(WBAL) The Transportation Security Administration has confirmed for the first time that the controversial screening of some rail passengers’ past travel records against a terrorist watchlist “has already occurred,” amid calls from Congress for greater oversight and demands from civil liberties advocates for an immediate halt to the program.
The vetting, first revealed by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit on Wednesday before it was known to have begun, is part of an Amtrak Rail Passenger Threat Assessment to determine if known or suspected terrorists have been riding America’s rails. Initially, the watchlist searches are only being done with “several months” of past travel records from trips in the Northeast Corridor, the busiest in Amtrak’s 46-state route network. The TSA is turning over to Amtrak statistical information on any matches and not the names of the individuals found, according to a Privacy Impact Assessment that had not been previously reported.
