[Peace-discuss] The right to travel

[Alfred Kagan]

Airline Program has ‘Slave’ Overtones
by Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Washington Correspondent
Originally posted 1/28/2004
http://wilmingtonjournal.blackpressusa.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=3190&sID=3

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The proposed computerized 
federal airline security system that would 
require passengers to present identification, 
undergo a background check and be color-coded, 
based on their perceived risk, harkens back to 
slave laws that prevented Blacks from traveling, 
says a Harvard University researcher who 
specializes in privacy issues.

“What this is really reminiscent of is what 
happened on plantations during slavery when Black 
people or persons of color had to have passes in 
order to travel,” says Richard Sobel, a privacy 
policy researcher at the Harvard Medical School. 
“Essentially, the 13th Amendment ended 
involuntary servitude, but when you have to ask 
the government’s permission to do certain things 
such as to travel or to work, you are no longer 
your own person.”

Despite strong opposition from civil libertarians 
and civil rights activists, the Department of 
Homeland Security’s Transportation Security 
Administration is pushing ahead with the 
so-called CAPPS 2 program with hopes it will be 
in full operation within a month. It is a 
heightened version of the Computer Assisted 
Passenger PreScreening program (CAPPS 1), 
instituted to heighten security following the 
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The TSA argues that current security measures, 
which centers on the scrutiny of packages and 
people in search of potential weapons – is not 
enough. CAPPS II would collect the names, home 
addresses and phone numbers, dates of birth and 
travel itineraries of travelers. The information 
would then be fed into huge databases, such as 
Lexis-Nexis and Acxiom, that are connected to 
public records. It would draw on credit bureau 
reports, Social Security numbers and other 
personal data before assigning a threat level to 
potential passengers.

A red rating would prohibit the traveler from 
boarding a flight. A yellow rating would mean a 
passenger will be scrutinized and questioned 
further before allowed to board a plane. A green 
rating allows a person a standard flight 
experience.
While there have been increased advocacy – even 
from liberals - to sacrifice some conveniences 
since Sept. 11, CAPPS 2 is the level of scrutiny 
that simply goes too far, according to some 
activists.

“Requests for I.D.s happen to Blacks and 
minorities much more often than Whites,” Sobel 
says. “Travel is a civil right. The Black 
migration that occurred in this country brought a 
wave of migration from the South
Imagine what it 
would be like now if people had to get 
government’s permission to go to Chicago.”

As early as 1690, laws were established to 
criminalize transported Africans who moved about 
or even visited friends on other plantations 
without passes. Slave patrols, mostly White males 
with guns, were set up to enforce the laws.

“The real danger to civil liberties is that the 
government assumes that it has the right to tell 
people whether they can travel or not. And that’s 
not a stretch. That’s exactly what the system is 
about,” Sobel says. “It’s also saying it’s okay 
for the government to go into your private 
records, even if you haven’t done anything wrong, 
to potentially restrict what you’re able to do.”
Sobel says he hopes activists will oppose CAPPS 2. And many are.

Bill Scannell, the activist who led the 
successful boycott against Delta Airlines last 
spring, after the airline worked with the TSA to 
implement CAPPS II on an experimental basis, has 
established a new site, www.dontspyonus.com.

“To think that my own country that I served in 
the Army and all of that stuff, wants to put up 
internal border controls that I’m supposed to get 
permission granted to me to determine whether I 
can travel from one part of my country to another 
part of my country. It’s appalling,” Scannell 
says.

The TSA projects that at least 5 percent of 
flyers might be coded yellow or red under CAPPS 
II. Under current security measures 15 percent of 
customers are flagged for further checks.

Even some conservative groups are raising questions about CAPPS 2.
“There are procedural and operational questions 
that need to be worked out,” says Charles Peña, a 
defense policy analyst for the CATO Institute, a 
Libertarian, non-profit research foundation in 
Washington, D.C.
“I’m all for catching criminals, but is this a 
counter-terrorism measure or is this a 
crime-fighting measure? The more you blur the 
two, the more you’re on a slippery slope,” says 
Peña. “And racial profiling is a concern that we 
cannot dismiss.”

Profiling of Muslims after Sept. 11 will also add 
to the profiling of Blacks, says LaShawn Warren, 
legislative counsel for the American Civil 
Liberties Union.

“The Muslim faith is the fastest growing religion 
among African-Americans,” Warren says. “And so, 
our concern is that this is going to unfairly 
impact African-Americans and it’s going to target 
them.”

The expansion of CAPPS 2 can be stopped in 
several ways, all requiring a coalition of people 
taking stands, say activists:

· Citizens contacting members of Congress and 
even local and state legislators could put 
pressure on the TSA to reconsider the plan;
· Congress could decide to make a law to defund 
the program and simply say no money can be spent 
on it;
· Airlines could rebel, saying they fear losing 
customers to other forms of transportation and.
· Boycott and divest in companies and reservation 
systems that are used in conjunction CAPPS 2.

“I’m not saying there’s not a problem. I’m saying 
that this is not a solution,” says Sobel. 
“There’s really no way to implement this. This 
system needs to be stopped.”

###
====================================
-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20040202/1ddcee5b/attachment.html