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Bill Scannell, former Army spy, knows all about the tools governments use to keep their people in line.

He was in South Africa just as Nelson Mandela was freed. He was in Bosnia and Kosovo when Slobodan Milosevic tried to extend his grip. And he saw East Germany in the last days it held its totalitarian reins. That's why he couldn't stand the idea of the American government asking for his papers.

So when Delta Airlines announced that it was teaming up with IBM and the Transportation Security Administration on a pilot program to comb through airline passengers' private records for terrorist connections, Scannell blew his cork. The project, CAPPS II (short for Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System II), was a cornerstone of the Bush administration's plans to prevent terror in the skies. It scared the hell of out Scannell, a former Army signals intelligence officer, war correspondent and online agitator.

"My first reaction was, 'We need to get the *#@$ out of this place.' I had lived in Prague. I had lived in Berlin. I'd seen this movie before. We were in a pot. And that water was getting hotter," Scannell recalled. "But my wife said, 'I'm staying.' And I said, 'If we're staying, I'm going to stay and fight.'"

Established civil liberties groups were already on CAPPS II's case. Scannell had no organization, and few, if any, connections in Washington. So he did what he could, by putting up a website, BoycottDelta.org, calling on travelers to avoid the carrier for its role in the screening effort. It would be the first of many sites he'd devote to bringing CAPPS II to a halt.

It seemed like the steepest of battles back then, in February 2003. On the cusp of the Iraq war, Bush's popularity was in the stratosphere. Challenging the White House's antiterror regime was an unpopular proposition, at best.

But now, in an unlikely turn of events, the Bush administration appears to have backed down. On Wednesday, according to USA Today, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced that yes, a stake had been driven through the heart of CAPPS II.

Exactly what role Scannell played in offing this vampire depends on whom you talk to. Some see him as just a blowhard with very little impact on government policy.

"Would the public pressure that TSA felt have been the same had Bill Scannell's website not existed? I tend to think the answer is yes," said one Washington insider involved in the CAPPS II fight.

Others, including Scannell himself, believe that his campaign against the companies behind CAPPS II was instrumental in eventually bringing the program down.

"He created the firestorm," said Lee Tien, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Beginning with Boycott Delta, he sort of showed that there was a huge reservoir of bad feelings about these passenger-screening programs."

Groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center used the Freedom of Information Act to force government agencies to disclose the secret data-sharing deals between the airlines and the administration. Travel writer Ed Hasbrouck uncovered important details about the system. The American Civil Liberties Union and others pressured Congress. The American Conservative Union provided political cover for those on the right. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) spoke out against the project, when few on Capitol Hill dared to do so.

Scannell turned up the heat on the companies backing CAPPS II. When JetBlue admitted it had given the government millions of passenger records for the project, Scannell's DontSpyOn.us site became a rallying point for outraged customers. When Galileo International, a travel registration firm, got into bed with the feds, Scannell organized a boycott against them, too. These efforts "created a wedge" between the government and corporate backers of CAPPS II, Tien explained -- and that wedge made the program much harder to execute.

The boycotts also helped fuel media outrage over CAPPS II. Scannell was quick to provide when reporters were looking for a quote (and a lot of times, when they weren't). After his efforts against Delta, JetBlue and the like, John Gilmore, the former Sun Microsystems designer turned privacy activist, put Scannell on the payroll to hype freedom-of-travel cases. Scannell is currently in Alaska on Gilmore's dime, helping citizens there with their suit against the government over CAPPS II.

How much impact did it all have in the end? Scannell himself isn't entirely sure. At one moment he calls himself "the man who killed CAPPS II." At others, he's more demure. "In drunken moments of euphoria, I think maybe I helped the process along just a millisecond. Or maybe I'm just smoking crack."

Whatever his position is, Scannell still seems shocked by it. "The last thing I consider myself is an activist. Activists don't wash their feet. Activists don't shave," he said.

Scannell used to be a government guy. He enlisted in the Army in 1983, and became a signals intelligence officer. While stationed in Berlin, he was detailed to the ultrasecret National Security Agency, eavesdropping on the East German military, he said.

Dealing with the rigors of getting security clearance gave Scannell a particular appreciation for privacy. "Once you do that, you never want to go through it again," he said. "You want to keep your personal life no one's business but your own."

He left the Army and worked for an American government radio station. Just a few months before the Berlin Wall fell, he got out, taking a job in South Africa. He was in Johannesburg when Mandela was freed. Then he got a job as a reporter at the state-run broadcasting company. "My day-to-day life was watching apartheid fall apart," he said.

Scannell then returned to central Europe in the early '90s, writing from Prague for the Economic Intelligence Unit. Then it was on to another hot spot: the Balkans, where he reported on the wars there for German radio. When the German army went into Kosovo, Scannell went with them. He says he can still hear the screams from when they started draining bodies out of a village well. He can't shake the "sickly sweet smell of corpse" he inhaled there.

By the late '90s, Scannell wanted a normal life. What he got instead was the dot-com craze. Returning to the United States, he landed a series of jobs at startup tech firms. Increasingly interested in privacy, he was tapped to run media interference for Sea Land, the offshore data haven.

Then in 2001, Scannell got political. He was at the Defcon hacker conference when Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested, after showing how he broke the encryption for Adobe's eBook program. Impulsively, Scannell put up a BoycottAdobe.com website. It mushroomed into a full-fledged campaign, with protests in 20 cities. Adobe eventually dropped the charges against Sklyarov. Scannell declared himself done with being a provocateur.

That's the same story Scannell is telling now. "Once I kill off CAPPS II, I'll immediately take a corporate gig," he said back in May. Scannell's wife is pregnant. Being a freelance rabble-rouser doesn't come with a health-care plan.

He said he isn't sure where he will land. But one friend suggested he send a resume over to Delta with a two-line cover letter: "You know what I can do. Guess what I can do for you."

U.S. Tests Plan for Speeding Airport Security Checks

WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Fri Sep 3, 6:30 PM ET



An estimated 10,000 people have enrolled in a government-run test program for speeding passengers through U.S. airport security checkpoints, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said on Friday.

The Registered Traveler program, which prescreens passengers for potential security risks, is supported by airlines, which are trying to retain their premium business customers and reduce airport wait times for all travelers.

"I believe if we reduce the congestion at busy checkpoints that will in itself enhance security and better focus the efforts of our screeners," Ridge told reporters at Washington's Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) National Airport.

Reagan National, where American Airlines is participating, is the fifth and final U.S. airport to begin testing the Registered Traveler concept this summer and fall.

American is also working with its frequent fliers in Boston, while United Airlines is pairing with the government in Los Angeles. The other programs include Continental Airlines in Houston and Northwest Airlines in Minneapolis.

Airlines are seeking their frequent fliers who travel at least once-a-week out of these airports. The government is spending $10 million on the pilot this year and $15 million has been budgeted for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Under the program, passengers provide the Transportation Security Administration with basic personal information at airport kiosks.

Names, addresses, phone numbers, and other information are cross-checked with security databases. Volunteers will also be photographed and submit fingerprints and biometric eye-scan checks to ensure proper identity.

Passengers who clear screening, which takes about a week to complete, will receive a card that will be scanned each time they check-in for a flight. The card will enable them to proceed to a special security line, exempting them from a second round of security checks unless they trigger suspicion or set off alarms.

Some security experts are not convinced the program will be secure enough since millions of passengers pass through U.S. airports daily.

Another concern is cost. Ridge indicated the government may impose a fee. Airlines already complain there are too many taxes and fees, which undercut their pricing power and scare away business.

Interesting reading Ducan. In the war on terriorism its a fine line between what will help fight it and what will needless step on our individual liberties. As to the costs I'm afraid Bush is too interested in giving the wealthier people of this country a tax break than seeing to the business at hand and paying the bills......

True there Trooper, but too, all thoughout our history they have slowly taken away our liberties that once many fought so hard for. Problem is, most Americans don't realize it. They begin with young children and shape their minds to be followers not leaders - only giving them parts of education that will not lead them to search for more...which brings us to the current potentials for Presidential canadiates, leaving us to pick from the lesser of two evils - go figure.

Apologies if it does offend anyone, but remember - it is just an opinion.

Whilst I can understand the concern of upsetting someone I can honestly say don't worry about it, I probably beat you to it long ago.
We seem to have some of the best members out there in many ways.

Hey, guys. Im out of the loop on this conversation but just wanted to say "hello" to trooper. Also that I have been intrested in finding out a bit about what brings you here and all that - last time you were around it seemed brief and I was busy. Well, im still busy - but in any case "Hows stuff? whatcha up to?"
Feel free to run over this post - Troop' can just answer whenever and ill pick it up in a couple days.
Signed,
raking in the dough recently and having to work long hours because of it.

Top Stories - AP


Airlines Told to Turn Over Passenger Data

2 hours, 42 minutes ago


By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Transportation Security Administration announced on Tuesday that it will order domestic airlines to turn over personal information about passengers to test a system that will compare their names to those on terrorist watch lists.

The system, called Secure Flight, replaces a previous plan that would have checked passenger names against commercial databases and assigned a risk level to each. That plan, which cost $103 million, was abandoned because of privacy concerns and technological issues.

The airlines will have 30 days to comment on the proposed order, which Congress gave the TSA authority to issue. Air carriers will then have 10 days to turn over data that it gathered in June, called passenger name records.

The amount of data in passenger name records varies by airline, but it typically includes name, flight origin, flight destination, flight time, duration of flight and form of payment. It can also include credit card numbers, address, telephone number and meal requests, which can indicate a person's ethnicity.

Justin Oberman, who heads the office that's developing Secure Flight, said he hopes that the program can be implemented by mid to late spring. He said he expects the airlines to cooperate.

"We are going to work very closely with them," Oberman said.

The TSA will also conduct a limited test in which they'll compare passenger names with information from commercial databases to see if they can be used to detect fraud or identity theft.


___


On the Net:


Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov


Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov

Las Vegas Review Journal

EDITORIAL: A blow against the secrecy state

Federal government didn't even want to produce its photo ID law


Judges today are often former prosecutors, political creatures who got where they are by putting their finger to the wind, all too often more interested in enforcing the state's "prerogatives" than defending the inconvenient rights of the little guy.

In such an environment, heroes can be in short supply. So anyone who stands up for an individual's rights -- especially in the face the war on terror -- needs to be celebrated.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has drawn its share of criticism over the years for its creative readings of the Constitution. But on Sept. 10, that court struck a solid first blow against the burgeoning secret police state.

John Gilmore is an Oakland resident who made millions as a founding employee of Sun Microsystems Inc.

On July 4, 2002, Southwest Airlines employees at Oakland International Airport barred Mr. Gilmore from boarding a flight to Baltimore after he refused to produce a government-issued photo ID. He also refused to allow security personnel -- who had no warrant based on probable cause -- to pat him down and search through his luggage.

Mr. Gilmore went through a similar experience with United Airlines employees at San Francisco International Airport later that same day. Both airlines said they were following federal directives.

Mr. Gilmore, who hasn't flown since, proceeded to sue the government and the airlines in federal court, alleging among other things that the identification requirement violates his right to freely assemble because he can't travel by air.

The U.S. Department of Justice has refused to even confirm or deny the existence of the rule the airline employees said they were following. The department has argued that national security requires directives dealing with transportation must be kept secret.

Though Mr. Gilmore's lawsuit was thrown out by a lower court judge, the 9th Circuit agreed to take up the matter on appeal. Thereupon the Department of Justice said it needed to file its reply -- detailing why the appeals court should throw out Mr. Gilmore's challenge -- under seal.

This nonsense is laughable.

On Sept. 10, the 9th Circuit ruled against the government in Mr. Gilmore's case, stating federal officials must argue their case in public.

Thank heavens.

Imagine if the other default setting should prevail. What could be a more basic premise and foundation of a free society than the public's ability to find out what laws are proposed, to debate them in the light of day, and -- at the very least -- promptly be told which laws have been enacted, and what they stipulate?

How is a law to be challenged if no one knows what it is? How could its provisions be tested for constitutionality in a court if those seeking to mount the challenge were not allowed to read its clear and concrete language?

Are we even to be arrested for violating "secret" laws, which we couldn't possibly know existed?

To assert that any government officials should be able to say, "I'm now going to arrest you but I don't have to tell you what law you broke, or how you can comply with it in future" takes us back not merely before the establishment of the U.S. Constitution, but back to the days before the Magna Carta, when a king could imprison or execute one of his subjects on nothing more than a passing whim.