US No-Fly List
A new Wired News story I just read reminds me of the perils of flying in the US. A particularly dangerous “feature” is the so-called no-fly list. This is a list of names who are considered so dangereous that they are not allowed to board an airplane but not dangerous enough to immediately arrest them. There is a whole bunch of problems with this “security feature”:
It does not work. It is too easy to get real IDs in false names which makes it trivial to circumvent this measure. Additionally, the authorities give you a free way of checking whether you are on the list: you can just go to the airport and try to check in. If you are refused, you get an ID in another name and try again — voilá.
The way it works is dangerous, curtails civil liberties and is most probably unconstitutional. If your name appears on the no-fly list, there is no way to find out how it got there. Neither can you challenge its appearance. This is equivalent to a policy of “guilty until proven innocent” and can therefore never be acceptable in a state that values its civil liberties.
The money wasted on this huge program would be better spent elsewhere. Of course it is good to keep potential terrorists off planes. However, they could also commit their crimes elsewhere. Would it not be better to spend money on measures that actually bring terrorists behind bars, preventing them from committing any further crimes at all?
The program is applied blindly according to computerized rules without any human oversight. The Wired story reports the case of a nun denied boarding because a (male!) Afghan terrorist supposedly used her last name as an alias. Even the most cursory human check of this situation would have revealed this error. She was nonetheless denied boarding.
What I find particularly troublesome is the following account:
“I said something to the effect that ‘If this were Northern Ireland, I would understand,’” McPhee said. “And the police officer said, ‘Ma’am, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, or otherwise I would have to arrest you.’ After that, I didn’t say anything.”
Now you cannot even criticize the ridiculous and unconstitutional treatment you have to go through? Since when can you be arrested for a simple statement in the United States?
This program is far beyond the bounds of what is acceptable in a free, constitutional state. Honestly, this is one of the reasons why I could not right now imagine living in the United States. Where have we gotten? A country that claims to be promoting freedom around the world and that has actually brought it to Europe and Japan after World War II is now abolishing their civil liberties on their own turf.
More than angry, this makes me sad.
Link found through Schneier on Security.
