Selling Our Souls for Security Checks

The Transportation Safety Administration has followed the Bush Administration’s directive by offering private companies the option of creating ”express lanes” for travelers who want to avoid delays at airport security checkpoints

The agency, which has recently been criticized for a variety of blunders including stopping a 4-year-old boy whose name was similar to one on a terrorism watch list, will require that program applicants undergo a government background check and submit 10 fingerprints that will be stored on a digital identification card.

Companies providing expedited security services will also be allowed to use commercial databases to identify travelers using mortgage information, shopping habits or credit rating.

This last step provides a disturbing footnote to process. Will screeners be required to mention “great new 4-percent refinancing offers” while patting down travelers? Should the individuals charged with protecting lives and preventing terrorism in the skies be required to meet sales quotas as well?

I’m a bit skeptical of commercial security staff to begin with; but I guess they’ve been used in the past ...until Sept. 11, 2001, when they were replaced by employees of the Transportation Safety Administration.