terms with US Homeland Security.
Air Canada and others are using the Evil Empire's "no-fly" list, containing tens of thousands of names, to screen pasengers and prevent them from flying within Canada.
quote:
The list was started in the 1990s and had 12 names on it on Sept. 11, 2001, according to the 9/11 Commission Report. Homeland Security sources said the list has grown to about 30,000 names and changes "routinely" as new information streams in from the various agencies in charge of security and intelligence. The list is run by the Transportation Security Administration.Homeland Security officials will not discuss the criteria that put an individual on the no-fly list or how one is removed, except to say that the list contains names and other information about people with ties to terrorism. [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/24/AR200505...
Maher Arar, whose name on the list four years ago got him sent to Syria for torture and interrogation, is still on the list. He was flagged for "secondary security screening" last month when he [url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006/07/06/ott-arar.html]went to take a flight from Montreal to Edmonton.[/url]
Two years ago, Air Canada refused to let Toronto editorial cartoonist Shahid Mahmood board a flight between Vancouver and Victoria. Mahmood says the [url=http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/07/07/no-fly.html]ticket agent told him he had been "designated high profile."[/url] He thinks the incident had something to do with his political cartoons that poke fun at U.S. foreign policy.
[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060706.ARAR06/TPStory... U.S. blacklist has been plagued with problems,[/url] not least being the mistaken entry of the name of U.S. [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17073-2004Aug19.html]Senator Edward Kennedy[/url] as an individual banned from air travel as a security risk.
The BC Civil Liberties Association rightly notes that this practice infringes "on our right as Canadian citizens to travel freely in our own country."
The Harpocons' solution? They plan to have our very own made-in-Canada blacklist in operation by December 31. Doesn't that make you feel safe?
Wed, 2006-07-19 19:12
#3
M. Spector
quote:
Dozens of Canadians have formally complained about being delayed at airports because their name — or at least one similar to theirs — turned up on the U.S. no-fly list.In the last two years, Transport Canada has received "some 40 to 50 complaints" from people whose names may have been matched to the U.S. roster, said department spokeswoman Vanessa Vermette. [url=http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/A...
So how do you get off the Homeland Security no-fly list anyway, [b]so you can be allowed to fly in your own country?[/b]
Well, just go and grovel to the US Transportation Security Administration:
quote:
The department [i.e., Transport Canada] advises Canadian travellers who believe their name matches one on an American list to follow the redress procedures of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.[b]Individuals must send notarized documentation confirming their identity to the U.S. agency[/b], said TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.
The TSA then determines whether the person is actually on one of two rosters it administers: the no-fly list and the selectee list, which flags passengers for additional security screening.
The TSA then sends the individual a letter telling them whether they have been added to a "cleared" list.
An average of 1,500 people seek redress from the TSA each week, Kudwa said. Figures are not broken down by nationality.
Apparently a passport is no longer accepted as good ID - you need "notarized documentation."
And Transport Canada apparently sees no problem with requiring Canadians to prove to a foreign government that they aren't terrorists, in order to be allowed to fly [b]in Canada.[/b]
[ 19 July 2006: Message edited by: M. Spector ]
Sun, 2006-08-27 14:31
#4
M. Spector
[url=http://www.wired.com/news/politics/privacy/0,68973-0.html]Innocent USians victimized by no-fly lists[/url]
quote:
Sister McPhee's chronicle of frustration began in mid-October 2003, after she was stopped at Baltimore Washington International airport on her way to Providence, Rhode Island.Unable to check in using the airline's kiosks, McPhee handed her driver's license and reservation to an airline employee, who keyed her name into the computer system and then disappeared with her license into an internal door.
When he returned [b]an hour later[/b], he was accompanied by two police officers.
The officers flanked the 62-year-old Dominican nun, one standing with his hand on his gun, the other using a cell phone to run a security check.
[b]Three hours later[/b], having missed two planes, Sister McPhee was cleared to enter the security line, where she was wanded from head to toe with a magnometer.
"This was the beginning of nine months of hell," McPhee said.
Before flying back to Washington, D.C., McPhee called a family connection who works at an airline and who had access to the watch lists provided by the government to the airlines.
[b]Sister McPhee was being stopped because the list said that an Afghani man was using the last name McPhee as an alias. The list had no first name for him[/b], and the intensive checks would continue until she cleared her name with the ombudsman at the Transportation Security Administration, according to this family connection.
McPhee, who travels two or three times a month for her work, tried contacting the TSA's call center, but had to continue traveling until her name was cleared.
"I was now leaving three hours ahead, being at airports ahead of time, only to still miss planes. I was delayed up to five hours," McPhee said.
Sister McPhee prides herself on being a law-abiding citizen and says the only time she has been in trouble with the police was when she got a speeding ticket at age 23.
She admits that once while undergoing screening, she made a "smart remark" to an officer.
"I said something to the effect that 'If this were Northern Ireland, I would understand,'" McPhee said. "And the police officer said, 'Ma'am, I'll pretend I didn't hear that, or otherwise I would have to arrest you.' After that, I didn't say anything."
Fri, 2006-10-06 23:52
#5
M. Spector
[url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR200610... Thousands Wrongly on Terror List[/url]
quote:
Thousands of people have been mistakenly linked to names on terror watch lists when they crossed the border, boarded commercial airliners or were stopped for traffic violations, a [U.S.] government report said Friday.More than 30,000 airline passengers have asked just one agency - the Transportation Security Administration - to have their names cleared from the lists, according to the Government Accountability Office report.
....
"Misidentifications can lead to delays, intensive questioning and searches, missed flights or denied entry at the border," the report said. "Whether appropriate relief is being afforded these individuals is still an open question."
....
People are considered "misidentified" if they are matched to the database and then, upon further examination, are found not to match. They are usually misidentified because they have the same name as someone in the database.People are considered "mistakenly listed" if they were put on the list in error or if they should no longer be included on the list because of subsequent events, the report said.
....
Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer, was detained at New York's Kennedy Airport in 2002 because Canadian officials had asked that he be placed on a watch list. The U.S. transferred him without court approval to Syria where he was tortured and imprisoned for a year. A Canadian inquiry found that Arar should not have been on the list because he didn't do anything wrong.
....
The list has contained the names of Bolivia's President Evo Morales and Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliamentary speaker, according to a report by CBS' "60 Minutes," to be broadcast Sunday.Richard Kopel, acting director of the screening center, said in a statement that Morales and Berri are not on the current no-fly list. He did not address whether they were in the past, noting only that the list changes daily.
....
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that watch lists aren't perfect.
....
He said an agreement reached Friday between the U.S. and the European Union would help prevent people from being misidentified.The agreement calls for airlines to submit 34 pieces of data - including names, addresses and credit card details - about passengers flying from Europe to the United States.
Thu, 2006-10-12 04:09
#6
From the above-quoted article:
quote:
She admits that once while undergoing screening, she made a "smart remark" to an officer."I said something to the effect that 'If this were Northern Ireland, I would understand,'" McPhee said. "And the police officer said, 'Ma'am, I'll pretend I didn't hear that, or otherwise I would have to arrest you.' After that, I didn't say anything."
Excuse me? Have to arrest her for WHAT? What a load of bullshit. He's going to arrest her for saying that? What the hell would he charge her with?
What total bullshit.
Thu, 2006-10-12 08:51
#7
M. Spector
"Charge? We don't need no stinkin' charge!"
Sat, 2006-11-18 16:33
#8
M. Spector
Canada's very own homemade no-fly list is set to get off the ground next year. In typical Orwellian fashion, it's called "Passenger Protect."
quote:
Decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis using classified and public information collated by the RCMP and the Canadian spy agency, CSIS – [b]both of whom are responsible for wrongly linking Canadian engineer Maher Arar to terrorism[/b] which resulted in him being sent to Syria, where he was jailed and tortured. Under “Passenger Protect”, if your name is on the roster or if you have a name that mistakenly matches one on the list, you will be automatically prevented from getting an airline ticket.Ottawa plans to spend about [b]$14 million over five years and about $3 million annually thereafter[/b] and expects the Canadian list to include [b]1,000 names[/b]. The list, compiled using secret information not scrutinized by Canadian courts, will be synchronized with the monstrous American No-fly roster which some reports say has 120,000 names.
How you get on the list will remain a mystery.
How you get off the list is guaranteed to be a nightmare.
[url=http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/ff8080810ecdcde4010ece28911a000b...
So they're going to spend $14,000 [b]per name[/b] over five years and $3,000 [b]per name[/b] each year thereafter.
Money for climate change programs? child care? health care? Sorry - not important.
Wed, 2007-01-24 10:12
#9
M. Spector
quote:
While the government says its no-fly list will be tightly focused, privacy groups fear the government is casting too wide a net. [b]"Moving it to domestic airlines is a huge expansion, from what normally is a border-control issue,"[/b] said Mary O'Donoghue, senior counsel for the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.
....The government has been trying to figure out ways to cross-reference [b]domestic flight[/b] lists with highly sensitive criminal and intelligence databases.
Even Ottawa's own studies say this is a tricky and expensive job. "The government will need to spend significant personnel resources to both clean up the data and clear passengers who have been falsely identified and allow them to continue travelling," reads an IBM Global Services study, which was commissioned by the federal government and recently released under Access to Information laws.
The study found that a screening system could cost between $95-million and $270-million, but could still contain flaws.
[b]The database would allow the government access to 34 categories of information, including the passenger's name, citizenship and itinerary -- right down to the seat assignment and who paid for the ticket.[/b]
The study said that information could be matched against RCMP and CSIS databases, with [b]Transport Canada deciding which passengers are prevented from boarding flights.[/b] "We're reviewing the results of the feasibility study to determine the best course of action," said Jamie Tomlinson, a spokesman for Canada's Public Safety Department.
Privacy groups say measures like these are the beginnings of a slippery slope. "The legislation is far too broad," said Florence Nguyen, a spokeswoman for the federal Privacy Commissioner.
She said the law effectively deputizes airport authorities. And because the law flags people sought on warrants in addition to possible terrorism threats, she added, it raises the question of whether airports would be helping to arrest common criminals on behalf of the state.
[url=http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC...
Thu, 2007-03-08 14:19
#10
M. Spector
quote:
The proliferation of government watch lists is a troubling development in the “war on terrorism.” The challenges of such lists include differences of opinion on who's actually a security threat, consolidating information across agencies by making the computer systems communicate with one another. In fact Auditor General Sheila Fraser found in 2004 that watchlists used to screen visa applicants, refugee claimants and travellers seeking to enter Canada were in disarray because of inaccuracies and shoddy updating.
....
The information sharing protocols and mechanisms that were criticized by Justice O'Connor have not been improved, yet our government continues with the no-fly initiative which mandates that we share - and even merge and consolidate - information with foreign entities and agencies, which may have less scruples in listing and targeting innocent people on flimsy grounds.Making lengthy watch lists based on subjective and political criteria and then giving the power to add and remove names to agencies that have a vested interest in the national security agenda is akin to asking the fox to guard the hen house. Such lists - which will inevitably fill up very quickly with “false positives”, political dissidents, those whom our friends and neighbours designate as threats - will not make us any safer or interrupt any terrorists, if the U.S. experience is any indication.
To make matters worse, real terrorists may not even be placed on the list for fear of tipping them off. [b]According to the U.S. homeland security department, known terrorists are not placed on the list for fear that they would know that they are being watched.[/b] Even our “made-in-Canada” list will be shaped by the U.S. and other nations' lists as they cross-fertilize pursuant to intelligence agreements, the Smart Border Declaration and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
How can such a list provide anything more than a false sense of security while leaving it rife for blacklisting innocent people as well as racial and religious profiling? Indeed, [b]Canadians should be asking the government how an individual can be too dangerous to fly, yet be free to roam the streets and plot terror.[/b]
- Faisal Kutty in [i]The Lawyers Weekly,[/i] March 9, 2007.