DHS Report Built With Private Passengers' Info?

jetBlue is taking the heat for giving its passenger data ('P&Rs' as they call PNRs) to an outfit called Torch Concepts, in Huntsville (AL). [I called jetBlue's Vice President, Corporate Communications, Gareth Edmundson-Jones, and left messages at his office and on his cell phone. I explained that I had the report, and that the report listed home addresses, dates of birth, and social security numbers; and that it cited jetBlue as the source of those data. He had not called back, by press time. Earlier, in a Wired report, he was quoted: "That's not public information."]

When the TSA (now part of Department of Homeland Security) started gathering passenger information, to refine its plausibly-deniable CAPPS II program, it needed some patsy airlines to share passenger demographics.

Bill Scannell, whose research fingered Delta (and subsidiary Song) earlier this year as helping TSA with their dirty work [we understand that the Delta/Song connection to the TSA is severed, for now --ed.], tells us that jetBlue has been in on the snooping project all along, forwarding data on some five milion PAX.

Terrorist profile relatively easy to spot:

We were not able to verify with jetBlue, but what looks like a Torch paper delivered to National Defense Industrial Association membership on February 25, 2003, says the five million passengers' data wasn't enough to get definitive on what to look for. Their indicators, according to the paper, were that the TSA should look at what they called, "passenger satbility indicators." These included, according to Torch's paper, Social Security Number [the integrity thereof], length-of-residence, income, and home ownership. Their predictions could be improved considerably if they were to know the suspect's annual mileage and their lifetime mileage.

There's good news, though: the bottom line is that, "Known Airline Terrorists Appear Readily Distinguishable from the Normal jetBlue Passenger Patterns." To some people, anyway.

That means that, if you're a rich homeowner who has lived at the same place for years, and your SSN (credit report, criminal history) checks out, you're probably going to get probed less-often than the undocumentable, unstable, transient riffraff that usually join terrorist ranks. Imagine!

Torch takes the heat, by denying everything.

We wanted to give Torch a chance to give us their side of the story. They didn't take it. I called Don Holder, President of Torch Technologies. [The letterhead on the report says, "Torch Concepts," but a company press release, excerpted below, explains the connection.] He denied that his company had anything to do with the published report.

"It's not my work," he said. [Technically, that may be true, behind a lawyerly twist. The work is possibly the product of Bill Rorke (one telephone extension higher on the company phone book -- he's the CEO), whose name is linked to it. I left a message for Rorke. He did not return the call.]

I went to Mr. Holder with an easier question: "You're not Torch Concepts?" He said, "No." [Funny... same phone number.]

His memory, it seemed, wasn't working too well, so I asked one more: "You've never done any work for Homeland Security?"

He replied, "No." Then he added, "Thank you," and hung up, without explaining why I was being thanked.

The Torch website explains the relationship: "Roy Nichols, Chairman of Torch Concepts, Inc. announced today that effective Oct, 1, 2002, Torch Concepts will establish a defense engineering subsidiary named Torch Technologies, Inc. Torch Technologies will provide engineering services and Torch products for the defense and intelligence markets." Further explanation, farther down the same paragraph, says, "Mr. Nichols went on to say that Torch’s technology is being successfully used in counter-terrorism and missile defense applications."

In sum:

There is a report, ostensibly by Torch Concepts and presented to the NDIA, that says jetBlue provided data for a study done for the DHS. The TSA's minister of Truth and Enlightenment, Brian Turmail (who thinks the TSA is catching a lot of axe murderers), the guy who wrote such gems as, "Move over Gucci and Donna Karan. This season, all eyes are on Yves St. L’Orange, Versquashi, and Calvin Lime!," before getting his so-serious gig at TSA), was quoted elsewhere as saying the data that were being crunched were "fake." [If Torch received five million sets of fake data, it didn't need jetBlue to make them up; yet jetBlue's VP doesn't deny the transfer -- he says only that it's "not public."] Torch's president just about says his company doesn't exist, among other questionable claims. The TSA has denied to us all along that CAPPS II even exists; and DHS won't call back, either.

Those who are talking, don't seem to be getting the story right; and the rest aren't even talking. My head hurts; you decide.

FMI: www.jetblue.com/privacy.html; www.torchconcepts.com/news/release-11.htm; www.tsa.gov; www.dhs.gov; www.dontspyon.us