Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented

[kskiska]

Source: WP

U.S. Effort More Extensive Than Previously Known

Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page A01

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.

The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country.

(snip)

But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.

(snip)

Zakariya Reed, a Toledo firefighter, said in an interview that he has been detained at least seven times at the Michigan border since fall 2006. Twice, he said, he was questioned by border officials about "politically charged" opinion pieces he had published in his local newspaper. The essays were critical of U.S. policy in the Middle East, he said. Once, during a secondary interview, he said, "they had them printed out on the table in front of me."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102347.html?hpid=topnews

[Newsjock]

1. Matches perfectly with my experience

In summer 2003, when I re-entered the USA at the Peace Arch crossing near Vancouver, they swiped my passport and asked me my occupation, to which I truthfully replied, "Editor."

They saw that day's Globe and Mail sitting on my seat, and the lead story was something against Bush, I don't remember what now. "And what do YOU write about the war?" I was asked, clear out of the blue.

I thought quickly and said, "Nothing; I just edit," but yes, I was spooked.

This is why I hate what my country has become, and why I fear it cannot be rectified in my lifetime.

[leftchick]

13. that

is fucking scary. I had visions of brownshirts in my head. :(

[neweurope]

2. Aaah, The Land Of The Free...

...and it's freedom of speech...

"Twice, he said, he was questioned by border officials about "politically charged" opinion pieces he had published in his local newspaper."

Indeed, a role model for us all, the USA.

:evilgrin:

--------------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[everydayis911]

3. Yes the Land of the free

Check this out. Any DUer's who live in Colorado have this checkpoint in their neighborhood?

http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=57s16

[1monster]

17. That is REALLY scary!

:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

[dipsydoodle]

4. Can you pass the word along to them

that all of the Americans I know here in the UK either dance to swing music or play Appalachian Mountain music. The oddity is that none of them do both. This may merit further investigation. :rofl:

[Hissyspit]

5. U.S. Gov't Collects Data on Americans Overseas

Source: Washington Post

US govt collects data on Americans overseas: Washington Post

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government is compiling electronic files on the travel habits of millions of Americans who take trips overseas, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Citing documents obtained by a civil liberties group and statements by unnamed government officials, the newspaper said the retained data included travel companions, persons with whom Americans plan to stay abroad, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried.

The personal travel records are intended to be stored for as long as 15 years as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country, the report said.

- snip -

But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged, the report said. The Automated Targeting System has been used to screen passengers since the mid-1990s, but the collection of data for it has been greatly expanded and automated since 2002, according to the paper.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070922/pl_afp/usattacksrightstravel_070922060732

[MissHoneychurch]

6. That is different from what Non-Americans have to endure

when visiting the U.S.?

Not saying that it is right, but we have to also tell where we stay, our credit card, etc. As Europeans!!! Not some out-of-nowhere countires.

The collecting data is getting more and more out of hand. It is disgusting.

[arcos]

10. Well, some of us from "out-of-nowhere" countries don't get visa either...

I was given a visa when my parents applied for it 13 years ago, but I'm pretty sure I would never get a visa right now... not only I'm a Democratic Underground member, but I'm pretty active against CAFTA and as you may know, Choicepoint got all the info from several Latin American countries a few years ago.

[cyclezealot]

7. for a couple years we are living abroad.

And we get US magazines delivered to our French address. we subscribe to the Nation. Hope that does not put us on the no fly list. Maybe, they won't let us come back. Responding from abroad, probably every word I write in DU gets put into storage in some file outside DC. Might temper anyone's response to whatever I state. Will get a fellow DU'ers comments in storage too. They do go thru my backpack which is where I store my reading material. Last time on the plane, I took the Palast book, "Armed Madhouse.' And wore my Dennis Kucinich t shirt. I know, this family lives on the edge.

[izzie]

8. I believe the DOD spy net work is working hard.

And if you are a Dem. you are looked at even more than the rest. Congress must get their hands on this stuff but with men who seem to have made an oath to Bush and party it looks like a long shot. I do not know what one can do about it. The GOP seem to like to do it so of course the Dem. will feel they must. Looks like a long slog for us ave. am. Even if we like the men we put in office and they say they will do this or that, once they are in the 'club' all hell brakes out. It sure is an endless battle for the people to keep their govt. in some control. I do believe John Adams said we were not to trust any of them and I think he hit it right on the head.

[cyclezealot]

9. A very favorite journalist is Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.

Couple years back I remember a story, she has been on the no fly list. Once In Maine, she was not allowed on a plane. Happens to her repeatedly.

[izzie]

20. I can believe it. When we have a President that does not

go with our laws and thinks he can do any thing and the people in his party feel more loyal to him than our Constitution you are in big trouble. A little thing like 'black list' are just going to spring up on all sort of things. These spy networks are not much different than in Stalin and Lenin times as I see it. With our big industry military eco. it is starting to get scary. I do not think we have to fall but we must pull back if we hope to keep our republic, I do fear. I do not think things have ever been this bad in my life time and I feel scary for my grand children about it. I think the last election helped but I wish the Dem. would act more to my way of thinking and get out of this war, stop this spy stuff, and get back to stop raping the US tax payer. We must have one group checking the other groups. We need the spy system looking in to the DOD, WH and Congress not the other way around.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Unless the US Government insists on implanting a GPS in individuals, I

don't know how you can be "tracked" and recorded. I put on a backpack and disappeared into Europe. I had no itinerary, I hopped on trains at the last minute, I slept on the floors of train stations, stayed impromptu with people I met at hostels. My parents couldn't have found me if they tried for 13 weeks.

Unless this only applies to a traveler having hotel reservations or is on a tour, I think you could write down anything on a card, and it can't be validated.

[rodeodance]

12. even YOU do NOT know what information they have on YOU:

Officials defended the retention of highly personal data on travelers not involved in or linked to any violations of the law, the report said.

But civil liberties advocates have alleged that the type of information preserved by the department raises alarms about the government's ability to intrude into the lives of ordinary people, The Post pointed out.

The millions of travelers whose records are kept by the government are generally unaware of what their records say, and the government has not created an effective mechanism for reviewing the data and correcting any errors, activists said, the paper said.

The activists alleged that the data collection effort, as carried out now, violates the Privacy Act, which bars the gathering of data related to Americans' exercise of their First Amendment rights, such as their choice of reading material or persons with whom to associate, according to the report.

[leftchick]

14. ....

<snip>

Edward Hasbrouck, a civil liberties activist who was a travel agent for more than 15 years, said that his file contained coding that reflected his plan to fly with another individual. In fact, Hasbrouck wound up not flying with that person, but the record, which can be linked to the other passenger's name, remained in the system. "The Automated Targeting System," Hasbrouck alleged, "is the largest system of government dossiers of individual Americans' personal activities that the government has ever created."

He said that travel records are among the most potentially invasive of records because they can suggest links: They show who a traveler sat next to, where they stayed, when they left. "It's that lifetime log of everywhere you go that can be correlated with other people's movements that's most dangerous," he said. "If you sat next to someone once, that's a coincidence. If you sat next to them twice, that's a relationship."


:wow:

[DeepModem Mom]

15. K&R

[gateley]

16. Have any of the candidates addressed this injustice? What they would do with

Homeland Security?

[bunny planet]

18. Perhaps we should all carry a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

with us next time we all travel by plane. That ought to stump them.

[rosesaylavee]

19. Perhaps we select one book or one article to carry

with us - and spread the word that that is piece to be carried when flying or crossing the border. And spread the word on the response(s) to make when being questioned.

My real name is Spartacus by the way. :7

[JCMach1]

21. There may be a bit too much tinfoil being passed around on this issue...

I have lived in the Middle-East for the past 5 years (UAE). I have traveled to Oman, Turkey and to Lebanon just before the last war with Israel. I have traveled all over Europe.

I will take a trip to Armenia during the Eid holiday.

I have published any number of LTE, articles on the net, and have been a DU member since the Spring after the * took office.

I was a Democratic activist and candidate for office.

I actively protested the war before I took my job here.

I frequently carry radical books and lots of electronics!

I have close Pakistani friends... and students from any other troubled nation you can think of (Chechnya, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, etc.).


You would think I might have a problem with Homeland Security...


Other than the usual checks, I have never been questioned by anyone. In fact, the toughest security I experienced was in Turkey.

Honestly, I don't have an objection to a travel database. What I object to is tying that into personal data which may, or may not be accurate...