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Last week's stories for Wired News concerned two new anti-terrorism programs, one a high-tech screening machine being tested on the southern border. It sounds almost too 22nd century to be true. Read more about PFNA, gamma-ray goodness here.
The other program is less high-tech, but probably more likely to play a role in Americans' everyday lives.
The branding division at the Transportation Security Administration calls it "Secure Flight," but it's really CAPPS v. 3.0 or so.
"Secure Flight" differs from CAPPS II in a few significant ways, which you can find in my article here.
But I think it's fair to note how political the timing of the announcement was.
The TSA had only just recently killed off CAPPS II and haven't even finished the autopsy report before they announced the next program.
Either the TSA is getting pushed really hard by Congress and the Administration to introduce something new, no matter how full their current plans are, or the TSA is using the pressure from the 9/11 commission as cover to get as much of CAPPS II introduced as it can.
And for some stellar, behind-the-scenes reporting on where "Secure Flight" might really be going, see Robert O'Harrow and Sara Goo's piece from Wednesday in the Washington Post,
Unfortunately, the Post's editors buried the story on A16. (At least, they will be in good company, since that's about where the byline of the indomitable Walter Pincus seems to land often too.)
Notice also "Secure Flight" drops the idea of using the airline counters to check for those wanted for outstanding warrants for violent crimes, one of the most controversial parts of CAPPS II.
That's not a tough one for the TSA to drop, I don't think, since 1) it didn't have anything to do with airline security (despite TSA spokesperson's comments about sitting next to axe murderers on planes) and 2) the idea was probably a concession given to the FBI when the TSA wanted more terrorist info from them back in the day.
Now with the Terrorist Screening Center online trying to create a centralized watchlist, they don't have to appease the FBI.
I'd tell you more about that but the TSA redacted all the emailed documents from the FBI to TSA.
And coming up tomorrow on Wired News, the 9/11 Commission's Civil Liberties board recommendation as interpreted by the Bush Administration.
Posted by Ryan Singel at August 30, 2004 09:21 PM
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