[Infowarrior] - USG 'permission' required for all passengers to fly

[Richard Forno]

 Prior Permission From Government to be Required for Each Flight
By RU Sirius
October 22nd, 2007

http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/10/22/prior-permission-from-government-to-b
e-required-for-each-flight/

The Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland
Security are quietly pushing for a set of crazy new rules. All travellers in
the U.S. will be required to get government-issued credentials and official
clearance before every flight, both within the United States as well as
internationally.

And Monday we received a new political action alert from Edward Hasbrouk,
The Practical Nomad blogger who's been fighting the plan (and who testified
about it at a TSA hearing). "The international Advance Passenger Information
System rules were published, as 'final' effective February 19,2008, with no
further opportunity for public comment even on the changes from the original
proposal."

Hasbrouck sees this as a very ominous development. "The Department of
Homeland Security can now evade debate on the similar elements of their
Secure Flight proposal by claiming that it's needed to 'harmonize' the
domestic and international travel restrictions ‹ as though travel within
America was tantamount to and subject to the same government restrictions
and controls as crossing international borders."

The stakes are high ‹ and air travel may never be the same. "The Secure
Flight proposal also includes new and odious requirements that travelers
display their government-issued credentials ‹ not to government agents, but
to airline personnel (staff or contractors), whenever the Department of
Homeland Security orders the airline to demand themŠ " That alone will
create a huge potential for abuse. "The proposed Secure Flight rules would
leave travelers hopelessly at the mercy of any identity thief who claims to
be an airline contractor (subcontractor, sub-subcontractor, etc.) demanding
'Your papers, please!' anywhere in an airport."

But your personal information faces an even bigger risk. "In addition, the
proposed rules would leave the airlines free to keep all the information
obtained from travelers under government coercion, even after they've passed
it on to the government. Your personal data would continue to be considered,
at least in America, solely their property. Not yours..."

According to Hasbrouk, the Identity Project ‹ an organization defending our
right to travel freely in our own country ‹ has made requests under the
Privacy Act and they "have uncovered many more details (and many more
problems) with the U.S. government's dossiers of travel records, which
include everything from what books travelers were carrying to phone numbers
of friends and associates to whether they asked for one bed or two in their
hotel room."

Unfortunately, Monday, October 22 was the deadline for posting public
comments on the proposed rules.

But it's never too late to express your outrage... against another act in
the continuing project to turn the United States into North Korea.