Speaking of the obvious!
B
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leslie Phillips (Lieberman) 224-0384
May 10, 2011
Shane Wolfe (King) 225-4847
E.R. Anderson (Collins) 224-4751
Adam Comis (Thompson) 225-9978
LIEBERMAN, KING, COLLINS, THOMPSON STRESS
VALUE OF SHARING NAMES OF AIRLINE PASSENGERS
TO DETER TERRORIST TRAVEL
Resolutions Introduced
WASHINGTON - The Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate and House
homeland security committees have introduced resolutions in their respective
chambers to stress the value of using information about air travelers to
deprive terrorists the ability to enter the United States.
The move by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., House Homeland Security
Committee Chairman Peter T. King, R-N.Y., Senate Committee Ranking Member
Susan Collins, R-Me., and House Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.,
signaled strong disapproval of European Union (EU) efforts to reopen
negotiations on an agreement signed by the EU and the U.S. in 2007 to share
passenger name record (PNR) data. The agreement was intended to remain in
effect until 2014.
Since 2007, PNR data has been used to screen international travel and was
instrumental in numerous terrorism investigations, contributing to the
arrests of Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber, and David Headley, a
planner of the Mumbai attack.
Lieberman said: "The thwarted Christmas Day attack in 2009 and attempts to
place bombs in airplane cargo holds last year demonstrate that terrorists
are still intent on using airplanes as weapons against us. Sharing passenger
information is an effective way to keep known terrorists off airplanes and
has contributed to the arrests of at least two terrorists since the current
agreement with the EU was signed. We should accept no changes to the
agreement that could limit our ability to identify and arrest terrorists or
potential terrorists in the future."
King said: "This is a national security priority. PNR data has
been a successful tool in our layered approach in combating terrorism and
crime. Weakening this tool could have grave consequences on the security of
both the United States and Europe. The 9/11 Commission identified the
targeting of terrorist travel as one of the most powerful weapons against
terrorists. The need to collect passenger travel data has for nearly a
decade received bipartisan support from Congress and has served as a
cornerstone in both the Bush and Obama Administrations for interdicting
terrorists."
Collins said: "Passenger Name Record data is an important tool in the fight
against terrorism as it assists security personnel in identifying possible
threats, before they arrive in our country. This sharing of passenger
information from inbound international flights is a crucial component of our
layered approach to homeland security.
"This resolution recognizes the key role that PNR data have played in
disrupting terrorist travel and in terrorism investigations, including their
use to identify and arrest Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and David
Headley, coconspirator of the 2008 Mumbai Terrorist attack. I urge the
Department of Homeland Security and the European Union to continue to use
the PNR data agreement in place, as previously negotiated and in effect
until July 2014, to identify and thwart those seeking to do our country
harm."
Thompson said: "With the ten year anniversary of the September 11th attacks
upon us, it is critical that we recognize the strides that have been made to
prevent terrorists from traveling into the United States. Certainly, the
sharing of passenger name record data between the U.S. and E.U., as well as
the stringent privacy and oversight protection in the 2007 agreement, has
made the nation more secure. Those who question the value of the 2007
agreement need only to look at the interdictions and thwarted potential
attacks that have resulted. The resolution is intended to underscore the
need to rededicate ourselves to information sharing and redoubling efforts
to thwart terrorist travel."
The Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 required that airlines
provide PNR information on all flights. PNR data is used by Customs and
Border Protection (CPB) to pre-screen international flights starting 72
hours before they are scheduled to depart. Data collected from the
airlines' PNR systems are compared to terrorist watch lists and criminal and
immigration databases to make sure known terrorists do not board airplanes
bound for the U.S., and have been used in numerous terrorism investigations.
In September of 2010, the European Commission (EC) said its PNR
agreements in the future would include restrictions on the means and
frequency of data sharing, limitations on how long data could be stored, and
requirements that EU citizens be given administrative and judicial redress
by other countries.
A November 4, 2010, Washington Post editorial concluded that the European
Parliament's renegotiation proposal was "distressing" and the "burden should
be on the European Parliament to demonstrate why amorphous anxieties about
privacy should trump" concerns about terrorist attacks against our aviation
system.
The Senate resolution, S.Res.174, is available here
<http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id
=ff927260-aaf7-4a4a-bf51-332e886fd5c7> . The House resolution is available
<http://homeland.house.gov/sites/homeland.house.gov/files/PNR%20Resolution.P
DF> at the House Homeland Security Committee website.
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