Travel Screening and The PASS Act

• In the other chamber of Congress, the PASS ID Act (S. 1261) introduced in the Senate on June 15th contains a provision in Section 242 (a) (1) (B) that “no person shall be denied boarding a commercial aircraft solely on the basis of failure to present a driver’s license or identification card issued pursuant to this subtitle.”  This is part of a terrible bill, which we strongly oppose. We agree completely with Jim Harper’s take that this is merely a “lite” version of a national ID law, and that there is no good reason to “replace” the REAL ID Act rather than simply repeal it.  The PASS ID Act would still leave loopholes for the TSA to deny “permisison” to travel on other grounds, such as failure to “cooperate with screening”. But we welcome the initiative — again, the first such in the Senate since the creation of the TSA — to anticipate and preclude a TSA assertion of new authority. (The PASS ID Act would also make it a “unlawful for any person, knowingly and without lawful authority– (1) to scan the information contained in the machine readable component of a driver’s license or identification card; or (2)(A) to resell, share or trade that information with any other third parties; (B) track the use of a driver’s license or identification card; or (C) store the information collected.”  This provision is apparently intended to include a prohibition on reading of the data on RFID chips in Enhanced Drivers Licenses.)

c/o Papers, Please!

In the absence of any explicit rules or any judicial, legislative, or executive oversight, the TSA has felt no need to seek authority for its ever-expanding assertions of authority through legislation or rulemaking. Nor has the TSA recognized any duty of self-restraint or self-policing to ensure its actions conform to the law. Instead, the TSA has simply wielded its power to do whatever it wished, on the disgraceful assumption that, “If we’re doing something wrong, the courts will tell us — if and when someone can afford to sue us, and they win a court judgement against us.” In the meantime, the TSA will do, and claim the right to do, anything that hasn’t already specifically been ruled illegal. Kind of like the thief who assumes that they can steal whatever they want, and that if something turns out not be theirs, they’ll give it back if and when someone sues and wins a court judgement ordering its return.

Time and again we’ve pointed out this failure to subject the TSA to the rule of law. See, for example, our most recent prior post on this topic, our agenda on the right to travel submitted to the Obama Administration and Congress after the 2008 elections, and our comments earlier this month at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference session with Obama Administration representatives and others at 1:45:53 of this video. Until recently, however, neither the Courts, the Congress, nor the Executive branch have wanted to confront the question of what rules govern the TSA.

We’re please to report that this is finally beginning to change, in small ways but on numerous fronts. ::: MORE HERE:::

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org

TWIC Card Chaos in L.A. Ports

BTC Op/Ed Commentary[brief]:

Dear distinguished members of the Trilateral Commission,

Have your populist translators on Speed Dial for this official statement. We now defer to the language of Union-American, an indigenous dialect, words directed towards the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and the Transport Worker Identity Credential.

F**k the WHTI/TWIC credential!! You want transport service??!! You’re gonna get it without a *!$d%mn biometrified port network identity card. CAN YOU SPELL A-F-L-C-I-O??!!

[Followed by flying styrofoam cup filled with scalding hot coffee aimed at nearest bureacrat enforcer.]

(Ahem.) We now defer to commerce parties affected by your reprehensible policy.

“It’s just chaos down there,” said Dick Schroeder, owner of Bay Harbor Transport, who had several truck drivers denied entry to the port complex. “This is just ridiculous.”

TWIC Rule Trips Port Workers
Source: Daily Breeze
Publication date: 2009-04-15

The U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday turned away more than 250 local port workers who did not have a new biometric security card.

The ID cards were required for entry to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for the first time, as the federal government tightens security at the nation’s largest port complex.

Most of the 67,000 longshore workers and truck drivers who must carry the Transportation Worker Identification Credential – or TWIC – had already obtained it by the deadline. For them, the first day of the new program went relatively smoothly.

But for those who have yet to pick up the cards, or have not yet passed an exhaustive background check, it was a day of frustration.

“It’s just chaos down there,” said Dick Schroeder, owner of Bay Harbor Transport, who had several truck drivers denied entry to the port complex. “This is just ridiculous.”

Most of those who were turned away were truck drivers. Anthony Turner, a Coast Guard spokesman, said 200 trucks were denied access to the ports Tuesday.

Another 67 workers – longshore workers and others must carry the TWIC card – also were turned away.

Chris Viramontes, secretary-treasurer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the union hall after they were turned away.

But, overall, he said the implementation went smoothly, thanks to months and years of

preparation.

“For the most part it’s gone good because we have good cooperation with the Coast Guard,” Viramontes said.

The card is designed for anyone visiting “restricted” areas of marine terminals, commercial ships, boats and other harbor facilities. Restricted areas include engine rooms, control rooms, wharves, rail yards, piers, warehouses, terminal storage areas and many cargo-handling zones.

Most of those who are still waiting for completion of their background checks are immigrants, Viramontes said. In those cases, federal officials have to review birth records that are located in the workers’ native countries. That has resulted in significant delays.

Gerhard Silvestri, 63, was born in Germany and came to this country when he was 2. He has been driving trucks in and out of the port for 25 years. He said he still has not received his TWIC card, and has not been given an explanation.

“I’ve been here since 1947. It’s not like I fell off the banana boat,” Silvestri said. “It’s not fair. All they have to do is extend it another 30 days. It’s all bureaucratic b.s.”

Schroeder said that some drivers tried to get into the port complex with an e-mail showing they had passed their background check, but were turned away.

The Coast Guard had announced it would accept such e-mails until May 13. But in practice, it appeared that the process was more complicated, and approval was not automatically granted.

Some trucking companies had their drivers with TWIC cards come down to the port in their personal vehicles and take over for drivers without the credential who had been pulled out of the line.

As of Monday, 7,000 workers who had been approved for TWIC cards still had not picked them up from an activation center at the Queen Mary.

“With all those thousands of hours of outreach, it’s like ‘Cool Hand Luke,”‘ said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dennis Miller. “You try and you try and there’s some people you just can’t reach.”

gene.maddaus@dailybreeze.com

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org

NEWSMAX: TWIC seen as Threat to Identity

NEWSMAX.com

TWIC is more than just another pretty ID card. Pictures and thumbprints are just the ante.

Sure it will be used for visual identity checks. Card holders will have to present their cards to authorized personnel, who will check the photo, inspect security features on the TWIC and look for signs of tampering. But it gets better (and more efficient): The Coast Guard will conduct vessel and facility inspections and use hand-held readers during spot checks to ensure credentials are valid and identity is verified. A second rulemaking will establish access control requirements, including the use of electronic readers by certain vessel and facility owners and operators. [MORE]

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org

Two suspected undocumented workers busted with fake TWICs

Just when you thought hyper expensive technologies made you more secure ... then THIS from LANDLINE magazine.

BTC Commentary: I guess the idea here is that if you take the time to make an expensive, tech savvy card, those who intend to fake it to break the system will find a way. The rest of us shouldn’t put up with the addded costs and the hassles managed into our already overcomplicated lives.

***************************************************************************************

Two men face charges after allegedly using fake TWIC ID cards to work at the Port of Fourchon, LA.

The men, Ernesto Cordova, 25, and Roosevelt Amores, 32, were reportedly charged with illegal entry into critical infrastructure, in addition to invalid driver’s license charges after a security employee noticed several misspelled words on the fake TWIC cards.

“It was a pretty good duplication,” Callais told the Houma Courier. “Only with the trained eye would you see there were some differences between that and a regular TWIC.”

The men also are under suspicion for being the in U.S. illegally, the Courier newspaper also reported.

According to the article, Harbor Police Chief Jon Callais said that the guard’s port training helped him zero in on the suspected workers.

The Courier article didn’t say how many days the pair had used the fake TWIC cards to illegally enter the port, but the Port of Fourchon had been requiring TWIC cards for access for nearly a month at the time of arrest.

Police said the men worked for the Danos and Curole offshore-service company.

Callais told the New Orleans City Business publication in 2007 that Port Fourchon was vulnerable to terrorism at that time because it had “no cargo tracking system, no incoming vessel identification, no gates and no way to track workers.”

THIS JUST IN…

“We’re supposed to be operating on a risk basis as far as homeland security,” Dent said. “I don’t think mule drivers in colonial garb rise to the level.” – Charlie Dent, canal boat passenger.

Feds subject mules to anti-terror rules

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org

TWIC Goes Wireless

“Breaker, breaker 1-9..this TWIC card is giving me the cannonball runs…” – A dramatization of Trucker identity dissent.

Identify that muther-Trucker with Transport Worker Identity Credential by wireless remote control?

Si se puede. Codebench says they have the technology.

 

PIVCheck Mobile enables compliance officers to verify cardholder identities and check revocation status using a wireless verification unit. PIVCheck Passage then gives the compliance officer the option to wirelessly open a door or gate using the cardholders’ Wiegand access card ID.

The card ID is transmitted to the access control panel where it is validated and logged as an access event just as if the card had been presented to a directly attached reader. PIVCheck Passage supports most legacy Wiegand formats such as HID’s Corporate
1000 as well as the 48-, 64-, and 75-bit FASC-N based formats.

This combination of a mobile PIV/TWIC authentication appliance with wireless PACS link provides agencies with the ability to converge PIV/TWIC validation requirements with legacy access systems over dispersed operating areas.

For more information to start your own local group to stop Real ID,
visit 511Campaign.org . The 5-11 Campaign helps the individual
connect with local organizers who oppose the U.S. plan for a national
identity. For more information visit: 511Campaign.org or
contact : 511@511Campaign.org