Editor's Note: Capt. Robert Cox is a senior airline Captain with a major airline in the United States. Capt. Cox is the former Special Projects Officer for the National Security Committee of the Airline Pilots Association, having resigned that position early last year due to numerous political differences with the Association's handling of such issues as crew identification, and armed law enforcement officers traveling on air carriers. He has written numerous articles on airline screening, having attended and graduated the FAA required training for screeners, (pre-9/11) with three of the country's major screening companies. Capt. Cox is also a graduate of the AAAE / FAA Basic and Advanced Airport Security and Law Enforcement School. He has made over 100 presentations on aviation security to include the FBI Academy at Quantico, Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network (ALEAN), numerous FBI airport agents conferences, as well as the Seminar on Terrorism and Explosives, cosponsored by FAA and ATF. He has testified to Congress on aviation security and been interviewed by numerous media news shows, including "Good Morning America" . He has been an airline Captain for over twenty years, and has been involved in aviation security for the majority of that time.


An Airline Security Expert Speaks Out Against CAPPS II
by Capt. R.J. Cox

I am amazed and disgusted at what is currently happening within the airline industry in a misguided effort to place American citizens into the seats of America's commercial airliners. AMERICAN CITIZENS! Emphasis on American. Not visitors on a Visa from the Middle East. The last time I checked I was an American citizen raised in the mid-west of the United States. I served in the Army as a paratrooper and with Special Forces, and I am one hell of a patriotic SOB. I take extreme issue with anyone who insinuates otherwise, and unfortunately it happens to me three to four times a day. Especially when I'm in the uniform of an airline pilot. I doubt if you could find a commercial airline pilot who is not completely disgusted with the system. Several of my compadres have been arrested because they too take extreme issue with the insinuation that they are, or have criminal intent (by virtue of searching for explosives in my shoes, or removing my nail clippers after a thorough search of my bag), and yet are turned loose to fly 250 passengers from the cockpit of a commercial airliner not 25 yards from the screening point. And while I can't say this at the screening point, I can here: I have a crash axe in the cockpit that is FAR more dangerous than my nail clippers. Another interesting item: I have the control wheel. Is anyone else missing the logic here?

No American citizen, under any circumstances, should be treated, automatically and by default, like they are a terrorist. Infuriatingly though, every one of us is considered by default to be a potential terrorist due to the fact that -in the aviation arena- we (the United States) don't allow ourselves to look specifically for the bad guys. The airlines won't allow themselves to be put into a position of being accused of racial or religious profiling as that would be a liability. Liability, as in 'lawsuit'. It doesn't seem to be a problem to completely abrogate several of our Constitutional rights, but we certainly wouldn't want to incense one of our passengers by requiring a search based on known data, and insinuating a 'profile'.

Where do we end up? Putting up with the nonsense that our government has foisted on the airline industry, nonsense the industry is apparently buying into. Need I remind everyone that the terrorists of 9/11, the Khobar Towers, USS Cole, etc., etc., were NOT U.S. Citizens. May I also remind everyone that some of the same law enforcement agencies who allowed, through incompetence and laziness, the 9/11 terrorists INTO this country, are now a part of the TSA and Homeland Security Deptartments. These are the same agencies which are insisting that you, Mr. American Citizen, provide all manner of extremely private data to people who themselves may not even be citizens of this country, to prove that you are in fact, (once again), an American citizen who is not going to try to use an airliner as a guided missile. Allowing this to occur is tacit approval of a complete reversal of our constitutional rights.

The CAPPS II program is extremely intrusive and does not address the real problems of aviation security. In fact, it creates a number of other problems by virtue of sharing the information garnered with just about anyone.

Ask any airline crew member where our energies ought to be focused to thwart terrorism in commercial aviation, and you will most likely be told that it is going to be through any venue other than passengers. The next assault to this country through the use of a commercial airliner is most probably not going to be a passenger that came through screening. We've "hardened" the target (improved screening) so much that it is not likely that a "bad guy" would try to access an airliner through a screening point.

The list of ways to breach security at an airport is too long to list, not to mention I do not want to give out any ideas. Meanwhile, you and I have to answer questions that rival the East German political machine in it's heyday, just to prove that we are not "terrorists". (1) This juggernaut of an abomination called CAPPS II is a total abrogation of our constitutional rights and an egregious intrusion on almost every level. Every citizen in this country ought to be screaming at their congressional representatives right now to get this model of CAPPS stopped. The CAPPS II system will use extensive data mining of credit history and criminal records, as well as travel patterns routinely collected by the airlines. As if this wasn't bad enough, NASA has even proposed developing "noninvasive" neuroelectric sensors, or brain scans, for use at the screening points to see if people are having "suspicious thoughts".

As laughable as that may sound, it is a premonition of the future to come if we do not stop it now. The TSA promises that all of this info will not be misused and only given out to those with a "need to know". What the TSA is not telling you is that they reserve the right to give out the info to just about anyone they deem necessary. Now, while I support and applaud the tremendous job that TSA has done with the aviation security system since they took over transportation security, I have serious difficulty with what is called "routine use of records in the system". As it stands now, TSA may "routinely" disclose information from the system to:" Federal, State and Local agencies responsible for investigating or prosecuting the violations of a statute, rule, regulation, order, or license, where TSA becomes aware of an indication of a violation or potential violation of civil or criminal law or regulation." (2) So, the TSA may have some INDICATION that there may be some POTENTIAL for you to break a CIVIL law and they may have the authorities meet you at your destination. In other words...didn't pay that parking ticket? Late on your child support? Pull the label off your mattress? Have suspicious brain waves going through the screening point? You may be in for quite a day at "Airport Jail".

To continue with what TSA is able to do with YOUR private information. They may deem it necessary to give out to: "Contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, agents and other non-federal employees performing or working on a contract, or other assignment from the Federal government."(2) This sentence is so blatantly wide open in it's definition it would be laughable if it weren't so seriously sickening. But wait.., this gets better. They can give out your personal information to the NEWS MEDIA !!! "In accordance with the guidelines which relate to civil and criminal proceedings."(2) Yes, really. And here I thought we were trying to catch terrorists.

I have watched and been part of the aviation industry, as we see our lives disrupted and torn apart by the excesses of government abuse of our constitutional rights. Every citizen in this country needs to be informed of this issue and needs to write, call, email, or fax their Representatives and Senators, to detail their feelings of outrage over this issue. Delta Air Lines' use of this system is only the tip of the iceberg. If we allow this trend to continue, expect your children to be reporting any "non-patriotic" rhetoric to a block monitor in your neighborhood sometime soon; and you will be picked up for a "midnight conference".

(1) The TSA screeners are far and above the level of quality that screening was prior to 9/11. The TSA has done an outstanding job of training these folks. Screening is tremendously stressful and tiring. My hat is off to the professionals that do this job, and do it as well as could possibly be expected under the circumstances.

(2)Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 10 / Wednesday, January 15, 2003. To download this document in PDF format, go here.