GovernmentExecutive.com

The Homeland Security Department on Thursday released a proposed rule that will require that incoming and outgoing international flights send their passenger information list to the department before taking off.

Current policy requires that airlines' data be sent afterward. The Transportation Security Administration will begin an operational testing period this fall using data from air carriers who volunteer to participate.

The new early sharing of passenger information is intended to give authorities more time to identify and remove suspected terrorists from flights, the department said. The department also published a proposal to expand passenger pre-screening initiative to domestic flights.

"This information will better identify individuals who may pose a known or suspected threat to aviation or national security," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement. "These programs will improve the passenger experience by establishing a more consistent vetting process and better resolution for misidentified passengers."

COMMENTS

• While the extent of information being required as a condition of international travel is troubling, the attempt to extend this to domestic travel is even more so. There was an unsuccessful legal argument made that government tracking of domestic travel trenched upon the First Amendment "right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The concern is that such tracking makes citizens less willing to exercise there right. I believe the argument makes sense. If screening is an effective means of assuring the safety of airline travel, there is no need to obtain passenger name information for safety reasons. Passenger name information is only useful for the government to be able to track individual travel. While this useful from an intelligence and law enforcement perspective, I believe the civil liberties cost exceeds the benefit. Commentator Posted August 15, 2007 9:04 AM
• What privacy right are you giving up when your name and other identifying information is provided to the government on an airline passenger list, to be checked to see if you are a terrorist or a criminal? It's a lot less intrusive than what is contained on your credit report, or the information about you that is already available to just about everyone online on Lexis Nexis or other public databases. If this information had been collected and analyzed properly, there may have been no terrorist attacks on 9/11. Unfortunately, we are at war with Islamic fundamentalists who seek nothing less than conquering the world, and subjecting everyone to their medieval way of life, including depriving us of our freedoms. Privacy concerns aren't the most important thing we should be worrying about in times like these, especially since thanks to the Internet, we already have very little privacy left. Realist Posted August 14, 2007 12:59 PM
• Obviously this is a Witch Hunt! We are slowly giving up our rights as US citizens. Wake up America and take back your right to privacy as citizens. Don't give in to scare tactics and false propaganda, that are being fed to us by lies and deceit. If we don't stop this perpetration of our privacy we will soon be like the third world countries with no rights. What is next a ID card to buy food to feed our selves and our families because of so called terrorists? We voted these people in to do what is best for us. Appears we have 'put the cat to watch the butter' or 'put the fox in the henhouse.' Mari'a L Posted August 14, 2007 11:48 AM