Fly-by-ID: Who are you going to believe?

The matter in question:  Is TSA collecting fliers personal information on a "list" if they show up to fly without an ID? (Flying without an ID is legal, but against TSA policy paradoxical demands for ID.)

USA Today's Thomas Frank reports,

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration has collected records on thousands of passengers who went to airport checkpoints without identification, adding them to a database of people who violated security laws or were questioned for suspicious behavior.

BUT... TSA authorities say they really aren't doing that, in a way, sorta, well, of course...

TSA's online rag, The Evolution of Security Reports

"An August 13 USA Today article overstated the Transportation Security Administration’s interest in passengers who come to airport checkpoints without identification but cooperate in establishing their identity. The story gives the public the impression they might be put on a “list” if they forget their ID. That is false.

Passengers whose identity is confirmed will not be added to any watch list or face additional scrutiny during future checkpoint visits...Because our mission requires this capability, we do collect information about individuals who present false identification or misrepresent themselves to get in an airplane."

Yes, but what about NO identification. Are they included with those who "misrepresent" themselves?   Who are you going to believe?

TSA, who uses the 9-11 Commission Report as a reliable comprehensive document based on facts and the Lexus Nexis corporate database to confirm your  walk-in /walk-out identity?

"The information is only shared with other law enforcement partners on a need-to-know basis. The ability to "connect the dots" on emerging situations can not be underestimated. In the post 9/11 world, such analysis is so fundamental to protecting the American public that it was a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission." - Evolution of Security 

OR

The coverage of a Rupert Murdoch owned dumbed-down newspaper soup document called USA Today,

"Later Tuesday, {Kip}Hawley called the newspaper to say the agency is changing its policy effective today and will stop keeping records of people who don't have ID if a screener can determine their identity. Hawley said he had been considering the change for a month. The names of people who did not have identification will soon be expunged, he said.

Civil liberties advocates have been fearful that the database includes passengers who have done nothing wrong yet may face extra scrutiny at airports or questioning by authorities investigating possible terrorism. "This information comes back to haunt people," said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union." - USA TODAY

BeatTheChip's answer: the one that doesn't need to have your face on file to fly in the U.S.

BeatTheChip's suggested approach to Fly-by-ID TSA searches is as follows:

1) Don't go get a new ID, present the one you have in your wallet.

2) Get a passport.  Smack the RFID with a hammer or throw it in the microwave for 7 seconds.

3) Mail your laptop a day ahead of time to your destination or add it to your regular luggage in a different suitcase to avoid TSA carry-on harassment.

4) Stop giving out your personal information to random gratuitous surveys or stupid contests you won't win or customer "advantage" cards.   That's how Lexus Nexis got your info in the first place.

5) Contact your legislator and tell them you want TSA out of your airports-they are wasting your tax money.  

"Continuity of Government" & Global Power Brokering

Anyone reading this blog should understand that Real ID is a single cog in a bigger machination.

In the past, we wondered why Presidential Candidates have not spoken more about the Real ID Act and its role to "round up" citizen's identities. Real ID's struggle for Executive representation as a populist issue started during the New Hampshire primaries.

UnionLeader.com reported the following in December of 2007:

"While former Sen. John Edwards and Ron Paul are on record against Real ID as a threat to civil liberties, as is Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Barack Obama's only response so far has been to object on grounds it's an unfunded mandate and not enough has been done to help the state's implement it.

Chris Calabrese said the ACLU projects that although Real ID calls for the states to be in charge of their own information, ultimately the Feds will say "let us handle the database".

"Ebel and Calabrese said the Department of Homeland Security is beginning to figure out there's growing opposition to Real ID at the state level, so they've introduced the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that ACLU officials termed a "bait and switch" plan, which would hook up the driver's license base to customs databases.

Although people were originally going to have a passport to cross the border, DHS said if states linked their driver's license base to customs databases, they'd then be in compliance with Real ID.

A key concern is that the DHS could expand the uses beyond the official purpose of Real ID. As specified by legislation, the Real ID is a secure card issued by states to be used only for the following reasons: to access a federal facility, board federally regulated commercial aircraft and enter nuclear plants."

The Bigger Picture for Real ID

The bigger picture for Real ID is part of a global conglomeration of wealth and power in the hands of a few. Their license to rule may be based on the level of existing disaster in the U.S.

If the plan for Continuity of Government wasn't both pervasive and censored from the majority of our media, we could ignore it. However, Continuity of Government planning continues rain or shine.



Elections determine the current sucession of government. Unrest in Russian territories and "terrorists" touching nuclear weapons threats invoke Continuity of Government or COG. Impeachment proceedings, by all appearances, are being treated like a threat to succession of our current government.

From AfterDowningStreet.org

Q: Why have you taken impeachment off the table as an option for President George W. Bush? Nancy Shipes WOODSTOWN, N.J.

A: I took it off the table a long time ago. You can't talk about impeachment unless you have the facts, and you can't have the facts unless you have cooperation from the Administration. I think the Republicans would like nothing better than for us to focus on impeachment and take our eye off the ball of a progressive economic agenda.

The Demand for Constitutional Accountability - Seeing Crimes Committed


In Los Angeles, Peter Thottam, Green Party Candidate & Impeachment Activist was arrested last night for confronting Nancy Pelosi at a book signing. {Action which got Peter Thottam arrested below}



"Security Guard called the LAPD officers and made a citizen's arrest. Spent the night in jail. The police officers were sympathetic and agreed about the role of big money in Congress. They agreed that Pelosi and these reps are just tools, " Peter Thottam.


We Are Change doing a similar action here:


So what is going on that there is no prosecution of our President? BeatTheChip has a clue.

National Real ID Update Digest

The Last Hope - Talk Archive on RFID & Real ID's

- Tiffany Strauchs Rad

"The REAL ID Act mandates using RFID in ID cards that most Americans should carry for domestic airline travel and must carry for international travel. This discussion will examine current RFID technology and security concerns as well as how the RFID technology implemented in REAL ID Act cards and passports may pose privacy and security risks."

Kansas Priorities Turn to Infrastructure; joins Real ID Discussion 

Indiana Drink's Digimarc's Kool-Aide; 6 year Contract Ensues

c/o SecureID News

"Security identity provider Digimarc has been awarded a six-year contract with Indiana’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles to deploy a new driver’s license system that will help the state comply with new Real ID regulations. The company will use the Microsoft .NET version of its driver license issuance solution that will provide “seamless integration” with other state databases and applications."

MIT Students Gagged by Las Vegas Judge Over Card Hacking Methods

c/o CNET

BTC Comment -Students at a Las Vegas Defcon Press Conference were silenced for explaining how to fraudulently reproduce an ID card considered by all accounts to be a secured ID.  We here at BeatTheChip, intuitively know that technophiles will override any government secured technology regardless of cost or effort to prove that they can.  This supports the argument that making State taxpayers pay for a Secured driver's license will not stop those with real intent of reproducing fraudulent ID's for profit.    If they don't have the technology, they'll build it.   Our pragmatic friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation understand the nature of such things. We think the hundreds of millions to be spent on securing Real ID's would be better allocated to shoring up the roads, investing in the build of green energy transitions and restoring the U.S. economy.   It's an alternative to making us pay for the government's cattle-log checkpoint database to fulfill the Big Brother fantasies held by corporate sociopaths.  Just a thought.

WV Does not Cave to The "Mark of The Beast"

c/o WorldNetDaily

"It's not "666," but it's close enough to the New Testament's "mark of the beast," says a small religious group in West Virginia that won an exemption from the state's requirement that driver's license photos be stored in a digital database."

HISTORY: Real ID Propaganda Carter Administration Style

BTC Editorial

I dug up this interesting editorial from Democrat Jimmy Carter, who proposes that the Real ID Act of 2005 would minimize voter disenfranchisements. We should preface this by saying, not all Democrats think alike.

This is what it happens to look like when Carter is spinning Real ID as a solution to Republicans making ID's LESS available for an identifying voter. I'd liketo add that it was a strong Republican move to push the Real ID Act in place. Carter proposed that since Real ID's nazi-styled census machine is being phased in, lets go along with the proliferation of EVEN MORE forms of ID for those who are voting.

When I read things like this I begin to think that there is a special place in political hell for those who want to narrow focus those who can and cannot vote in an American election, making it a proving ground for U.S. citizenship.

NOTE: Citizens chief opposing argument here is making a photo ID a pre-requisite to voting disenfranchises more voters during election season.

This New York Times Article was published in February of 2008.

"In 2005, we led a bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform and concluded that both parties’ concerns were legitimate — a free and fair election requires both ballot security and full access to voting. We offered a proposal to bridge the partisan divide by suggesting a uniform voter photo ID, based on the federal Real ID Act of 2005, to be phased in over five years. To help with the transition, states would provide free voter photo ID cards for eligible citizens; mobile units would be sent out to provide the IDs and register voters. (Of the 21 members of the commission, only three dissented on the requirement for an ID.)

No state has yet accepted our proposal. What’s more, when it comes to ID laws, confusion reigns. The laws on the books, mainly backed by Republicans, have not made it easy enough for voters to acquire an ID. At the same time, Democrats have tended to try to block voter ID legislation outright — instead of seeking to revise that legislation to promote accessibility. When lower courts have considered challenges to state laws on the question of access, their decisions have not been consistent. And in too many instances, individual judges have appeared to vote along partisan lines."

In states like Texas, where voter ID and more government regulation is despised, you find a tooth-and-nail fight to keep citizens from the disenfranchisement lines.

Carter later admits that minority groups, who historically vote Democratic, are disenfranchised by voter ID laws. Hitching votes to a Real ID would perform the same purpose- only those who could not provide citizenship documents would lose their amenities to vote.

"The bad news, however, was this: While the numbers of registered voters without valid photo IDs were few, the groups least likely to have them were women, African-Americans and Democrats. Surveys in other states, of course, may well present a different result. "