The Star tribune article was carefully edited to take out all of the benificial things and leave in all of the paranoid things. A typical attempt of a civil rights bellyacher to put a negative spin on everything.

Here are a few of the good parts and they make sense to me. Anyone that wants can get your credit history if they want it.

"CAPPS II -- Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II -- will compile data from a number of sources to determine a level of risk for each passenger: green for the vast majority, yellow for those whom officials determine need extra screening and red for those who would not be allowed to fly. Passengers will receive scores similar to credit scores used for those applying for bank loans, Johnson said.

The screening will including information from commercially available databases such as credit bureau reports, but the TSA hasn't settled on which databases it will use, including whether passengers' bank records would be included, Johnson said. He said the TSA is aware that credit bureau reports often contain inaccuracies and is developing safeguards to address those problems.

Johnson said concerns that people with bad credit would be targeted are misplaced. "If you're not a terrorist, you have nothing to worry about when you get to the airport," he said. "If you are a terrorist, this program greatly enhances our chances of finding you and keeping you off that plane." He declined to say what characteristics the screening will look for."

Old Guy