Homeland Security Creates Terrorism Score for Travelers

well, i dont think theres much else to say except that this is another perfect example of how fucked up our government is. Hurray USA...

Sonic is now on the terrorist watch list...

:P

So much of our information can be mined. Nothing new here.

The bigger trouble isn't within the secret databases: It's being judged to be your past sum of electronic records, rather than a ever change person living now.

It's a subtle difference in a culture where most people are afraid to be themselves and try so hard to pretend they are an image of a good American.

peace
http://www.personaltao.com/tao/freedom.htm

So does that mean that they will do racial profiling? Fine by me. Let's face it look at MOST not all but MOST acts of terror it is male Muslims. It is like when they look for serial killers they look for white males. Should we tell the police to stop profiling? Granted this is another tangent on the issue but let's get deeper. If the shoe fits wear it. I fyou are innocent it is an inconvienece true. But at least they know beyond a shadow of a doubt afterward you are not a threat.

Peace

Chad

Chad, you win the award for "most ludicrous thing I have ever read".

What a sick mentality.

WTF? This is *news*? I mean, you tell this stuff routinely to the airlines all the time. It's completely open data, nothing you want secret here AT ALL. And you're worried the gummint might actually use this completely obvious data to decide whether someone might need a bit more questioning before being allowed across the border?

This has got to be the most stupid ostrich head-in-the-sand fearmongering I've ever heard of. You might as well be horrified because when you walk in a bank the tellers use their eyes and observe whether you're carrying a gun and wearing a black mask or not, and make decisions accordingly.

If the gummint were prying into things you actually take the least bit of trouble to keep secret -- like your bank balance, the name of your mistress, how you voted last election -- then there might be something to worry about. But your address? Whether you bought a one-way ticket or round-trip? Whether you're named Muhammed al-DeathToTheGreatSatan and recently traveled for a few months to a remote Pakistanian village?

Sheesh.

This isn't just amusing harmless doofosity, however. Just keep up the Chicken-Little hysteria about government using mild, obvious measures to keep the borders secure, and then when something really awful happens you'll see the pendulum swing violently the other way -- and then you really will have to get used to bending over and spreading your cheeks every time the police think you're acting a little funny. Remember what happened to the boy who cried 'wolf' one too many times, eh?

I recommend that everyone boycott air travel and stick to trains and buses or car. Just don't succumb to this horrible invasion of privacy, and more -- it's sinister. If enough people dont fly, maybe the airlines -- whose voices would surely be heard unlike ours, which no longer seem to count for anything-- would put a stop to it.

We can still vote with our feet. Dont know how long that will last, though.

I say - Clooney defense! Just like Clooney is trying to misleed the paparazi - I am planning to send equally meaningless amounts to a church, a synagogue and a mosque - let them sort it out! But seriously, profiling is not only dangerous on general humanitarian grounds - it is dangerous because it luls one into a false sense of security. A white christian female can bring down a plane just as effectively as any muslim male and you just told the terorr group whom exactly to recruite! Terrorism is not an illness but an effective military strategy and as such does not "belong" to any group, nationality or religion. Russian partisans were terrorists and insurgents - did not make them any less efective at hiding out the jews!

Hey Chad, I love your racist attitude! Hell yeah racial profiling is a good idea! And hey, why stop with searching male Muslims? Why not search blacks and hispanics too, since we all know they are just drug-smuggling criminals! And Jews, can't leave those guys out, after all, Uncle Adolf warned us about them!
Man, it is GREAT living in the US-A! Land of torture, hypocrisy, secret police, nuclear arms to hold the rest of the world hostage to our demands, rigged elections...god bless the USA and woe be to anyone who DARES oppose us!

Wow. Our government is messed up. Everyone knows that. I'll do my job then.

www.ethana1.blogspot.com

There. You now know how it should be. That's very important. You may disagree, whatever. Just think it over please. I want to help make a difference.

Our government was never meant to work with current parameters. Naturally then, it doesn't work anymore. We need to accept that and move on to the next thing. Of course, intellectual property crap will try to slow it all down as usual... Get rid of the mentalities people! Know what communism is! Know what socialism is! Know why they don't work, and know that our way isn't perfect either. Please don't be part of the ignorant swarm. Use your brain! Obtain data, analyze data, spread data, watch society progress.

ethana2@gmail.com

go chad

Hooray for Sponge Bob! It's nice to stumble across some common sense every once in a while.

If I hear one more weekend-reactionary caterwauling about the MCA or the Patriot Act, I'm gonna spackle my ears shut.

I know we can't all be bothered to keep up with current events; like, you know, the actual facts. But people, if you don't have the time to do the research, please shut the hell up.

The sky is falling! Oh wait, nevermind..it's the Department of Homeland Security, *GASP* securing the United States? Who would have thought?

Give me a break, this isn't Big Brother, this is something the government should have been doing a long time ago.

@ethana2: Dude, that junk is virtually unreadable. But I saw enough to realize you're apparently advocating pure democracy. Snort.

Thanks anyway. You think I want that knuckle-draggin neighbor of mine to directly influence national policy? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Our system wasn't designed to overcome technological handicaps. It's the mental ones you have to worry about. The fact is, most people are idiots. Exhibit A: Present company.

USA is trying to fight a war while playing nice that is why we have problems japan gave up pretty fast after the nukes landed . thats the kind of resolve that is needed to break peoples blood hunger ,the japs also would suicid bomb only they used smaller air craft . the same kind of mass killing is needed to show the bad guy arabs that they shoud rethink attacking america and settle for selling us cars . so lets rethink this whole mess and vaporise a few million people im pretty sure they would get the point faster that way and we wouldnt have to risk ground warfare anymore . when i see our troops giveing back packs to 10 year old arabs in iraq , all i can think is wow only 6-8years till thats filled with explosives aimed right back at those troops . now i understand the dangers of nukes, and the bad rep we will get from useing them again . small price to pay when u compare the risks of being weak and seen as not willing to strike back with everything we have .

I'm from the UK, and I can't decide which government is more fucked up.

El Al has been doing this for a LONG time to stop terrorist issues on their flights. Those people that fly EL Al seemingly love El Al. And guess what no incdents since they started handling their own security. Coincidence? I think not.

How's everybody? I've read the news articles, online bulletin emails/comments, watched the CNN reports, and I am able to ascertain two conclusive results to all of the matters at hand.

1. If I've learned one thing, it's to realize as far as the media is concerned, sometimes what we read in print is only what would "fit" in print, not necessarily what is "fit" to print - but usually a small team or even one person makes the final decision there. So, how much do we truly know of the policies that are being discussed, without some reporter's/writer's angle eluding readers from the truth?

2. That fear, and I read this out of a small pamphlet, could mean, False Evidence Appearing Real...I think there are many who need "something" to believe in, "something" to hold on to that will give life meaning, purpose. This could be a wide array of things, including faith/religion, protest, a spouse, homeland security, ________ you fill in the blank. What I am trying to say is, life is short, the world is small, and where do our priorities lie? Yours? Mine? In a world engaged with "self", perhaps that, within ourselves, is where change begins...

So, I say, have fun, hug your kids, race a car, or hang glide in Belize, whatever, wherever your heart takes you...all of the other stuff will soon fade away...

Peace to you and yours
-j

"Truth is not meant to be witheld. Truth is meant to be given to all for free. All truth."

In the spirit of your blog, ethana2, you are fucking wackjob. Truly crazy, and I guess that's the problem with giving every nut from Omaha their own blog. You're giving bloggers a bad name. You're not going to come up with a better economic system or for god sakes a new language that will replace english in the two hours a day you spend writing that awful blog. English is here to stay, it's spread far and wide and people can get behind it. It's even the language used for scientists from different countries who otherwise would just learn Italian or French. It's done a lot for helping the American image as well, because it's harder to hate someone when you can understand them.

And Bong Song post -- sure let's nuke 'em!

Did you guys hear about Saddam's obsession with Hitler? Saw it on history channel international, so it must be true :-D

Data mining has become such a buzzword and I don't think many people even know what it is. I don't know anything about this program but it seems more likely to me that the data they are keeping in the database for 40 years is aggregate data used to train a classification system. E.g.: origin=X destination=Y age=N time_of_flight=T known_terrorist=No. They can't verify the validity of your information because your information isn't tied to you. When you purchase a ticket or cross the border your parameters are fed into the system and based on the training data, a probability of risk pops out. This is how normal classification systems work, and the credit card companies have been doing this for years to flag potential fraudulent charges. Your email system is doing the same thing to flag potential spam messages.

Now, if the govm't IS tieing all this information back to you specifically, that could be a problem. Similarly, we all have to hope GMail isn't using the information in all of our emails against us in some way.

I think Chad is on to something here. Granted OFAC isn't Homeland Security, but check the first few pages of the list provided in the link. Those names sound pretty Muslim. Yes, A white Christian female can bring down a plane as effectively as a Middle-Eastern Muslim male, but she doesn't. That's the difference. No one within the Christian community is declaring religious war on Middle-Easterners. See this as what it is: a defensive measure.
And to all those that think this is invasion of privacy... the government could care less about you and is not invading YOUR privacy. They're too busy checking up on potential threats to worry about wire-tapping your phone to find out from where you order your Chinese food.

I would rather everyone be treated as if they were a terror suspect. Punish all or none. At least that way, anybody with the slightest inclination to terrorize this great country of mine would have to think twice. Remember the little towns in Texas.....City Ordiance to possess a firearm in the house. When everyone has a weapon of defense in the home, wannabe criminals have a to weigh out the chances of getting shot, or getting that loot. I used to be a criminal. No way in hell am I going to break into a house knowing that I might open the door to the business end of a 12 Guage. This "data-mining", just an old man sitting on a porch with his shotgun. Anybody that complains on how the United States Government tries to protect her citizens from criminals, whether abroad or within, needs to step up and do something to make my daughter and myself safe. For years our guard was let down, and looked what happened. They took our Twin Towers. I think the USA needs to do anything in its power not to let that happen again. Her people, US!!!, need to stand up and hold our ground. You need to realize that there is an entire section of the globe that does not want America to exist anymore. CEASE TO EXIST!!!! Do you understand that people? Personally, I think there is only one way to handle this properly. We have a religious war declared against us. Take out the heart of the religion, and they might not have anything to fight for. Japan gave up quick with some nukes on their lap. Why don't we take out mecca, ban Islam from America. I know we have the freedom of religion, but we also have the responsiblility to protect ourselves. We someone breaks the law, we remove them from society. The Radical Muslims have broken our laws, remove them from society. If you are a peace loving Muslim, I am sorry. Don't expect it to be fair. Ask the 3000+ 9/11 victims if it was fair. Thats all I have to say, and this. Buy a weapon, learn how t use it properly, and don't let anybody threaten my country. Spread the word.

Wow, truly crazy. Destroy Mecca? Ban Islam? When are you going to learn we are all just about the same. If you truly advocate these ideas then you are not so different from terrorists. Peace will come only through education and the tolerance that comes from understanding, not through the promotion of ignorant hatred.

Personally I think they should develop anti-hate pills or something (sadly, I'm not so sure thats possible). As reward for taking the pills, you can get discounts on your tax and insurance, for example. Anyway, back to the question on invasion of privacy: I don't mind being watched, as long as that information is used for security only, and not, say, control purposes.

Oh. My. God. I know everyone has different takes on these issues, but some of these comments are just plain scary. Ban Islam? Destroy Mecca? Nuke people? How, may I ask, does that make us any safer? Or make America someplace to believe in and be proud of? I wouldn't be proud to be part of a country that indiscriminately kills millions of innocent people just because we're scared of a few. That just makes more enemies for us! Besides, Islamic people in general aren't trying to destroy America - our problems are with just a relative handful. Declaring war on all Muslims would be disastrous. Granted, our foreign policy lately hasn't made us any more popular in the rest of the world, but we can change that in time if we try. And as for invasion of privacy - there has to be some control, some accountability, because it's just a couple small steps to NO privacy. There has to be a balance between freedom and safety - we could be very safe, if we were willing to give up all of our freedoms. I'm not willing. I am proud of being an American because I have freedom that many people would - and did - die for. The problem with the "Us and Them" mentality is that people start seeing "Us" as a smaller and smaller group, and "Them" keep growing and getting scarier. Fear makes people dangerous. The so-called "War on Terror" has just become an over-used and abused buzzword. Too many people have started thinking it just means war against Muslims. WRONG, people. Most Muslims are not terrorists.

And Cliff96 - maybe a white Christian female HASN'T brought down a plane, but there have been Americans and Britons and various others who were NOT Arabs or Muslims, that have been arrested for plotting with terrorists against America. Profiling didn't do any good there. And yes, there are some people in Christian groups who basically are declaring war - or at least telling government officials to do it. Don't be so blind as to think only the "Muslim Terrorists" are the bad guys, and everyone in America is just on the defensive. Bull. Anybody - particularly people in groups (look up "Mob Mentality" sometime) can overreact or commit atrocious acts in the name of whatever good they claim to support. Maybe you've heard of the Spanish Inquisition?

Geez, take a minute and think about what some of you are suggesting. For most people, it's just fear and desperation talking. It's the few that really mean it that scare me. I think those are at least as dangerous to America as any terrorist.

Why dont we just genocide all muslims on planet Earth so we dont have to worry about threats of "terrorism" anymore ? seriously, if those jerks would just get off my planet and go live on the moon they love so much, we could be free of terrorism.

BombIslam.com

If the database contains errors, they can not be detected. You can not review your own record and contest errors. The inaccurate information in your record will be used to make important decisions about your fate.

"The data can be shared with foreign governments". You trust foreign governments that have security problems with the names of your kids and your home address? Then you'll love this program.

wow - i'm soooo confused now. now that i'm helpless and impressionable, can someone tell me whathefuck you americans are doing? so much in-fighting and ignorance, it makes want to lobotomize myself in order to comprehend the mind-numbing nature of every post i spent 15 minutes reading. between pseudo-hippies and republicans thinly-guised as libertarians, to people who'd rather just kill'em - y'all be screwed up!

hi - want to end this shit? see: French Revolution - kill the powerful, get fat on conquest, and repeat evils you killed for. this circular rhetoric solves nothing, it only serves to divide and nullify civilization.

i weap for the future.

This more reactionary than anything I have seen lately to the totally inflated idea that "terrorism" is something new since 9/11. It just goes to show how provincial our government is in its thinking and our populace in going along with it. I even read one comment here that idiotically claimed most acts of "terrorism" were perpetrated by male Muslims. How ignorant of history!

Starting with the birth of our country, the vast majority of acts that would fit the modern definition of "terrorism" have been committed by white males who have a political or ideological agenda. Everything from the guerilla warfare, or "insurgency" of our Founding Fathers, through political assassinations and hostage situations, and on to abortion clinic bombings and militant standoffs like Ruby Ridge, Waco, and Timothy McVeigh. Islamic extremists have only committed acts of "terror" against this country on an increasing scale for the last 30 years or so and usually as a direct result of American meddling in their native countries.

Thus, our government is able to once again capitalize on public fear of some bloated specter and grab a little more power to ensure our perceived sense of safety. Benjamin Franklin warned those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither neither. Sadly, it appears our country is not prepared to stand up to its own government's power grab because we are convinced that giving up liberty will mean we are safer when nothing could be further from the truth.

Scared:
Please make a pie chart of people that are involved in modern day jihad terrorism. Label one portion "Middle-Eastern Muslim males" and the other portion... call it "Everyone else". Do you see the big piece there in your pie chart or are you just blind?
Also make sure to check this page out too:
AnotherLameConspiracyTheoryOnTheNet.com

We are already dead, and we don't even know it. We have grown soft, while our enemies grow stronger. They use every tactic imaginable to kill innocent women and children, while we debate whether or not waterboarding is torture. Let one of those terrorist stick a 747 full of jet fuel up your ass, and see if you really care if terrorists has civil rights. It's all about perspective, and too many people have political agendas that will not allow them to see the truth. Sure, some of you who view kiddy porn are concerned that the Feds will catch your ass using some of this legislation, and I hope they do. As for me, I will continue to support politicians who are tough on terrorism, and who actually get it. I will also continue to expose those who are soft on terrorism, and who do not get it. When the first nuke goes off in a major U.S. city, I hope the first ones to hang are the politicians who stood in the way.

Data-Mining? Is this like the wal-mart data center where every thing you buy is tied back to you personally and profits are maximized because of databases tracking trends and projected demand estimates. No wonder the government agents that inspect the place had to sign a NDA. Largest company in the world and the largest computer database in the world.... Coincidence?

Times are changing, be wary of anything. Our government in it's current form will never be able to please anyone. Anything short of a revolution wouldn't be able to effect the change needed to correct the mistakes of our forefathers.

I'm leaving the united states next month, my home since birth. I hope the rest of you get a clue or grow some balls and take action, instead of sitting idly by and letting the USA own you. A government should fear ITS PEOPLE not the other way around. Fucking stand up america.

EXACTLY! What is happening to Iraq needs to happen to america!

Wow. I want to smash my computer into pieces to keep myself from ever wasting time reading ignorant, misspelled, uninformed, sadistic, bigotted, self-inflating, hatemongering drivel such as this. TURN OFF FOX NEWS YOU IDIOTS! HAVE YOU EVER SAT DOWN TO READ SOMETHING BESIDES TV GUIDE?

Seriously, think for yourself and stop letting Limbaugh & O'Reilly telling you what you think. The vast majority of murder, theft, scamming, torture and other crimes have been committed by white America. We are the terrorists. Spreading fear to control a population. The gov't is exploiting 9/11 to usher in a police state. Torture has been legalized, Habeas Corpus eradicated, and now Bush can declare martial law anytime he wants.

This was a free country. But, thanks to stupid, imbred, uneducated, short-sighted, racist, sexist, fearmongers such as some of you, our governmant has sold us out. Turn off the tv idiots, read a book. Educate yourselves, do your children a favor!

The problem with "data mining" is that you drag up tons and tons of dirt, then you have to sort-out what's interesting and what's not. What do you find yourself looking for? What you already knew to look for! You don't know how to look for something totally new. There's too much data for any "central command" to sort it all out, no matter how many computers they use.

Statistics can only test hypotheses. And, therefore, you must have a hypothesis to test. You can only test for the hypothesis you have already devised; and you are blinded to all the others. This is why guerilla strategies work: there is no central "anything."

It would be far smarter, I think, to adopt the much more subtle strategy of =decentralized= vigilance. No matter how many bad-guys there are, there are many more good-guys constantly surrounding them. Ordinary citizens "walking along the beach" who "see something unusual." ("Why are these guys taking flying lessons anyway?" "That fellow who wanted to buy all that fertilizer don't seem to be from around here..." "Gee, that's odd...") Given the means (such as already exist, say with blog or wiki technology) to get that information where it needs to go -- N-O-T to a "central command" but to any other DE-centralized point -- you have suddenly made it harder not to get noticed.

It is, in other words, a chaotic system, designed to be effective against a de-centralized opponent. Like the opponent, it has no "location." It has no "central command." It has no phalanx of "analysts." Just "a million watchful eyes" ... not big-brother's eyes, but those of ordinary citizens. It does not have a pre-determined, pre-identified "enemy." It is, rather, a system that makes it much harder for an enemy of this type to obtain what he wants -- concealment; to be overlooked.

To clarify my previous post ...

The strategy that I propose is "opportunistic," not "deterministic." The opponent is also being opportunistic, looking for vulnerabilities where he can find them and knowing that the society he's working in and working against is not simultaneously doing the same thing. My point is, "that society ought to be 'simultaneously doing the same thing.'" Fight fire with fire.

If you know, as the bad guys DO know, that your opponent is trying to move against you using a lumbering centralized bureaucracy (and let's face it, every centralized bureaucracy is "lumbering" by its nature), then all you have to do is Think Different. Be nimble and quick and stealthy: hang a red cape on the door to attract the bull over there, then slip away with your stiletto over here. "Stage-magic 101."

But if your society has adopted the same mechanism, this time as a well-organized defense, and it is employing today's in-place (Internet) communications infrastructure and in-place (cryptographic, wiki, et al) verifiable communications tools =creatively= ... suddenly you are surrounded by people who are alert and watchful, and sharing information chaotically and in real-time.

It's exactly like "Neighborhood Watch" on a global scale. But it's completely asynchronous, completely structure-less, completely (some would say...) anarchic in its strategies. Exactly like the enemy you intend to oppose.

The military is still thinking military. Just like the Naval officers who clung so long to the Battleship .. and for that matter, the think-tanks who today cling to the notion of armies and missiles and capital ships .. the only type of enemy they can concieve of is the one they know how to blast out of the sea or the sky. The reason why America isn't winning anything at all in Iraq, especially not against its supposed stated-goal of "terrorism," is that you can't win that way. You can't force this enemy to play the game on your terms any more than the captain of a battleship could force his enemy not to use airplanes. You can't send an army-on-the-ground against "terrorism" because terrorism .. restated as "guerilla tactics in a non-military setting" .. is a strategy, not an enemy against which you can engage in conventional war.

To defeat a conventional enemy, you first must locate him (all of him), and then either attack his force or his command-structure. So-called "terrorist" strategies effectively block that on all points. That's why they were concieved; that's why they work. They are a highly-effective response to the strategies and philosophies of "conventional war."

America escalated "conventional war" to a global scale after WW2, but never changed its thinking. That's why it has lost every battle since, except for one weekend free-for-all. It's not a question of might nor determination; it's a question of strategy.

How do you sink a cruiser? With one Exocet missile. How do you stymie the greatest military juggernaut in the world? With booby-traps, cunning, and relentless patience.

By using the phrase "war on ..X.." pundits take for granted PRECISELY what they should not: that "X" is actually something that you can meaningfully "make war on" and defeat militarily. But a battleship is never, ever going to defeat an airplane. And an army is never going to defeat an opportunist.

Screw P.C. , it's P.c. that got us into this mess.. Got nothing to hide. Data mine all you can as long as miranda rights are kept intact. No miranda for non's and Illegals. I don't care where you come from, when in Rome do as the Romans do. I personally believe that personal protection is a good answer, we start picking off terrorists ourselves we'll be better off. I see someone plantin' a bomb, their gonna meet allah alot a few minutes early. (:>) <----- picture of the Prophet Mohammad.

planes... what are those? back in my day we walked places with our, and if you wanted to get an explosion out of the twins then youd just use your foot to...

i love you guys. americans. what an awesome mix of nuts. look, first of all, let's stop being surprised that our government is fucked up. any government is. ours just happens to be the biggest government out there right now, so it's scale is magnified. it's no coincidence that the US government is using the same practices as credit card companies, is in bed with airlines and banks, and has a corrupt leadership that is only looking out for itself. the US government is a business, a company, a corporation. and like so many corporations recently in the spotlight of scandal, it is selling out it's employees (you and me). the neocons are the ceo's and they know that whether they do a good job or a bad one, they will walk away with a shitload of cash. and even more when they do a really bad job while making sabotage deals with other companies. do you really think you live in a country anymore? do you really think that there's such a thing anymore? well, sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you live in a corporate shell, and you're merely a revenue resource. so whine on. it won't do any good.

why don't you all get out and vote, and then go figure out where you spend your money, and who you're really supporting. and then read the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the principles of Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and the other brilliant thinkers who set up this country, only to be thwarted in a few short years by those who rather wanted to build an empire. the recent events and their reactions have been in the making for hundreds of years. the resistance is valid. the enemy is not insane. you'll never know the whole truth. kill your television. the internet is for porn. grow your own. when there's blood on the streets, buy property.

your friend,

george

If all the privacy nuts of America unite to shield all the hijackers and head-hackers of the world then we won't have to worry about privacy at all. Do privacy advocates get 72 virgins? Or just a thank you note from Mohammed Atta?

Trying to prevent terrorism isn't going to stop it.

LMAO...yes, fox news is the bane of society in the US. Kill the powers-that-be at Fox. That will solve ALL of our problems. By the way, Nae, it's *inbred*, not imbred. Before bitching about the uneducated, you might want to make sure you don't come across as an ignorant hate-monger yourself. What a miserable collection of self-deluded fools. Patton was right when he feared for his country's future. Pacifists have whittled away what resolve this country has, and will eventually open us bare to the rest of the world, at which point the rest of the world will thrust their proverbial sword through us and destroy us. Do you really think anyone outside the US gives a crap about us? Of course not. And when this country is choked by people who have no concept of reality, we will repeat the history every great nation has suffered--that of defeat and eradication. People get up on their soapboxes and preach about tolerance, all the while the people you want t obe tolerant of would take the first opportunity to remove you from this planet. Maybe that's ok to you. It's not to me. Oh, and Nae, take a midol and turn CNN off. You might realize there are other perspectives than your own.

"This was a free country. But, thanks to stupid, imbred, uneducated, short-sighted, racist, sexist, fearmongers such as some of you, our governmant has sold us out. Turn off the tv idiots, read a book. Educate yourselves, do your children a favor!"

anyone else notice the comma splices and spelling mistake in there?

gotta love those who tell others they're uneducated, all the while proving they have little to no ground to stand on to make that claim. oh, sheeple, what jokes you are!

You need to be aware that the notice in the Federal Register (at least in the online version) also gave incorrect information on how to post comments on this program. Specifically, the Docket Number was incorrect in the Federal Register, making it difficult for anyone wanting to comment on the program. The actual Docket number is DHS-2006-0060.

DHS is required by law to take comments from the public prior to implementing screening. If enough people give negative comments on this system, there is a real chance that it can be stopped.

To comment, you can go to http://www.regulations.gov. Do a search using the Docket Number mentioned above. On the results page, in the far right column, you can click on the “bubble” and you will be taken to a page that allows you to leave your comment.

Unfortunately, there is no way to link directly to the comments page. I presume that the government has done this intentionally to dissuade people from giving them too much feedback.

Jim Malmberg
ACCESS
http://www.guardmycreditfile.org

Wow, for all the Wired Readers know about tech they sure are morons about humans and public relations.

All Terrorist are Islamic and Middle Easter. Yea, ever heard of the KKK? Unibomber? The Black Melisha? North Korea!?!

Every culture has its gems and its boogers. So why do we just not deived people into two segrigations: Smart and Stupid. The whole human eco-system would run better. :)

Chad

"let's face it look at MOST not all but MOST acts of terror it is male Muslims."

Ok. And most rapes are committed by males over the age of 14. Happy?

The seial killer analogy doesn't work because those are isolated incidences that usually involve a pool of "suspects" in a limited geographical range.

The US government is limiting its profiling to the world and to people that make it nervous. Which could be the ACLU, you- if your reading list is considered iffy, depending on what I have published recently, you get the picture. And neither of us, I assume, is a Male Muslim of Middle Eastern origin. But I still get "randomly searched" and asked what my ethnic origin is and so excuse me if I find being "inconvenienced" is a big pain in the ass.

It is better to push for change rather than sitting around bitching through a computer screen. If you don't like it, act on it. Get out there and tell your family, friends and neighbors what you think. Educate them on events they might not be aware of.
Personally I am not thrilled with the airlines profiling everyone as a terroris. The x-ray machines they are now implementing will help them see what you are carrying but cannot tell your intentions.
I am refusing to fly until things change. I will take the train or drive to my destinations. My family agrees with me and is following suit along with my friends.
Spread the word.
Take action.
Actions speak louder than words.
Don't pay money to be man handled at airports and searched like a prisoner.
God bless America. It's time we take her back and stand up for what is right.

WTF is everyones problem. Who cares. safe is safe is safe. why is the govt fucked up because of this. morons!!

Like many vieweres expressed, searches of information may not harm most of us because of our clean past and present and though may cause inconvenience, but based on my personal travel experiences, I think such racial profiling rather causing antagonistic affects.

Until very recent, I always thought of US residence as the most passionate, kind and caring human being, and thought it is only the government that is playing politics and creating more and more hatred and demons for the nation, but re-election of the present government and arrogant support for the DHS suggest that we are not trying to make friends rather trying to push even moderate muslims to the wall, where they wouldn't have any option but to sympathize with enemies of the US.

In present global world, no doubt North America is not sharing border with a Muslim country, but I can't imagine living in a world without dealing with others, not just for oil rather also for markets.

May be I am naive but I am not sure if we are in less danger or more safer than pre 9/11. To me terrorism mean terrorizing people and keeping them in the cloud of fears, which personally I think US goverment is terrorising US citizen and world more than Al Qaida.

I think Chad is on to something here. Granted OFAC isn't Homeland Security, but check the first few pages of the list provided in the link. Those names sound pretty Muslim. Yes, A white Christian female can bring down a plane as effectively as a Middle-Eastern Muslim male, but she doesn't. That's the difference. No one within the Christian community is declaring religious war on Middle-Easterners. See this as what it is: a defensive measure.
And to all those that think this is invasion of privacy... the government could care less about you and is not invading YOUR privacy. They're too busy checking up on potential threats to worry about wire-tapping your phone to find out from where you order your Chinese food.

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