August 20, 2003 Letter to Transportation Safety Administration
PO Box 8208
Alexandria, VA 22306-8208
August 20 2003
Transportation Safety Administration
Privacy Office
Washington, DC
I am writing to urge you to stop the CAPPS II program. I am deeply concerned that this program will put the government on a path toward ever-more intrusive background checks, and hinder the security at our nation’s airports.
I have read that innocent people have already been stopped and banned from flying because their name appeared on government “no fly” lists — and have been unable to clear their names in the federal bureaucracy. This national system would only increase the delays and blacklist even more innocent Americans – regular people traveling for work or vacations.
Terrorists will learn how to circumvent the system. Identity thieves could easily sidestep this check by presenting a false driver’s license or passport, undercutting the system’s entire mission. And the constant false alarms might divert the attention of airport security officers from legitimate threats to security.
I have also read that, if adopted, the most intrusive and dangerous element of the program – the construction of an infrastructure for conducting background checks on people who fly – would depend on shadowy intelligence/law enforcement databases of questionable reliability. The use of these secret databases would remove meaningful public oversight and control over these un-American background checks.
I did not give six years in service to my country as an active duty Marine to see her adopt the same police state practices abhorred in the former Soviet Union. Once again, I urge you to stop this invasive and untrustworthy system.
Sincerely,
James Landrith