Big Brother is Here: DHS Secure Flight Final Rule

In a post a while back I mentioned that although the United States has its share of problems, at least we do not have to show an internal passport to travel between the contiguous states.

Well, we still do not have to do that, but as of August 15, 2009 you now need the government's permission to travel by air.

From the Homeland Security website:

Release Date: October 22, 2008

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryContact: 202-282-8010

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced the issuance of the Secure Flight Final Rule, which shifts pre-departure watch list matching responsibilities from individual aircraft operators to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and carries out a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. By bringing watch list matching responsibilities in-house, TSA can better remedy possible misidentifications when a traveler's name is similar to one found on a watch list.

"Secure Flight is a critical tool that will further improve aviation security and fix the major customer service issue of watch list misidentifications, a frustratingly common occurrence for travelers under the existing airline-based system," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "We know that threats to our aviation system persist, and Secure Flight will help us better protect the traveling public while creating a more consistent passenger prescreening process, ultimately reducing the number of misidentification issues."

Airlines will be required under Secure Flight to collect a passenger's full name, date of birth, and gender when making an airline reservation. This additional information is expected to prevent most inconveniences at the airport, and will be particularly important for those individuals with names similar to those on the watch list.

"Secure Flight will improve security by maintaining the confidentiality of the government's watch list information while fully protecting passengers' privacy and civil liberties," said TSA Administrator Kip Hawley. "Ensuring privacy has been a cornerstone of this program and TSA has developed a comprehensive privacy plan to incorporate privacy laws and practices into all areas of Secure Flight."

TSA will receive limited information for each passenger, as well as for certain non-traveling individuals, such as those escorting a minor or disabled passenger to the gate. TSA will determine if their information matches the No Fly or Selectee lists and will transmit results back to airlines. Data retention for the vast majority of individuals will be no more than seven days.
Secure Flight will be implemented in two phases. The program will initially assume the watch list matching responsibility for passengers on domestic flights from aircraft operators beginning early 2009. In a second stage of implementation, which is targeted to begin in late 2009, the Secure Flight program would assume, from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the international air carriers, the watch list matching function for passengers on international flights.

While TSA expects Secure Flight to dramatically reduce the number of passengers misidentified as a match to the watch list, TSA will continue to provide a robust redress process through the Department of Homeland Security's Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) (www.dhs.gov/trip), a single portal for travelers to seek redress for adverse screening experiences and resolve possible watch list misidentification issues. Secure Flight will integrate DHS TRIP, preventing future delays for passengers who have successfully completed the redress process.

The 9/11 Commission Report to Congress recommends that the watch list matching function "should be performed by TSA and it should utilize the larger set of watch lists maintained by the Federal Government."

The Secure Flight Final Rule follows a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) published in the Federal Register in August 2007. The NPRM initiated a public comment period that ran through Nov. 21, 2007. The Secure Flight Final Rule is currently available at www.dhs.gov and will soon be published in the Federal Register.

Here is the address for the full PDF: http://www.tsa.dhs.gov/assets/pdf/secureflight_final_rule.pdf

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Although dating from October 2008 (Must have gotten in under the radar), The two phase implementation started in May of 2009, with part two starting 5 days ago.

What does this mean? The feds maintain a "watch list" which currently has over 700,000 names on it. Now every time you book a flight, the government takes your personal information and compares it to the information on the "watch List." If you are on the list, then you do not fly.

The highly disturbing part of all this is that the gubmint gets to eyeball your personal information and track every comair flight you make. If you think this system cannot be open for serious abuse think again. For example, it was reported that many Chrysler dealers who were big contributors to the Republican party had their dealerships revoked while big Dem contributors kept their dealerships. You can now have the same abuse with air travel. Want to take the family on a trip to Hawaii? Contribute to the wrong political party and TSA can flag your flight, causing you and your family endless delay.

If you do not understand all of the potential ills the Secure Flight Rule now brings, then you cannot be helped.

Those my not be goose steps in the background, but someone is reading their playbook.