Will ACLU's Condemnation of CAPPS II Hurt Clark?

From the ACLU

The Bush Administration is moving forward with a secretive new system for conducting background checks on all airline passengers that threatens to create a blacklist of Americans who cannot travel freely. This new government program, called Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System or CAPPS II -- would search secret intelligence and law enforcement databases and rate every airline passenger a red-, yellow- or green-level threat.

Using easily falsified information such as name, home address, home phone number and date of birth, this system would screen your name through credit databases and then run your information through secret government databases to make a judgment about your security risk. These secret databases would probably be compiled using intelligence and law enforcement records that could include personal information gleaned from commercial data such as purchase history and banking records.

Based on all of this information, you may be allowed to travel, be forced to undergo special security scrutiny, or be referred to law enforcement and possibly detained. If you are branded a "risk" due to false information, the process for correcting the error is unclear and could result in significant delays or detention for many innocent people.

The Bush Administration is pushing this program forward despite opposition by airlines, Members of Congress and privacy advocacy organizations.

http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=12108&c=39

Kucinich Condemns It

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"The Administration is turning every airline ticket counter into a Big Brother Booth. Our freedoms and our liberties are on the line. This Administration is moving with breathtaking speed to demolish the Bill of Rights and privacy protections. In a democratic society we have a right to live free and they're taking that right away.
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"The new system will require all airline passengers to provide their full names, home addressees, phone numbers, and dates of birth when they book flights. The government will feed that information into databases and produce profiles on all passengers. The databases will include government records, information from commercial systems such as Lexis-Nexis and Acxiom, and mailing lists and other commercial information. And the databases will be secret, and therefore no one will have any idea why they would be given a specific security level."
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http://www.kucinich.us/statements.htm#AirlineProfile

Clark Worked to Make it Happen

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.

Clark, a Democrat who declared himself a presidential candidate 10 days ago, joined Acxiom's board of directors in December 2001. He earned $300,000 from Acxiom last year and was set to receive $150,000, plus potential commissions, this year, according to financial disclosure records. He owns several thousand shares of Acxiom stock worth more than $67,000.

Clark's consulting role at Acxiom puts him near the center of a national debate over expanded government authority to use personal data and surveillance technology to fight the war on terrorism and protect homeland security.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7380-2003Sep26?language=printer

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