Date: December 6, 2005 10:11:36 PM EST
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms@computerbytesman.com>
Subject: Tens of thousands mistakenly put on terrorist watch lists
http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-7348_3-5984673.html?pagewanted=print
Tens of thousands mistakenly put on terrorist watch lists
Anne Broache, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 6, 2005
Nearly 30,000 airline passengers discovered in the past year
that they were mistakenly placed on federal "terrorist" watch lists, a
transportation security official said Tuesday.
Jim Kennedy, director of the Transportation Security Administration's
redress office, revealed the errors at a quarterly meeting convened here by
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity
Advisory Committee.
Marcia Hofmann, staff counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center,
said this appeared to be the first time such a large error has been
admitted. "It was a novel figure to me," Hofmann said. "The figure shows
that many more passengers than we've anticipated have encountered difficulty
at airports. The watch list still has a long way to go before it does what
it's supposed to do."
Kennedy said that travelers have had to ask the TSA to remove their names
from watch lists by submitting a "Passenger Identity Verification Form" and
three notarized identification documents. On average, he said, it takes
officials 45 to 60 days to evaluate the request and make any necessary
changes.
Travelers have been instructed to file the forms only after experiencing
"repeated" travel delays, he said, because additional screening can occur
for multiple reasons, including fitting a certain profile, flying on a
one-way ticket, or being selected randomly by a computer. ...
EPIC_IDOF@mailman.epic.org
https://mailman.epic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/epic_idof
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