EU unveils air passenger 'risk profiling' plan The European Union is set to emulate the US by adopting the wholesale screening and profiling of air passengers. In a proposed Framework Decision being put forward today, the European Commission calls for the collection of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data for all flights into and out of the EU, together with a "risk assessment" …
BTW, that's Baaaaah as in sheep!
Let's hope they learn a bit from the mistake make in the American system (fat hope), the thought of one John Smith being a bit naughty, and the queues of John Smiths being caught at the check in desk just don't bare thinking about.
Unfortunately I too have quite a common name. There were two of me at school, which caused a little bit of confusion. I wonder if I should change my name to something obscure, or would the fact I've changed my name just give me a +50 on the "likely to blow up plane" scale?
Steve
Further to Nomen's comment, this will clearly also prevent people driving down the M1 to London and blowing themselves up on public transport. Or attempting to do so. Could you not also hijack a ferry and sail it into an oil depot? Not quite as dramatic as a plane but still a huge bang. Plus there's plenty of people on board you could kill in the bang.
Still, all of these things will be cured by ID cards so we should stop worrying. With ID cards there will be no terrorism.
Close, but that little effort was as about as explosive as an average party balloon.
You are right tho' in so far as you don't need to go through security to be able to attack a plane on/near the runway. The PIRA had a couple of goes at airports with mortars, although they weren't actually trying to kill swathes of ppl. They just wanted to put big holes in the runway to cause everyone a lot of hassle.
Ah well, all this "anti-terror" malarky keeps ppl in work I guess.
we should definately have these systems for all public transport, i saw a film once where this ferry crashed into a beach & caused loads of damage, the binary liquid explosives were on a film too, so it must be a valid threat, right?
-and full body cavity searches before allowing anyone on trains either, you can't be too carefull.
.. a cave, somewhere in the Afghani-Waziristani border region.
Ayman al-Zawahiri: Sheikh Usama, we hear the Europeans have implemented a flight data system to track all passengers and improve the safety of flights in the EU.
UBL: So, more train bombings then?
AA-Z: Right you are guv. More train bombings it is.
Seriously. If it's 63 million people screened and it has been used to catch common criminals more than terrorists by a ratio of either 1200 to one or infinity, as the case may be, then it should be described as what it is: mass surveillance of the whole population for law enforcement, and nothing to do with terrorism at all.
What annoys me about stories on the reg is the ill-informed comments people make. "I know, lets take everything at face value and make cynical comments"
This isnt just about stopping terrorism, there are other types of crime you know. So yeah, you can't stop people planting bombs in the tube, but you can stop known criminals getting in/out of the country. The person who said it costs $52k per person (£26k) - if that crime meant you didnt lose a loved one would you not consider that a fair amount to pay?
And re: the John Smith comment, the people who design these systems aren't daft enough to base things on just name. Lets think what other data people supply, DOB, passport, address, contact details... yeah? they're not stoopid.
Rant over.
Lets think about this stuff people.
"And re: the John Smith comment, the people who design these systems aren't daft enough to base things on just name. Lets think what other data people supply, DOB, passport, address, contact details... yeah? they're not stoopid."
Well, perhaps you are ill-informed since that exactly what they are doing in the US.
Sen. Kennedy Flagged by No-Fly List
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17073-2004Aug19.html
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