Re: airport security

At 2:05 AM 10/22/95, Alan Horowitz wrote:
>WHy should airplane crashes be more of a cause for disseminating the
>Surveillance State than Greyhound Bus crashes?
>
>I'd be more sympathetic to arguments about an airline's right to write
>it's contracts as it pleases. Though they are Common Carriers; they can't
>just offer Contracts of Adhesion at will.

No crypto relevance--my apologies.

I am skeptical that the "all passengers must have picture IDs" has much to
do with identifying corpses after crashes.

The recent push is certainly associated with the various terrorist threats
and incidents. The FAA can push for it, and the airlines have little to say
about it.

However, I read--probably in the WSJ--that the airlines see this as a
chance to regain control of "ticket abuse." Corporations often have bought
up discount tickets without knowing who willl be travelling and on what
dates. This allows them to have a pool of tickets and saves them a bunch of
money.

Reports are that many people showed up at boarding gates with a different
name than what the ticket said, and had to pay extra to get a current
ticket (no advance purchase, of course).

I'm not sure what the compelling lessons are, except that the
"Identification Required State" is getting closer every day.

--Tim May

Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

I tried to board my 15 year old son on Delta's Sky West in St George 
UT for SLC last week --they _required_ ID, and it took me almost 5 
minutes to back a very polite counter agent down from the requirement. 
   Now, maybe I am an obstructionist, but I have been foregoing the 
IRS deductions for my 5 children since I refuse to obtain SSNs for them. 
Again, that made life interesting at passport time --I entered 
000-00-0000 for the kids and passports were issued.  
   Likewise, I have had more than one hospital _try_ to refuse service for
lack of SSN. 
   At close to 300 lbs and dressed in black and concave inverter reflector
lenses, it becomes an excellent example of "...intimidation is just
another form of communication...." 
   Whether we like it or not, "they" intend to tag us --there was a very
informative article on non-intrusive scanning of the iris for
identification within the last month -not sure which rag. from "their" 
perspective, scanning the iris is far more secure than the imbedded 
chip.  Maybe we can scuttle it on disrcimination against the visually 
impaired! :)
   This topic may be relevant since crypto -probably "their" private
crypto after banning ours- will be essential to establish communications
to the central data bank somewhere under the NSA monolith or whereever... 
On the other, the list topics are too fragmented and I agree with tcm, 
futplex, etc. that we need more concentration on crypto "methods" -rather 
than speculation on what method the Feds are going to try to screw us 
over with next.

On Sat, 21 Oct 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:

> At 2:05 AM 10/22/95, Alan Horowitz wrote:
> >WHy should airplane crashes be more of a cause for disseminating the
> >Surveillance State than Greyhound Bus crashes?
> >
> >I'd be more sympathetic to arguments about an airline's right to write
> >it's contracts as it pleases. Though they are Common Carriers; they can't
> >just offer Contracts of Adhesion at will.
> 
> No crypto relevance--my apologies.
> 
> I am skeptical that the "all passengers must have picture IDs" has much to
> do with identifying corpses after crashes.
> 
> The recent push is certainly associated with the various terrorist threats
> and incidents. The FAA can push for it, and the airlines have little to say
> about it.
> 
> However, I read--probably in the WSJ--that the airlines see this as a
> chance to regain control of "ticket abuse." Corporations often have bought
> up discount tickets without knowing who willl be travelling and on what
> dates. This allows them to have a pool of tickets and saves them a bunch of
> money.
> 
> Reports are that many people showed up at boarding gates with a different
> name than what the ticket said, and had to pay extra to get a current
> ticket (no advance purchase, of course).
> 
> I'm not sure what the compelling lessons are, except that the
> "Identification Required State" is getting closer every day.
> 
> --Tim May
> 
> Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government.
> ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
> Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
> tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
> Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
> Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
> "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
> 
>

>  I have been foregoing the 
> IRS deductions for my 5 children since I refuse to obtain SSNs for them. 

    You need a better lawyer. You do have a statutory right to those
deductions, and the IRS administrative policies do yield to statutory law.

HInt: IRS can write anything it wants, in "instructions for Form XXXX" -
these leaflets do not have force of law.

> The recent push is certainly associated with the various terrorist threats

   Furthermore, the terrorism the West faces, is state-sponsored. Neither 
of its patrons - the Russians and the Radical Arabs - are stupid. If the 
airlines become secured, they _will_ target the Greyhounds.

One need only examine US policy towards (just as one example) Turkey in 
the last five years, to realize that the Washington Elites are not 
capable of understanding fundamental problems of statescraft and 
diplomacy. Under this regime, it is no wonder that our reaction to terror 
tactics, is to react in a defensive mode - expensive airport security 
measures, etc, etc. The other side *has already won* the terror war, 
merely by virtue of having set the agenda, and making us spin in tighter 
and tighter circles - reacting, not initiating.