April 9, 2004 Letter to Airline Customer Service Departments
PO Box 8208
Alexandria, VA 22306-8208
April 9, 2004
United Airlines Customer Relations
Delta Airlines Customer Relations
Northwest/KLM Airlines Customer Relations
American Airlines Customer Relations
US Airways Customer Relations
Southwest Airlines Customer Relations
Continental Airlines Customer Relations
As an airline passenger, I strongly urge you to oppose the proposed CAPPS II program. This program will not make us any safer and will actually distract us from addressing real threats. I have read that the Bush Administration plans to proceed with this invasive program despite serious concerns raised by Congress and numerous Americans concerned about their privacy.
I understand that 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. The use of these secret databases would remove meaningful public oversight and control over these un-American background checks.
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 block even more innocent Americans — regular people traveling for work or vacations. This will increase the likelihood that I will choose alternate modes of transportation when planning vacations or work trips.
Further, due to my military anti-terrorism training, I am of the opinion that terrorists will learn how to circumvent the system 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. This system will not make us any safer and could, in fact, hinder security.
I am strongly against your participation in the CAPPS II program since it will not make us any safer, will violate my privacy and will possibly hinder my ability to travel freely. For these reasons, I do not want you to help the government conduct error-prone background checks every time I fly.
Once again, I urge you to vigorously oppose the invasive and untrustworthy CAPPS II program. I do not want to share my personal information with this un-American profiling system.
I look forward to hearing from you on this important matter.
Sincerely,
James Landrith