F.B.I. Got Records on Air Travelers

F.B.I. Got Records on Air Travelers
By JOHN SCHWARTZ and MICHELINE MAYNARD

Published: May 1, 2004


In the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the nation's largest airlines, including American, United and Northwest, turned over millions of passenger records to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, airline and law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday.

A senior official with the F.B.I. said the airlines cooperated willingly. Some, like Northwest, provided as much as a year's worth of passenger records, which typically include names, addresses, travel destinations and credit card numbers.

"There was no reluctance on the part of anybody," added the senior F.B.I. official, who said that bureau rules required him to speak anonymously.

The official said the requests were made under the bureau's general legal authority to investigate crimes and that the requests were accompanied by subpoena, not because that was required by law or because the bureau expected resistance from the airlines, but as a "course of business" to ensure that all proper procedures were followed.

more..........

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/politics/01AIRL.html

The airlines just voluntarily sacrificed their customers privacy. Any airline could have quashed such a broad ranging fishing expedition.

Wonder where all that private information on millions of people is now?

American corporations don't care a fig for our privacy. Put all our health information and clinical records on digital databases? Indeed.

The compiling of lists of data on law abiding citizens by security agencies is the essential tool of totalitarianism. To suggest that it is "legal" is absurd. If it was legal why was it done in secret? The airlines knew it was illegal. Hiding behind the subpoena is disinformation.

Question. Why were no such subpoenae issued to suspect flight schools when the FBI knew terrorists were in training in such schools? There a warrant would have been reasonable and supported by probable cause. As Cathleen Rowley has told us, Counter-terrorism SAA Frasca deliberately blocked legal process to find out more about terrorist Moussaui. I guess no one in the mainstream can see the pattern here.

.. I mean they gotta have the means to catch the grandmothers and cyclist terra-ists going to and returning from Cuba, considering all of those dozens of Asscroft assigned agents hot on their trail and all.

:crazy:

A class action lawsuit stating a violation of thier terms and contract seems a possibility. If tickets were purchased under a stated policy and then that policy changed....

No subpoena required, a simple request from law enforcement and they get everything they want.

Of course none of this can ever be used as evidence in any legal proceedings, but no matter.