Nation & World News
ACLU challenges 'no fly' list of terrorism suspects
A lawsuit filed by the
American Civil Liberties
Union says airline travelers
have been unfairly stopped
By Anastasia Ustinova
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — The Bush admin
istration's "no-fly" list of tenorism sus
pects, used to screen passengers on the
nation's airlines, has snared hundreds
of innocent travelers and violated their
dvil rights, a lawsuit filed Tuesday con
tends.
The suit, filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union, charges that seven pas
sengers were enoneously stopped,
searched and questioned by airline se
curity officials because their names
were on the list. None were criminals,
but they were detained because they
had similar names.
The ACLU suit charges that this has
happened to "hundreds if not thou
sands" of travelers. More than 600 mil
lion passengers boarded U.S. airplanes
in 2002, according to the Air Transport
Association, a trade organization.
"1 am not a hijacker. I am not a ter
rorist. The government has no reason to
put my name on a list of suspected ter
rorists, " said David Fathi, one of the
plaintiffs, who also said he has been in
terrogated six times in the last two years.
The lawsuit contends that searching
and questioning people whose names
are similar to those on the list is uncon
stitutional, and the ACLU said it in
tended to ask a federal judge to halt the
practice
A spokesman for the Transportation
Security Administration, which created
the list and requires airlines to use it de
clined to comment on the suit's allega
tions. Spokesman Mark Hatfield said
the no-fly list was highly accurate but
that sometimes there were "false posi
tives" in the screening process.
Since just after Congress passed the
Transportation Security Act following
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, airlines be
gan to screen passengers by comparing
information about them with the no
"They are routinely
subjected to humiliating
treatment... delayed
and interrogated."
Reginald Shuford
ACLU staff attorney
fly list of terrorism suspects. The pas
sengers whose names are on the list
must go through additional screening
and may be barred from flying.
The ACLU also contends that some
people are placed on the list mistaken
ly, violating their constitutional right to
freedom from unreasonable searches
and seizures. Once on the list, the
ACLU charges, the passengers are
stopped every time they fly, yet are un
able to correct or even check the gov
ernment's database.
"Our clients are totally innocent,"
said Reginald Shuford, the ACLU staff
attorney for the case "What happens to
them is much more than a minor in
convenience. They are routinely sub
jected to humiliating treatment... de
layed and interrogated."
The lawsuit was filed in federal dis
trict court in Seattle, where three of the
seven plaintiffs live. The ACLU identi
fied the plaintiffs as a retired Presbyter
ian minister, an Air Force sergeant, a
college student, a lawyer, two employ
ees of the ACLU and an employee of
the American Friends Service in
Philadelphia, a Quaker organization.
Not much is known about the "no
fly" list. The TSA has declined to com
ment on how many people are on the
list or how it is compiled.
David Stone, the ISA's acting admin
istrator, assured congressional lawmak
ers last month that a new screening sys
tem should cure some of the problems
with the list.
Called the Computer Assisted Pas
senger Prescreening System, or CAPPS
II, it will reduce errors by comparing
passengers' names with information in
other governmental and commercial
databases. A passenger advocate's office
will give customers an opportunity to
correct the database.
The ACLU seeks assurances that data
collected for CAPPS II won't be used for
other purposes or retained after the pas
sengers' flights.
"We have no problem with the gov
ernment doing whatever it can to make
us safe" the ACLU's Shuford said. "Sim
ply what we want. . . is for our clients to
be treated just like every other innocent
passenger who attempts to fly."
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Net Detective fails to meet its advertised standards
A pay Web site designed to
find out private information
on people could not find its
own satisfied customers
By Mike Wendiand
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
The promise is bold: "Find out the
truth about anyone."
Click the link to read more, and
you'll learn that you can "perform
criminal background searches on new
friends, or... find lost loves or family
members."
These are just some of the claims of
Net Detective, one of the Internet's
most advertised products, sold
through e-mail offerings and Web site
affiliates since 1996. Harris Digital
Publishing Group, which markets the
system, claims it has 750,000 happy
customers.
I decided to invest $29 and see for
myself what it offered. The verdict: I
am not a happy customer.
I thought I'd check out Net Detec
tive by contacting some of the cus
tomers whose testimonials tout the
supposedly amazing number of per
sonal details they discovered about
others.
For instance, there's Marianne
Clewiston of Elmira, N.Y., who is
quoted on hundreds of Net Detective
promotions saying: "I have been
telling my friends about Net Detec
tive. I have also been snooping on my
friends, and they don't even know it.
I found out how much alimony and
child support my next-door neighbor
gets, and that my neighbor across the
street has some big credit problems.
This is AWESOME!!!"
So I ran her name through Net De
tective's People Search database. I fig
ured there'd be no problem because
Net Detective claims it contains infor
mation on nearly 200 million people,
developed from information con
tained in phone directories, motor ve
hicle records, voter registrations and
many other public files.
Zero results. Net Detective couldn't
seem to find its own customer.
OK, so then I tried Marsha Seiler of
Dallas, quoted as saying "30 minutes
Better ingredients. Better Pizza
Beat the clock
BEAT THE CLOCK
The TIME you call is the PRICE you pay
for a LARGE 1 TOPPING PIZZA (from 6pm-8pm).
EXPIRES 4/20/04
Coupon required. Not valid with any other offer or special. $1 charge on delivered orders.
Additional toppings extra. Available in original or thin crust. Limited delivery area.
Lunch and Late Night Special
I Any Large One Topping Pizza for
I offer valid 11am-4pm <£ HHI QQ
| and after 8pm. ^ M
m i
EXPIRES 4/30/04
■airam Coupon required. Not valid with any other offer or special $1 charge on delivered orders.
^ W—eri Additional toppings extra Available in original or thin crust. Limited delivery area
after downloading Net Detective I had
located my long-lost college room
mate and had her on the phone."
Nothing.
Surely, I thought, I could find
Robert J. Carlson of St. Paul, Minn.,
described as a private investigator
with over 22 years' experience who
claims Net Detective now lets him
"locate hard to find information in
minutes that used to take hours or
even days."
Net Detective found no trace of the
investigator. So I called the Minnesota
Board of Private Detectives and Pro
tective Agent Services, which licenses
private investigators. A spokesperson
said it hadn't heard of him, either.
All these people may indeed exist.
But if they do, I couldn't locate them
in Net Detective's people-finding
database.
i--——
It also couldn't find me when 1
typed in my name, even though I'm
registered to vote and have a driver's
license and own property. I tried an
other half-dozen names of friends or
relatives. The only ones it found
were those who had listed telephone
numbers.
I could have done just as well by
calling telephone information or us
ing one of the free programs out there,
like Switchboard (www. switch
board.com ) or AnyWho (www.any
who.com).
Net Detective is really a Web site
that links to lots of other Web sites.
Want criminal information? It links
you to your county government, the
FBI's Most Wanted site or similar
free public'resources. Want bank
mptcy info? You're directed to a fed
eral court site.
Indeed, much of the information
Net Detective offers can be found on
free public records Web sites. Do a
Google search on "public records,"
and you'll find all sorts of resources
providing similar access at no charge.
In some cases, Net Detective tries to
get you to shell out $9.95 for a three
day pass for something called Net De
tective Plus that offers "unlimited ac
cess" to a criminal database, a Social
Security index of deaths, a sexual of
fenders database and a database of
unclaimed money.
Maybe this stuff really is unique.
But before shelling out more money,
I'd urge you to do that Google search.
You can be your own net detective for
free.
(c) 2004, Detroit Free Press.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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