October 03, 2005 | Secure Flight News

Last week, Congress opted to keep language that prohibits the government from using commercial data in order to screen airline passengers and keeps the government from keeping people off planes unless their names match against a watchlist. That puts a one year stake in the heart of a recently suggested plan of using commercial data to identify potential sleeper terrorists before they board planes.

The AP's Leslie Miller jumped on the story on Friday.

The TSA has said it plans to begin implementing Secure Flight by the end of the year.

"The bill does not delay implementation," said spokeswoman Amy von Walter. "TSA will continue working closely with GAO and Congress to meet the criteria outlined for the Secure Flight program."

However, the agency's estimates of when the program would begin have consistently been wrong ever since former chief James Loy said in July 2003 that he hoped it could be implemented in July 2004.

Privacy advocates have long denounced Secure Flight as a program to spy on Americans. More recently they've questioned whether the project could ever even work, as it has sputtered along for years and cost tens of millions of dollars with few tangible results.

"This program is turning into the supercolliding superconductor of Homeland Security," said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Tim Sparapani, referring to the costly government project that was ultimately killed. "It's a boondoggle and a black hole."

A Justice Department inspector general report released in July pointed out, for example, that the TSA failed to plan for changes in the terrorist watch lists.

For those who want a nice primer on Secure Flight and its ongoing travails, try this piece from Tony Kontzer at InformationWeek.

The Transportation Security Administration's Secure Flight program is under question again, and it's unclear when, or even if, the controversial passenger-screening system will be given clearance for takeoff. Privacy issues are a sticking point, but the problems may run deeper. Project managers are vague about Secure Flight's technology architecture, and critics are asking whether the management team is up to the task.

Posted by Ryan Singel at October 3, 2005 12:53 PM

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