Soundex Me, Baybee

No-fly list ensnares innocent travelers (June 8, 2003)

"As the war on terrorism spurs U.S. intelligence agencies to constantly expand aviation watch lists, many airline-reservation systems rely on name- searching software based on a 120-year-old indexing system that mistakes the similar spelling or sound of innocent passengers' surnames for those of terrorists.

The result: Thousands of travelers have been flagged at airports for additional searches and police questioning -- while critics say real terrorists could slip through undetected."

Being that this is the Internet, of course:

Is your Soundex double in the (Google) news?

I have 2 points:

1. As the SFGate article points out

"The problem is that reservation software now relied upon by the government was designed not to catch terrorists, but to quickly summon passenger names or to catch deal-hunting passengers making duplicate bookings."

It is not always possible to use one tool for 3 different jobs.

2. The point of airport security is not, and should not be, to know who I am, which is what all the CAPPS II questions about birth date and credit report crap are designed to provide. The point is simply to make sure I do not bring an explosive device, gun, or other obvious weapon on board. That doesn't mean confiscate my nail file. That means have a bomb-sniffing device (canine or mechanical) at every security station, and use the fucking X-ray machine to look for long blades, guns, and weapons of mass destruction. ("Excuse me, miss? Is that your nuke?" "Oh, I'm so sorry, I must have left that in the bag when I unpacked from my last trip." "Perfectly all right, I'll just dispose of that for you. Have a nice flight.")

It doesn't matter who I am. What matters is whether or not I'm bringing a weapon on board.