Edited by author 12-22-2002 07:46 PM
Ian, it's true that the world is imperfect and that there will always be authority figures who lack the desired even-handedness. Traditionally, we've checked against abuse of authority through interlocking oversight, through appeal, and through public regulation.

IOW, traditionally, the police enforced only public laws -- laws that were written down and subject to appeal, repeal and disagreement. In the case of airport security, though, the regulations are either not written down, or, if they are, they are not made available to the public. Moreover, there is no public means of appeal to these regulations -- if they exist -- because it is not clear who their authors are and who they are accountable to.

Thus, any bad egg with a badge can do virtually *anything* at an airport, and it is nigh-impossible for the victims of their abuse to appeal to higher authority.

It is precisely *because* this is "a human system, created by humans, run by humans, and administered by humans" that the absence of checks, balances and most of all accountability is so grevious.

This is *new*. The Homeland Security Act, USAPATRIOT Act, and Computer Security Enhancement Act, and, most of all, the nebulous regulation of "security" at our airports are a very different status quo than the one they replaced. Each of these blocks of policy, law and regulation seek to remove accountability and public process. Thus, abuse runs rampant.

A co-worker of mine has let his passport expire. A passport is two things: an identification token ("this person's name and DOB are __________") and an authentication token ("this person is authorized to cross borders"). An expired passport (provided that the photo is still recognizable) is a perfectly valid form of identification, even if it no longer serves as an authentication token.

Most of the time, this person boards airplanes with this ID without problem. He has flown some 70 flight segments since September 11, 2001, using this as his sole form of identification. However, earlier this month, the clerk at the check-in desk told him that his expired passport was not an acceptable form of ID. She was unable to point to an exhaustive list of acceptable ID, but merely asserted that this would not do the trick. My friend needed to jump through all manner of hoops to board his flight, and, ultimately, he was allowed on -- but not before the clerk had added annotations to his file identifying him as a troublemaker, to be subject to secondary and tertiary screening -- the traveller's equivalent of an anal probe.

He has applied for a California non-driver's ID (he attempted this once before, but was informed that his expired passport was insufficient for the purpose; however, because the DMV is required by law to make its rules public, he was able to return armed with a list of acceptable ID gleaned from the California DMV's web-site). However, he is rightfully anxious that one pissy check-in clerk's notation will continue to haunt him long after he is in possession of "acceptable" ID.

Meanwhile, my "government issued ID" is a valid Ontario Driver's License. Most Americans who see this card say, "WTF? Is this some kinda whacky Canadian credit-card?" It looks very official, but it also looks *nothing* like a US driver's license. No airline employee or security official has ever looked twice at this card -- presumably, I could whip up 10,000 driver's licenses from the "People's Republic of Upper Muldovia" and meet with the same reaction (provided that I set the expiry date for these IDs sufficiently far in the future).

There appear to be *no* rules here. The airports request "valid government issued photo-ID," but fail to disclose the criteria for validity. There is no appeal to the discretion of any airport personnel -- indeed, attempting such an appeal is likely to get you thrown out (and possibly barred from flying, or arrested).

I agree that this story is un-corroborated and should be viewed with skepticism. I know lots of people who behave *very* badly and have no idea that they are doing so -- it's quite possible that this guy acted like a complete lunatic (it's even possible that he fabricated the incident from whole cloth). Let's hope that some time in the near future, someone with the power and time to do a proper investigation will uncover and publish the truth.

That said, asserting that thinking that this story points to "the advent of a totalitarian machine is, quite simply, naïve and uninformed," is far too sweeping. The new regulatory regime rips the accountability out of our world. People are quite rightly alarmed at the idea of power without accountability.