Clark, Acxiom, CAPPSII and Privacy - very scary.

[dkf]

I know that you all have seen article #1, but read see the following excerpts and then check out the other stuff below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7380-2003Sep26.html

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark helped an Arkansas information company win a contract to assist development of an airline passenger screening system, one of the largest surveillance programs ever devised by the government.

Starting just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Clark sought out dozens of government and industry officials on behalf of Acxiom Corp., a data powerhouse that maintains names, addresses and a wide array of personal details about nearly every adult in the United States and their households, according to interviews and documents.

As a consultant, he helped the company win a government contract worth an undisclosed amount to provide data and consulting services to the CAPPS II program. CAPPS II is the second-generation computer-assisted passenger screening system, a network that Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta once described as "the foundation" on which all other, far more public aviation security measures depend.

In a meeting at the Department of Transportation in January 2002, according to participants, Clark described a system that would combine personal data from Acxiom with information about the reservations and seating records of every U.S. airline passenger.

With officials from an Acxiom partner sitting nearby, he explained that computers would examine the data -- massive amounts of information about housing, telephone numbers, car ownership and the like -- for subtle signs of terrorist intentions. The system would authenticate the identity of every passenger, he told the government officials at the meeting.

http://arstechnica.com/archive/news/1063079132.html
CAPPS II: Return of the Son of TIA?
Posted 09/08/2003 @ 10:45 PM, by Hannibal

What could have motivated these ideologically disparate advocates to put aside their differences and join forces? The answer is CAPPS II, the air-passenger vetting protocols that the Transportation Security Administration hopes to deploy early next year. By electronically mining commercial and government databases, CAPPS II -- the "computer-assisted passenger prescreening system," version 2 -- will perform instant criminal background checks on everyone boarding an airplane in the United States. It's at once an Orwellian prospect and a potential gold mine for the travel industry: A database of the type envisioned by the government would allow hotels and airlines to get their hands on your lifetime itinerary.

Results of the background check are intended to be used to determine who gets to sail through airport screening, who is accorded greater scrutiny, and who is barred from flying at all. "CAPPS II will ensure that passengers do not sit next to known terrorists and wanted murderers," the TSA said in a recent press release. The agency also insists that CAPPS II won't be intrusive -- the system, it says, "reflects American values, and respects the rights and privacy of the traveling public."...

For CAPPS II to work, the system would need to know four bits of information about you -- your name, date of birth, home address and phone number. According to Bill Scannell, a journalist who now spends his time trying to thwart CAPPS II -- he is the man behind Boycott Delta and Don't Spy On.Us, two CAPPS II-protest sites -- once this data is associated with your itinerary, private firms (such as the airlines and hotels) will be able to keep lifetime dossiers of everywhere you travel. Every time you take a flight, every time you check into a hotel, every time you rent a car -- all your data will be entered into your permanent travel record, a file that would be available to travel-industry businesses (for marketing purposes) and to the government (for purposes even more nefarious than marketing).

http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,60157,00.html
Despite the typical August slowdown in Washington, D.C., critics have been heating up efforts to halt or modify a new airline passenger-screening program that would set up a comprehensive internal border-control system to catch potential hijackers and those accused of violent crimes.

In a televised Monday morning press conference hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union, an ideologically diverse coalition of activist groups ranging from the NAACP to the anti-big-government group Americans for Tax Reform jointly criticized the proposed Computerized Airline Passenger Pre-Screening System II, or CAPPS II.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, called CAPPS II part of "a series of police power and informational privacy power grabs that flowed from Sept. 11."

Norquist's criticism may signal trouble for CAPPS II -- he is known for his influential, well-attended weekly Washington get-togethers where tax reformers, conservative Christian groups and anti-gun-control groups meet with congressional and White House staffers to strategize and coordinate efforts.

Nearly all of the speakers at Monday's conference accused the proposed system of "mission creep," pointing to a provision to screen passengers for outstanding warrants for violent crimes . Several also suggested the system would eventually lead to the creation of a national identification card.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7382-2003Sep26.html
TSA May Try to Force Airlines to Share Data

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 27, 2003; Page A11

The Transportation Security Administration's top official yesterday threatened to compel U.S. airlines to cooperate in handing over data about their passengers for a new government computer screening system, which has been widely criticized as violating privacy rights.

James M. Loy, the TSA's administrator, said yesterday that he has the power to issue a security directive, similar to other orders the agency issues to airports and airlines during times of heightened security, to force airlines to hand over passenger information so the government can screen reservation records for possible terrorists.

Loy said he intends to step up pressure on the nation's carriers to "stand up and be counted" to help with government testing of the program, which could begin now if the airlines would cooperate.


http://www.dontspyon.us/home.html

Chart of how this all works:
http://www.dontspyon.us/chart.html

Clark as lobbyist for Acxiom:
http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/opr_viewer.exe?20034CLARK,$WESLEY$K.LOB*0

[papau]

1. New sytem to replace current that simply stops liberal activists - and

Congress has limited the scope of Poindexter's total information project to overseas flyers.

[kstewart33]

2. I truly wish

you guys would stop trashing Clark. You're as bad as Rush Limbaugh and all the other right wingers who are working fiercely to trash him because they're scared to death of him.

Curiously those same right wingers are giving Howard Dean a pass. Gee, I wonder why.

If you want a perfect candidate, give up. There is no such being. If you want to beat Bush, stop trashing Clark and give him a chance.

[HFishbine]

4. If

If you don't think this is a reason to have concerns, you don't understand democrats.

If you think right wingers have been giving Dean a pass, you haven't been paying attention.

[EagleEye]

6. Wish away. If this is trashing he's in for it later.

These are legitimate quesitons. Answer them.

[Kat 333]

14. This is their answer ...

"If you want a perfect candidate, give up. There is no such being. If you want to beat Bush, stop trashing Clark and give him a chance."

I've heard it over and over. Sad really ... Bush has scared the bejesus out of some people. Just as he has intended.

All I can say is I won't give up but am not going to give in and be too terrified to consider all information available on any candidate. It seems as if all that matters to some people is that the person nominated "can beat bush" ... To hell with anything ... and we mean anything ... else.

As if NO other candidate could Possibly Do So ?

Talk about Scary !

[Ardee]

15. your kidding, right?

read the damn links before posting would be my suggestion, and read a paper or watch a political panel on TV and then say that Dean is not being trashed!

Sheeeeesh.

[HFishbine]

3. Now this

is extremely bothersome. Most of the slams at Clark have resulted in a big shrug for me. This Big Brother shit has bothered me to no end however, and if this portrayal of Clark's involvement is accurate, there is absolutely no way I could vote for him.

The protection and restoration of civil liberties is a litmus test for me. I'll accept other imperfections, but not on this issue.

[LittleApple81]

5. I went to look at your last link and no lobbyist is found?

What is the deal?

[HFishbine]

7. Try this

DU server doesn't like some of the characters in the link.

Either remove the spaces from this URL (copy and past in browser window):
http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/opr_viewer.exe?20034CLARK, $WESLEY $K.LOB*0

or go here, select 2003, and search "Clark": http://sopr.senate.gov/

[Cappurr]

9. Well....I did my search and it came up "no records found"

[HFishbine]

11. I left out a step

After selecting "Access the US Lobby Report Images for 2003" then select "Lobbyist Name" than Clark.

You'll see this:



and this:

[Cappurr]

8. This doesn't even compute

When you get an airline ticket, or rent a car or stay at a hotel, you already give out your name, birthdate, address and phone number. You probably give out more....your credit card. You have to show ID.

Hell they build databases from our grocery purchases if you use any of the grocery cards. And since most travelers tend to use the same airline, same hotel and even same car rental I don't think it is too hard to believe that they have a pretty good idea as to your travel habits. I used American Express all the time.....they had a whole travel section.

Now I agree I don't much like it. And I think it can be abused. But this is the computer age and we are going to have to learn to live with it.

[HFishbine]

12. "and we are going to have to learn to live with it."

Then, in that regarad, if that's Clark's position, he is in lock step with the Bush administration. Next.

[cosmicdot]

10. the Republican machinery (includes Media) will do their best ...

... to help the Democrats select their '04 ticket ...

Karl Rove, the fox that he is, is likely using every strategy possible ... including reverse psychology ...

How does the Rovian mind work?

Does he get into the opposing Party's head and try to affect the process?

Would he call out the dogs on certain candidates to actually help those candidates with hopes of rallying support for those candidates within the Democratic camp? Could there be a correlation to the attention given certain Democratic candidates he fears the least?

Gosh, who knows?

If they'll steal an election - they'll do anything to win.

Rove, more than likely, has most every scenario - including Constitutional issues - process-mapped, carelully tweaking as things change -- including best-case and worst-case, with all the 'what if' questions covered, too.
Democrats have their work cut out for them.

[KG]

13. this must be one of the generals 'progressive' bone fides -

lobbying for a private domestic inteligence gathering firm.

my initial distrust of the general was viseral.

a thanks to the DUers who are bringing the facts of his activities to light.