The White House today announced the creation by executive order of a new “National Vetting Center”, led by the DHS, to coordinate efforts to surveill, profile, and control movement by U.S. citizens, residents, immigrants, and visitors. The “National Security Presidential Memorandum” was not made public, and the press release announcing it gives few details. So far […]
A redacted version of the report of an internal review by the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of DHS implementation of President Trump’s January 2017 “Muslim Ban” Executive Order has been made public several months after the report was prepared. Both the manner in which the OIG report was eventually released and the […]
Our article last week on the new DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices has prompted extensive discussion on Hacker News and elsewhere. One theme in the comments is that travelers who are not US citizens could be turned away at the US border or sent back when they arrive at a […]
What’s Wrong With Showing ID? “There are good people with bad papers; and bad people with good papers.” – Bertolt Brecht What does an ID, any ID, do for security? The honest answer is ‘not much’. If anything, relying on ID for security purposes actually makes things worse: a false sense of security fosters complacency. […]
Supporters of the Secure Flight Program state that the ID requirement and the need for government permission for domestic air travelers to fly would make us safer by keeping the “bad guys” off planes. While Secure Flight would be effective in enabling surveillance and control of our movements, it would not improve security for two […]
What is required by the Secure Flight regulations that wasn’t required before? (1) You have to give the airline or travel agency your name, data of birth, and gender, all exactly matching your ID, before you can make a reservation for any flight. (2) The airline has to send that information, and various other data […]
Secure Flight is a government program whereby the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) profiles and scores air travelers based on blacklists, airline reservation data, other databases, and secret criteria. It essentially requires government permission (in the form of an individualized, per-passenger, per-flight Boarding Pass Printing Result transmitted from the government to the airline) as a precondition […]
Assignment Editors and Journalists: If there is any way we can help you with a story, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Edward Hasbrouck The Identity Project PO Box 170640-idp San Francisco, CA 94117-0640 info AT papersplease DOT org +1 (415) 824-0214 mobile (voice/Signal; press calls only, no marketing or robocalls) We work remotely, and […]
Civil Action #DC 06-00545 / AC 06-70574 Documents and narrative on this page last updated August 2006. See more recent articles and documents here: Trial (December 2013) and judgment in favor of Dr. Ibrahim Additional articles in our blog Overview On January 2, 2005, Rahinah Ibrahim, a mother of four children and a PhD student […]
Civil Action #05-11445DPW Last updated 5 Feb 07 The Gray case involved a foreign born commercial pilot who was initially denied authorization by the TSA to train on larger aircraft. When he appealed this determination he found himself on the No-Fly list. This was a particular hardship as he was then working as a commercial […]