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Do I have a terrorist score on file with Homeland Security?
In a memo-type document released in early November 2006, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed aspects of a targeting program that most citizens and many lawmakers didn’t know about. A computerized profiling program called the Automated Targeting System (ATS), initially implemented in the 1990s to screen incoming and outgoing cargo for drugs and other contraband at border crossings, has apparently been profiling all travelers entering and leaving the United States for the past four years. Since the DHS released this detail, some members of Congress, which rejected an air-passenger-profiling system in 2004 due to concerns about accuracy have revealed that as far as they knew, the ATS program was still only used for targeting cargo.
As it turns out, if you travel internationally, you probably have a “terrorist score” that rates how risky you are. You also probably have a score if you work in the import/export business, the shipping business or the travel industry in any capacity.
If your score is low, airport border personnel won’t bother you. A higher score may earn you extra questioning at a security checkpoint or land you in an interrogation room, and a very high score could make it nearly impossible for you to travel internationally or get a job in shipping or travel anywhere in the world. The DHS has not explained what analytical methods they use come up with the score. It says only that it uses certain “rules” to establish the riskiness of a particular behavior or pattern. But it has made public which data resources it accesses in the rating process. These resources include federal, state and local government databases, criminal records, Department of Motor Vehicles information, international terrorist watch lists, and the Passenger Name Records (PNR) submitted by all airlines prior to your stepping foot on one of their planes. According to the notice published by the DHS, this PNR information is quite expansive and includes:
? Your dates of travel
? How many people you’re traveling with
? Which seat you choose or are assigned to
? Your address
? All forms of payment you use and all related payment information
? Your billing address
? All of your contact telephone numbers
? Your frequent flyer information
? The travel agency or travel agent you use
? Any free tickets you’ve received
? Any one-way tickets you’ve purchased
? Your E-mail address
? The date you bought your ticket
? Your no-show history
? The number of bags you check for each segment of your trip and tag numbers
? Any special services you request
? Any voluntary or involuntary upgrades you receive
? Any changes ever made to your PNR information
It seems like few people would argue that their preference for an aisle seat or a vegetarian meal is a major privacy issue. However, from the ACLU’s standpoint, the fact that your credit card numbers, payment records, addresses and travel history are accessed, analyzed and kept on record for 40 years, the length of time each passenger’s assessment is kept on file in the ATS database, is troublesome from a privacy standpoint. Civil liberties experts also take issue with the fact that you can’t access your own ATS score or records. All sorts of government and private agencies can access your ATS score for security purposes, but you can’t. The Department of Homeland Security, citing national security, has declared the ATS data (and its methodology of risk assessment) to be exempt from that part of the Privacy Act of 1974, which made most government records open to the public.
According to the DHS, if you are pulled aside at an airport or other border crossing due to your ATS score and you believe your apparently high score is in error, what you can do is correct the errors that may (or may not) have contributed to your high score. That means you can call your credit card companies, any airlines you have ever traveled on, your local police department, the FBI and all the other collectors of the information that may or may not have targeted you as a terrorist or criminal and see if you can correct the data from that end. Any changes in the contributing databases will update your ATS record, as well. If everyone could access his ATS score, would that defeat the purpose of the system?Now I found a reasonable website…
The Department of Homeland Stupidity
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/Let’s see how long it take to take this information down.
Happy Travels
Bill MaesThis is getting more and more Kafkaesque by the day.
And in Phoenix, they have installed one of those see-through x-ray machines. Won’t be flying through there anytime soon.
On my recent return from CR, I set off the metal detector with a silver bracelet that I could not undo. The TSA goon immediately yelled “Special treatment here!” and summoned another cohort to my side. I said, calmly, “Isn’t ‘special treatment’ the phrase the Nazis used when they exterminated people?” He told me “get in the booth” that he was pointing at. I told him no way was I getting in there, that I was claustrophobic, and was that the booth where they can see you naked? He then said in a really sinister voice, “that’s okay, ma’am, you don’t have to get in there; we’ll just call a female officer to frisk you,” and when I told him there was no way anyone was going to put their hands on my body, he said, “then I guess it’s the booth for you so we can test you for explosives!” So I got in the booth, they puffed me with air and then I had to stand there while the machine analyzed the dust particles. It took about 60 seconds, then I was told I could pass through security. I was outraged. Even the immigration officers were abusive this trip. When I presented my passport, he said in a very gruff voice, “Welcome to Amerika.” I said, “thank you.” Then he looked at me VERY sternly and said, “what did the sign say?” I said, “what sign?” He said loudly and forcefully, “THE SIGN! WHAT DID IT SAY?” I said, “I don’t know what it said because I don’t know what sign you’re talking about.” He shouted now, “THE SIGN!! WHAT DID IT SAY?” So yet again, I said, “I don’t know what it said! I didn’t see any sign so I can’t tell you.” By now he was red-faced and fuming. He slapped my passport in my hand and mumbled, “We’ll take care of this later!”
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? And are they going to let me out of the country next month or will I be detained and sent to Gitmo???? How big is MY score I wonder?
Maravilla; a word of advice. Breath in and out 10 times. I do not think it will end here, there is more to come. This administration has been “cooking” for the last 8 years Brilliant ideas like this one. Those see-through X-Ray machines you wrote about are OPERATIONAL in some airports of the good old USA. They can read the tab with the size of anyone’s bra and underwear. I might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know how this administration works (it is paranoid) and that is how they will think, plan, execute and react. Your wording of “TSA goons” is soo correct, they have absolute power over a simple passenger that wants to go from point A to B. I had my suitcases opened upon entering Miami and searched completely, all my possesions were in full view of everybody in the lobby on the counter socks, shits, pants, underwear, etc.).
So breath in and out 10 more times.Wow, hubbie and I may drive to the USA, as customs is not as invasive when driving, but flying forget it. I couldn’t stand that hassle, I’m afraid I would “lose it” Thank goodness there are direct flights from Toronto to Costa Rica and we are not that paranoid here yet, but I am sure it is coming here also.
HappygirlI WAS deep breathing the whole time I was being subjected to this fascistic nonsense. I can only imagine how ballistic I would’ve gone had I been stressed out! thank god I have a house and residency in Costa Rica, because I may not come back here at all after seeing just how bad it can get. Did I mention that all of this happened in Dallas? UGH! Never had any kind of problems in any other entry point.
Getting angry, frustrated won’t help you get through security but will harm your health/state of mind(don’t let them also take that from you!). But I like the breathing advice. I will be down there in a few days and will try and keep a pura vida state of mind as I wind through security.
happygirl: Wrong, Wrong, idea. Toronto (Canada) falls into the Interpol jurisdiction, so does Costa Rica. Anything you do will be informed to Homeland Security, in the USA. By train, boat, car or air: you will be monitored. Try something else and inform me of how you do it.
BIG BROTHER is WATCHING YOU.
Even in Canada.aguirrewar; I am aware of that, and do realize that we are being monitored as well, although not to the extent or being harassed; at least I have not been yet, but I am sure that is always a possibility.I also read that our government (Canadian) monitors all our spending habits when we are abroad, and know exactly where we stay, eat and sleep. Well, I can’t change it and I suspect none of the voting public can, so you know what? stay on the right side of the law, live life to the fullest,and don’t worry about it.You’ll live longer!
Although it is a tad invasive I have had nothing but good experiences at the airports and I am one of those folks that might LOOK like a cartoon terrorist, shaggy hair, beard. . .
I always try to be ready (I carry a large lap top PC bag), smile and be polite. Probably the worst reaction from airline security we have had was in COSTA RICA. The security officer found a pack of matches in a pocket in a borrowed nap-sack. . He frowned and said, “This is VERY serious business”.
Now, I am used to a different type of security, working in Nuclear plants. Here you are almost strip searched at the gate, every day. You go through metal detectors, bomb sniffers and are often patted down. And I do mean PATTED down. There is a great deal of difference in how airline security gently and politely pats one down and how they do it in other places. Of course part of the work in a nuclear power plant requires that you strip down to your underwear in a mixed group as you file by the radiation contamination and security personnel. After going through this a few times you find that you can take almost anything anywhere. Now if you screw up and get contaminated you will find yourself at the mercy of strangers inspecting and scrubbing off your top layer of skin in the most personal of places.
I do want to commend the Canadian Mounties. The last time I flew into Canada they were like being welcomed by an old friend. On the other hand the US side of the Calgary airport on leaving was cold and unfriendly. It made me ashamed to be a US citizen.
In the end you must remember we have a president that thinks he can win an un-winnable war that has been going on for thousands of years. He is at the top of the beuarcracy and the poor security guys at the airport are at the bottom. You have to remember that they are poorly paid and are the mushroom class, kept in the dark, fed crap and stepped on. . . But I have found that if you smile at them no matter how bad you think the situation is, they will appreciate it and are often quite nice.
That’s all very interesting, and you are absolutely right — being polite and smiling will go a long way in any situation, but trust me, some of the goons I had to deal with wouldn’t have responded to a smile or politesse no matter WHAT! In the last 18 months, I’ve been on a plane 32 times. Never once did I have an incident, felt harassed or terrorized, until this last time when the whole ordeal of going through Dallas was a colossal pain in the butt! They were unnecessarily heavy handed with me, and rude to boot!
It all depends on the profiling TSA does that week. My wife is Tica and travels to Costa Rica every 6 to 8 months back and forth from Tampa, FL to San Jose, she say’s that when she arrives to the States with her Green Card she selects a young male TSA inspector that talks spanish. Then it is all smiles and a little chit chat. Never has she had a problem. It probably pay’s to be good looking, well dressed, nice hair, smiles and laughter.
Maybe I will select the next time a female TSA inspector and do the same but I am not very good looking and double left footed, wear glasses with short hair and my favorite clothes are jeans and polo shirts. Then again who knows.I just arrived home from CR this morning, via a connecting flight to Atlanta then to Tampa, and because I have a knee replacement, at every airport I am patted down. It is really getting to be annoying. I am fair haired and fair skinned grandmother of 21. I truly understand the safety ramifications, as my son is an airline pilot, but the majority of people being put in that little glass box, and having some stranger runs their hands all over them, are seniors with knee and hip replacements. One time my son drove me to the airport in my fathers very conservative sedan, and we were pulled over on the road into the airport and they searched the car. Have they changed the terrorists profile now to disabled seniors? I must say I didn’t feel quite as molested by the woman in CR, they are much less intrusive and a lot more pleasant then they are stateside.
It’s ridiculous to be sure. Pure Kafka. I guess you probably hope they start using those full-body xray machines so they could see the hardware in your knees. I have a steel pin in my back but it never sets off the metal detectors. You would’ve thought that they’d use some kind of material that would NOT set things off for knees and hips.
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