"Ridge announces US-Dutch talks about pilot scheme for airport security"

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Ridge announces US-Dutch talks about pilot scheme for airport security
Agence France-Presse


SCHIPHOL AIRPORT, The Netherlands, (AFP) - US Homeland Security Secretary
Tom Ridge announced here Thursday that the United States and the Netherlands
are starting talks about a pilot program to develop an international
registered traveller program.

"It is not going to be a long, drawn out discussion ... the details in
general have already been decided upon," Ridge said at a joint press
conference with Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk.

The plan was announced at Schiphol because the airport already has an
advanced trusted traveller program called "Privium" which works with
biometric markers.

Under the scheme, which is similar to the one in use at Tel Aviv's Ben
Gurion Airport, passengers volunteer to give iris scans which are then
encoded on a "smart card" to enable them to pass through security checks
much more quickly.

Ridge announced that New York's John F. Kennedy airport was starting a
similar program.

If the US-Dutch pilot scheme gets under way "then we can merge the two,"
Ridge said. 

Ridge stressed that the US would also work with other allies in developing
similar programs in future.

"Our approach at this point is to think big but begin implementation on a
small scale. We want to put it in place quickly but more importantly we want
to do it correctly," Ridge said.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************