Interesting People mailing list archives
more on Houston Airport Rangers
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 13:04:21 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb () research att com> Date: July 1, 2004 1:00:12 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: schneier () counterpane com Subject: Re: [IP] Houston Airport RangersIn message <906A0CAA-CB7B-11D8-9A50-000393D166C6 () farber net>, David Farber writ
es:
From: Bruce Schneier <schneier () counterpane com> Date: July 1, 2004 10:49:45 AM EDT To: EPIC_IDOF () mailman epic org Subject: [EPIC_IDOF] Houston Airport Rangers At first I thought this was a joke, but it's serious: http://www.houstonairportsystem.org/rangers I'm not sure what I think about it. As a security professional, it's a clever way to increase security cheaply. From a civil liberties perspective, I'm not so sure. Anyone have an opinion?
To my eye, the big problem is the lack of training. As best I can glean from the Web page, the training consists of a "short video" on suspicious activities. Is there any mention of, say, civil rights and constitutional protections? What about racial profiling? Profiling has been a big problem even for major law enforcement agencies (i.e., the New Jersey State Police); how will a group of untrained civilians do? (And what liability does the airport potentially incur from such misbehavior by its "rangers"?) Beyond that, the application form makes for interesting reading. You have to waive all sorts of rights, including the right to challenge the arbitrary denial of one of these permits. That may be compensation for a glaring risk of this scheme: are the background checks good enough to exclude potential terrorists, or is this an easy way for them to enter an otherwise-restricted area? Is the intent that the agency might do its own profiling, and exclude, say, Muslims? A more charitable explanation is that they want to be able to rely on intelligence reports without disclosing them. I would be intrigued to hear what hasbeen said in the public record by the airport authority about this scheme.
But the most amusing part is the certification. It makes sense to exclude members of known terrorist organizations, though expecting such people to tell the truth about such memberships is, shall we say, naive. But why exclude people who have "claims or litigation pending against the City of Houston or the Houston Airport System"? Finally, applicants must certify that they're not a member of any group that "advocates violence against ... any other nation". 18 months ago, would that have excluded all members of any political party that favored invading Iraq? --Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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