Oh. Great. I've been risk assessed.

[elbales]

Oh Mr. Constitution, you burn so good.

U.S. gov't terror ratings draw outrage
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Dec 2, 3:52 AM ET
WASHINGTON - A leader of the new Democratic Congress, business travelers and privacy advocates expressed outrage Friday over the unannounced assignment of terrorism risk assessments to American international travelers by a computerized system managed from an unmarked, two-story brick building in Northern Virginia.

Incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont pledged greater scrutiny of such government database-mining projects after reading that during the past four years millions of Americans have been evaluated without their knowledge to assess the risks that they are terrorists or criminals.

Don't think this needs any commentary from me, actually.
 

Comments

[aspasia02.livejournal.com]

I am so, so, SO proud to have voted for Leahy repeatedly. What a great guy.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Saw that. Pissed me off.

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

It's very tempting, if I should feel the need to travel outside our borders, to head north and book a flight from a Canadian airport...

[akk]

Well, they are "risk-assessing" international travellers *not from the US* all the time, and nobody complains about that (yet).
Why do you think the US demands a data set of over 30 private informations from everybody boarding a plane in Europe?
Which is something definitely p*ssing me off. I don't want to give info about my health deficits, my dinner, my hotel reservations, my credit background, my financial transactions, my...
to a government that isn't even my own!
I'd wish your pledgers would also want to look into how non-US-citizens are treated by your government together with what is done to your citizens. *sigh*

[elbales]

From a press release from the ACLU:

The tensions between the need for intelligence agencies to protect the nation and the danger that they would become a domestic spy agency have been explicitly and repeatedly fought out in American history. The National Security Act of 1947 contained a specific ban on intelligence operatives from operating domestically. In the 1970s, America learned about the extensive domestic political spying carried out by the FBI, the military, the CIA, and the NSA, and Congress passed new laws to prevent a repeat of those abuses. Surveillance laws were debated and modified under presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton.

That's why people are up in arms about this: because the law specifically prohibits the government from doing exactly what it's been doing.

I don't like it that we spy so extensively on travelers coming here, either, but we do have a right and responsibility to protect our borders, and we don't have any laws against it that I'm aware of. That's why no one's raising the same kind of stink.

I also don't like it that we're essentially spitting on EU privacy laws; I think we should be working more closely with the EU to enhance our security and prevent terrorism. Frankly, terrorism is not a military problem; it's a law enforcement problem. The current Administration's approach is deeply fucked up and disgusting flawed.

[akk]

I don't like it that we spy so extensively on travelers coming here, either,

Unfortunately, it is not necessary for an airline traveller to come to the US to have his or her data collected by the US. It is enough to be on a plane that a) touches US airspace somewhere (not necessarily continental US, not necessarily landing in the US), b) originally comes from or goes to the US in the end (even if you board in Europe and deboard before the plane goes US-wards again), c) carries US values of some sort.

The above is what peeves me - basically, if you board a plane anywhere in the world, it's very likely the US authorities get your data, whether or not you have anything to do with them or the US at all.

Securing the US borders is fine with me, but what they are doing is worldwide data mining, and that's something different entirely.

[elbales]

If the plane is US-bound, there's a risk of explosives or such being left aboard. I guess. But geez, flying over Guam and not even touching down, or some such? Lame.

[akk]

And why do US authorities believe their European counterparts want their planes exploded and don't do their jobs properly?
I mean, I have the security checkups and everything for inner European flights etc. So why should my data go to the US in addition?
And point c) is a nice loophole. You have no way to know what is in the cargo of a plane you're taking or what other passenger is aboard.

The US wants to protect its borders, fine, but it doesn't respect them itself. :(

[elbales]

Yeah, no shit. *cough*secretCIAprisons*cough*

[akk]

:) I hope your cough gets better soon!