Air, Cruise Ship Crews Must Have Identity Checks

Dec. 13, 2004
Congress now requires those who work at airports or aboard cruise ships to have identities checked against terrorist watch list

Anyone who works at an airport or aboard a cruise ship will have his identity checked against government watch lists, just like commercial airline passengers.

The change, included in the intelligence bill passed by Congress this week, means hundreds of thousands of additional names will be compared with those on two lists -- one for people suspected of terrorism, the other for people the government says require additional scrutiny for some other reason.

Cruise passengers, but not crews, already are checked against the lists within 15 minutes of a ship's departure. Once President Bush signs the bill into law, it will require passengers and crews to be checked before the ship sets sail. The procedures must start within six months after the bill becomes law.

Supporters say the changes add another layer of security, but critics say the lists provide greater opportunity for innocent people to be mistakenly branded.

In a number of well-publicized incidents, people with names similar to others on the lists were stopped from boarding planes. One that happened to is Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

"To expand the use of something that's already so error-prone is shocking," said Marcia Hofmann, attorney for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based advocacy group.

There's no formal procedure for people to correct misinformation that caused their names to be added to the lists. The intelligence bill orders the Homeland Security Department to establish procedures for names to be removed as well as added.

The bill also requires the newly created Director of National Intelligence to set standards for placing people on the list and to report those criteria to Congress.

Sen. Bill Nelson, who sponsored the cruise ship provision, said as many as 5,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members travel on each ship.

"What you have is a floating city of thousands of people," said Nelson, D-Fla. "You cannot be too cautious."

Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines, said the change could delay ship departures if it isn't handled well.

The bill also orders airport workers to be checked against the terrorist watch list before they are allowed unescorted beyond security checkpoints or on the tarmac. That includes at least tens of thousands of restaurant workers, concession clerks, cleaners, caterers and delivery people.

Individuals also are required in the bill to be screened against watch lists "before being certificated by the Federal Aviation Administration."

"We're not sure exactly what that means," said FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler.

The Federal Aviation Administration already checks a host of people against the lists -- pilots, flight instructors, mechanics, repairmen, air traffic controllers, flight attendants -- before it issues certificates allowing them to perform those functions.

Congress set no deadline for airport workers or people certified by the FAA to be checked.