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Status: U From: "ARNELL" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: IP: Airports Push for 'Smart Cards' Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 08:42:58 -0500 Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: "ARNELL" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS7FF 66MO0 OCTOBER 30, 03:22 EST Airports Push for 'Smart Cards' By JONATHAN D. SALANT Associated Press Writer White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card AP/NBC, Alex Wong [22K] WASHINGTON (AP) - Airline passengers who volunteer for background checks could bypass long lines at security checkpoints under a plan being considered by the Transportation Department. The plan hinges on technology to verify a passenger's identity, such as a retinal scan or fingerprint. Airlines and airports are pushing for tamperproof ``smart cards'' that passengers would show at the screening area. A Transportation Department task force proposed the smart cards as a way to reduce long waits at checkpoints. At some airports, passengers are being asked to arrive two hours before their scheduled departure. Passengers who agree to background checks would get minimal screening at airports while security officers concentrate on everyone else. ``Our system won't operate if we don't get convenience, as well as security, back into the system,'' said Charles Barclay, president of the American Association of Airport Executives and a member of the task force. ``The only way we're going to get there is technology.'' The Air Transport Association, the trade group for the major airlines, has endorsed the smart cards. Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey said the agency was looking at whether to prescreen passengers. Other security measures have taken effect as the House prepares this week to debate airline security legislation. More passengers are being singled out for extensive screening based on a computerized profile. Planes are regularly searched for hidden weapons. Airlines are checking the names of passengers against FBI lists of potential terrorists, sometimes with software offering alternative spellings of Arabic names to prevent people from evading detection by using different translations. The FBI list also is being used to check the roughly 750,000 airport and airline employees who can routinely bypass security checkpoints to enter secured areas of airports. But problems remain. Airport security screeners in New Orleans failed to catch a gun in a passenger's carry-on baggage last week, although they determined that the incident was accidental and no arrest was made. At Washington Dulles Airport recently, seven of 20 screeners failed their written exams and were given other assignments, said a Transportation Department inspector general's report. ``It is a higher level of intensity and scrutiny, but the basic flaws are still in the system,'' said former FAA security chief Billie Vincent. ------------ NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ============ To UNSUBSCRIBE from the ignition-point list, send email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message, include only the line: unsubscribe ignition-point <your address> --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
