Agency compiled personal data on airline passengers
Washington – A federal agency collected extensive personal information about airline passengers, although Congress told it not to and it said it wouldn’t, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
A Transportation Security Administration contractor used three data brokers to collect detailed information about U.S. citizens who flew on commercial airlines in June 2004, in order to test a terrorist screening program called Secure Flight, according to documents that will be published this week in the Federal Register.
The TSA had ordered the airlines to turn over data on those passengers, called passenger name records, in November.
The contractor, EagleForce Associates, then combined the passenger name records with commercial data from three contractors that included first, last and middle names; home address and phone number; birthdate; name suffix; second surname; spouse first name; gender; second and third addresses; ZIP code and latitude and longitude of address; and other address information. EagleForce then produced CD-ROMS containing the information “and provided those CD-ROMS to TSA for use in watch list match testing,” the documents said.
According to previous official notices, the TSA had said it would not store commercial data about airline passengers. The Privacy Act of 1974 prohibits the government from keeping a secret database.
“I’m just floored,” said Tim Sparapani, a privacy lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is like creating an FBI file, not just some simple check, and then they’re storing the data.” TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said that the program was being developed with a commitment to privacy and that it was routine to change the official definition of a system of records during a test phase.
LONDON
Clinton: Guantanamo must close or clean up
Former President Clinton said the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay should close or improve its record on prisoner abuse, a British newspaper reported Monday.
Clinton told the Financial Times the camp should “be closed down or cleaned up.”
“It is time that there are no more stories coming out of there about people being abused,” Clinton told the newspaper.
Clinton spokesman Jim Ken ne dy said the quotes were accurate.
About 520 prisoners with suspected links to the Taliban or al-Qaeda are being held at the camp, many for more than three years without charges.
PHILADELPHIA, Miss.
Jury gets murder case against ex-Klansman
The murder case against a former Ku Klux Klansman charged in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers went to the jury Monday after prosecutors made an impassioned plea for a conviction, saying the victims’ families have waited 41 years for someone to be brought to justice.
“Because the guilt of Edgar Ray Killen is so clear, there is only one question left,” prosecutor Mark Duncan said in closing arguments. “Is a Neshoba County jury going to tell the rest of the world that we are not going to let Edgar Ray Killen get away with murder anymore? Not one day more.”
The 12 jurors – nine white and three black – later begin deliberating whether to convict 80-year-old Killen after the week-long trial. The jury deliberated for about 2 1/2 hours before going home for the day without a verdict.
NEW YORK
WTC victims’ families oppose museum plans
Dozens of relatives of people killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks are opposing plans for a freedom museum at ground zero, saying it would spoil the site’s solemnity by injecting controversy and political debate.
Relatives representing 14 family groups gathered at the site Monday to condemn plans for the International Freedom Center, which officials said would place the terrorist attacks in a historical context.
“It doesn’t belong at a memorial,” said Charles Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, died in the World Trade Center collapse. “You wouldn’t put a debate about Nazism and authoritarianism at Dachau.”
CHICAGO
AMA wants to ensure filling of prescriptions
The American Medical Association agreed Monday to use its clout to try to ensure that pharmacists’ moral objections don’t block patients’ access to needed medicine, including emergency contraceptives.
The action was prompted by complaints from several physicians’ groups that say a growing number of pharmacists nationwide are refusing to fill prescriptions for contraceptives they consider a form of abortion.
Under the policy adopted at the AMA’s annual meeting, the group will support legislation that requires pharmacists to fill valid prescriptions or to immediately refer patients to other pharmacies that will.
