Editorial Bear

U.S. rates travelers for terror risk
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Without their knowledge, millions of Americans and foreigners crossing U.S. borders in the past four years have been assigned scores generated by U.S. government computers rating the risk that the travelers are terrorists or criminals.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years.

The government calls the system critical to national security following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some privacy advocates call it one of the most intrusive and risky schemes yet mounted in the name of anti-terrorism efforts.

Virtually every person entering and leaving the United States by air, sea or land is scored by the Homeland Security Department's Automated Targeting System, or ATS. The scores are based on ATS' analysis of their travel records and other data, including items such as where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.

Now, as some of you might know, I am rather more intimately aquainted with the US Immigration officals than I'd like to be - although that is in my past now and I am a happy and proud Permanant Resident of the USA.

But even though I feel like I've been treated fairly roughly by the Immigration boys, I applaud this machine.

The problem is that anti-terrorism security and political correctness don't go well together. Practically all terrorists are muslim. Yet if you pick on muslims for security screenings, that's deemed 'rascist.' Now I don't want to sound insensitive, but I'm more comfortable with being called a rascist than getting onto a plane with possible suspects who have specifically NOT been searched in case it raised questions of political correctness.

This system the US have implemented simply records travel information from the passengers - all information that's pretty much freely available - and cross references it with a risk assesser. It's totally immune to racism. It'll red flag, perhaps, passengers who fly from Pakistan or Saudi Arabia - but only on their travel history, not their race or religeon.

It'll flag you, basically, if there's a reason you should be flagged. And that might been you have a couple of questions to answer. But if you've got nothing to hide, there's nothing to worry about.

And I say that despite knowing I'll be questioned each and every time I arrive in America. But I'm okay with that, if it makes us safer. Instead of complaining about it, people should be celebrating it.

Maybe these measures will soon mean I can get my missus onto an airplane without three large gin and tonics and a xanax!

I feel safer already.