Big Brother comes to the airports
“Delta Air Lines will begin testing a new government plan for air security next month that will check background information and assign a threat level to everyone who buys a ticket for a commercial flight.
“Mr. Morris, please step aside, the computer tells us you are a Code Purple.”, “Purple? I was Saffron last week, what happened??”, “I’m sorry, we are not at liberty to divulge that information”
Transportation officials say a contractor will be picked soon to build the nationwide computer system, which will check such things as credit reports and bank account activity and compare passenger names with those on government watch lists.
Credit reports? If I miss a Visa payment does that mean I can’t fly? And what in the name of Gumby do credit records have to do with terrorism?
“This system threatens to create a permanent blacklisted underclass of Americans who cannot travel freely,” said Katie Corrigan, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.”
I’ll going to take a crazy mad guess here and say that this system could easily be abused so that those with, oh, antiwar views, will find they can no longer fly.