[Imc-newsroom] Headline for Newshour

[Michael S. Feltes]

If someone could forward this to Sehvilla, I'd appreciate it.  I don't
have her email.

Civil Libertarian Sues On Airport ID Requirements

John Gilmore, co-creator of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, filed suit
in federal court on Friday against John Ashcroft, Robert Mueller and other
authority figures in the US government, as well as United and Southwest
Airlines.  Since 9/11, all airline passengers have been required under
secret government regulations to show photo identification in order to
board their flight.  Gilmore contends that these regulations, which he
alleges are communicated to airport security personnel orally and which
change frequently, violate the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment, as well
as the Freedom of Information Act.

William Simich, lead counsel in the case, says, "History shows many abuses
when government agents can demand 'your papers, please!'  TSA [the
Transportation Security Adminstration] plans to deploy 'CAPPS II' later
this year.  This will use your ID to search in a stew of databases like
credit records, previous travel history, criminal records, motor vehicle
records, banks, web searches and companies that collect personal
information from consumer transactions... If the machine decides you're a
risk, the airline will not let you fly, and federal cops will show up to
interrogate you.  They will probably tell you that you were 'randomly'
selected for all this atention, but they will be lying."

Citizens have already been prevented from flying for hidden, spurious
reasons; in April, 20 students from Milwaukee were prevented from
traveling to Washington DC to participate in the A20 protests and lobby
their Congressional representatives.  One of the activists' names was
found on a secret 'No Fly' list and, with no other justification, they
were prevented from flying for a day.

To read the text of the lawsuit and an FAQ authored by the plaintiff, John
Gilmore, point your web browser toward

http://www.cryptome.org/freetotravel.html



Michael Feltes
mfeltes at ucimc.org

"You may share in the labours of the great, but you will not share in the
spoil."  -Aesop