US, Europe want more comprehensive ID checks on airline passengers

The new tool being sought would broaden the scope of security searches, which currently check passengers against a terrorist watch list, to include looking through passenger itinerary data to identify people who may be linked to terrorists, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the New York Times in a recent interview.

Access is sought to a database known as the Passenger Name Record, which is created by global travel reservation services and lists the names of travelers, details on cars or hotels, credit card information, contact information for the passengers and their relatives and even intimate details such as what type of bed they prefer.

US officials, under a 2004 agreement with Europe, already have access to this database -- which is off limits to European officials, but the agreement runs out on September 30 and US and European officials expect to renew it.

Chertoff, however, said he would like to revise the agreement to provide greater ability to search the data for links to terrorist, since currently it can be used to compare the passenger data to information on file of suspected terrorists.

"Ideally, I would like to know, did Mohamed Atta get his ticket paid on the same credit card," Mr. Chertoff said, citing the lead hijacker of the 2001 plots.

"That would be a huge thing. And I really would like to know that in advance, because that would allow us to identify an unknown terrorist."

A spokesman for the vice president of the European Commission Franco Frattini said the commissioner plans to propose that European governments also have access to the Passenger Name Record database.

"It is not going to solve all our problems," said spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing. "It is not going to stop terrorism. But you need a very comprehensive policy."

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