"What's with the airport pat-downs? The answer is secret"

Friday, December 10, 2004

What's with the airport pat-downs? The answer is secret
By LANCE GAY
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS


WASHINGTON -- Want to see the federal government's regulation authorizing
airport security personnel to pat you down before boarding a plane?

You can't. It's a secret rule.

Would you like to read the government regulation that says all passengers
must present identification before being allowed on aircraft, or what sort
of identification meets the government requirement? Sorry, you're out of
luck. That's a secret law, too.

They're just two of several secret regulations issued after the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks. The intelligence bill that Congress sent to
President Bush this week establishes a new "privacy council" that's
responsible for reviewing government activities and ensuring that privacy
rights of Americans are protected.

The secret laws are affecting ordinary Americans, from no-fly lists to
requirements imposed since 9/11 that Americans declare their identities
before they fly.

The secret rules are an outgrowth of a 1974 law that allowed the Federal
Aviation Administration to withhold from public disclosure any information
"detrimental to the safety of persons traveling in air transportation."

After 9/11, Congress transferred airport security to the newly created TSA
in the Department of Homeland Security and broadened the FAA rule to cover
anything that might be "detrimental to the security of transportation."

The government is now declaring all forms of interstate transportation --
including airplanes, buses, trains and boats -- covered by the cloak of
"sensitive security information" and moving to keep information from public
scrutiny, said Todd Tatelman, an attorney with the Congressional Research
Service.

Even the wording of regulations authorizing government employees to carry
out the procedures is secret.
  
TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser said the regulations aren't available for public
reading because that might provide terrorists with information on airport
operations.

"We don't want terrorists to know our standard operating procedures," Kayser
said. 

He said the pat-down procedure was publicly announced and well-publicized
before it was put in place in time for Thanksgiving travel. He said the
agency is averaging 10 to12 complaints from the 1.2 million travelers using
the airports each week.

"It is addressing a specific threat, and that threat has not been done away
with," Kayser said. He said new technologies using machines that sniff
people electronically for the presence of explosive materials could
eventually replace the intrusive procedures, but those machines are
currently only experimental.

Privacy advocate Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists
warns that the secret rules show Congress has given the executive branch too
much power without sufficient checks.

The Society of Environmental Journalists fears that the procedure will be
used to withhold Freedom of Information Act information on roads used by
trucks carrying nuclear wastes, for example.

The TSA is even imposing its law on other government agencies. In May, the
U.S. Coast Guard declared emergency plans by shipping companies and terminal
operators should be "sensitive security information" because the government
has determined they "must be protected from improper disclosure in order to
ensure transportation security."

The Department of Homeland Security has also taken steps to ensure that
government employees don't spill the beans on what's in the documents. Two
unions representing federal employees say non-disclosure documents require
department employees and contractors to sign pledges to keep the sensitive
information secret. The agency threatens civil penalties against anyone who
discloses such information.

The TSA has conducted nine investigations of air marshals for allegedly
talking to the media about their operations. Two marshals were threatened
with arrest and prosecution. But Clark Ervin, Homeland Security's inspector
general, noted that unlike the release of government secrets, the release of
sensitive security information isn't currently a prosecutable offense.


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