Having successfully fielded thousands of newly minted federal agents to screen air travelers and their luggage, the Transportation Security Administration is now turning to a far more controversial endeavor. The agency is developing a sophisticated screening system designed to identify travelers who may pose a terrorist threat. It is a worthy goal — one ordered up by Congress — but the creation of a highly intrusive federal surveillance program raises serious privacy and due process concerns, which the government needs to address in a forthright manner. The notion of electronic profiling is not new. Using such criteria as whether a passenger paid cash for a ticket, a rudimentary system designed in the mid-1990’s helped airlines flag passengers deserving heightened scrutiny. What that usually meant was that their checked luggage was carefully inspected. Some of the Sept. 11 hijackers were reported to have been picked out by that system, but it did little good since they did not check any bags. Full Story
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