The TSA tells us that now they are in charge
of deciding who can and can not fly (instead of the individual airlines
as was previously the case) there is greater consistency and efficiency
in matching passenger names against no fly security lists.
The TSA also says that 99% of passengers
suffering from a name similar to a terrorist name can solve the problem
by getting a 'redress' number that makes the former problem a non-issue.
Details
here.
But.
We had also been told, earlier, by the TSA
So how can we reconcile these preceding two
Alas, it seems that the date of birth/gender
So – who to believe? The TSA? Or
that the reason we now have to advise our date of birth and gender every
time we fly is so they can better screen us against possible terrorists
with similar names and easily eliminate obvious mismatches such as very
young children, senior citizens, and people of the wrong gender.
This seems sensible and understandable, doesn't it.
statements with
this account of a six year old girl who ended up on the no fly list?
Surely this should never happen when the TSA already knows this is a 6
year old girl (or have 6 yr old girls now started committing acts of
international terrorism against airlines?).
data is being completely ignored. And as for the claim about 99%
of passengers with a problem being able to solve the problem with a
redress number, that doesn't seem to be happening either.
the 6 yr old girl and her family.
Considering that most travelers flying within the U.S. use a driver’s license for I.D., why can’t TSA have readers to scan them. Most driver’s licenses have either a magnetic stripe or a barcode that contains various information about the driver, including the physical description of the driver.
If a TSA screener could swipe the card, it could than run the name, birth date, description, and address against the watch list and get either a yea or nay as to subjecting the passenger to extra scrutiny.
Most police cars are equiped with card swipers, so the officer doesn’t have to input by hand data from the license. Drug stores such as Walgreen’s and Osco/Super Valu now have swimping devices, so that paperwork for regulated OTC cold medication doesn’t have to be completed by hand.
This shouldn’t be that big of a technology step. Some airports now have scanners to read boarding pass bar codes, to prevent terrorists from creating fake boarding passes to get around the watch lists.