Crs Report for Congress Received through the Crs Web Homeland Security : Air Passenger Prescreening and Counterterrorism March 4, 2005

By Elias, Bartholomew

Book Id: WPLBN0000140925
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.2 MB
Reproduction Date: 2008

Title:	Crs Report for Congress Received through the Crs Web Homeland Security : Air Passenger Prescreening and Counterterrorism March 4, 2005
Author:	Elias, Bartholomew
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, Legislation., Government Printing Office (U.S.)
Collections:	Government Library Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Government Printing Office


Citation APA MLA Chicago Elias, B. B. (n.d.). Crs Report for Congress Received through the Crs Web Homeland Security : Air Passenger Prescreening and Counterterrorism March 4, 2005. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Excerpt
Summary: The adequacy of existing systems to screen air passengers against terrorist watch lists has been questioned, most notably by the 9/11 Commission. Yet, considerable controversy surrounds air passenger prescreening systems, such as the “No Fly” or “Automatic Selectee” lists, underscoring that screening passengers for more intensive searches of their persons or baggage, or to prevent them from boarding an aircraft in the event of a terrorist watch list hit, is likely to be a difficult proposition for the federal agencies tasked with aviation security. Today, those agencies principally include the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)-administered Terrorist Screening Center (TSC).

Table of Contents
Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Background on Civil Aviation Passenger Prescreening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 “No Fly” and “Automatic Selectee” Watch Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Other U.S. Government Terrorist Watch Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Computer-Assisted Aviation Prescreening System (CAPS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II (CAPPS II) . . . . . . . . 7 Secure Flight Test Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Streamlined Rule for Automatic Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Identity Authentication (IDA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Watch List Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Proposed TSA Passenger Advocacy and Redress Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Border and Transportation Security Screening Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Key Operational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Type I and Type II Error Tradeoffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 False Negatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 False Positives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Limits of Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Congressional Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Balancing Benefits and Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Redress and Remedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Watch List Consolidation at FBI-Administered TSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Which Agency Will Handle Passenger Appeals: TSA, TSC, or Other? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Disclosure Under FOIA and Privacy Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Other Possible Legal Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Congressional Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Systems Integrity, Access, and Data Retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Systems Platform and Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Registered Traveler Pilot Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Prescreening in Other Transportation Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Avoiding “Mission Creep” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Augmenting Prescreening with Behavioral-Based Evaluations . . . . . . . . . . 22 Fitting into the Larger Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Possible Issues for Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Appendix A. Related Provisions Included in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-458) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Advanced Airline Passenger Prescreening System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Prescreening of Airport Employees and Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Chartered and Leased Aircraft Customer Prescreening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27