Amtrak asks TSA to start screening passengers against terrorist watch list

First time I've heard of this.

Amtrak has asked the TSA to start screening some of its passengers against the Terrorist Screening Database watchlist maintained by the Threat Screening Center to see if known or suspected terrorists have been riding the rails, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security privacy impact document obtained by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit....

https://www.wlky.com/article/amtrak-tsa ... /39639320#

The TSA will only supply Amtrak with anonymized statistical information.

That's just the initial analysis. When airlines started working with TSA on advance screening, we did the same type of past passenger analysis. The stats helped to shape our policies and testing.

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Add Mike Tyson...

Wow Mr. B&A.

At first, your immediate landed with a "huh", but Mr. Google sure lit up with stuff:

https://youtu.be/uKhPBOtRCno

I believe that a professional boxer's hands are considered lethal weapons, which in addition to a bunch of airlines banning him, might also be one more addition to his "rap sheet".

Amtrak, you want him for a passenger?

When I was at DHS OBIM, 9 years ago, one of the components we had was to provided datastream for amtrak to check watchlists "for when their equipment is updated to do so".
I guess they are ready ,now.

I saw that... and you know, I have to wonder why he isn't on a private charter.

Him on Amtrak? He'd be kicked off.

Okay, I doubly wonder...

Tyson was provoked.

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STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:07 am I saw that... and you know, I have to wonder why he isn't on a private charter.

Him on Amtrak? He'd be kicked off.

Okay, I doubly wonder...

if anything, they would get an Earfull.

eolesen wrote: ↑Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:26 amTyson was provoked.

Doesn't matter; His fists are deadly weapons, as Mr. Norman pointed out. And iirc, he threw more than one punch. He should have complained to a flight attendant.

But do you want TSA agents in Amtrak stations... and how accurate are their lists, and reasonable are the appeals process?

BandA wrote: ↑Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:37 pm

eolesen wrote: ↑Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:26 amTyson was provoked.

Doesn't matter; His fists are deadly weapons, as Mr. Norman pointed out. And iirc, he threw more than one punch. He should have complained to a flight attendant.

But do you want TSA agents in Amtrak stations... and how accurate are their lists, and reasonable are the appeals process?

You also would have a tough time enforcing it at unmanned stations. Who's sending a TSA agent to Essex, MT or Stanley, ND or Sanderson, TX. I don't think it's going to happen for the most part. If it does, at best it will be the big stops.

BandA wrote: ↑Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:37 pm

eolesen wrote: ↑Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:26 amTyson was provoked.

Doesn't matter; His fists are deadly weapons, as Mr. Norman pointed out. And iirc, he threw more than one punch. He should have complained to a flight attendant.

But do you want TSA agents in Amtrak stations... and how accurate are their lists, and reasonable are the appeals process?

Tyson should, but if you've seen though his career, one has to wonder his mental state. That redoubles my wondering why he's not on a private charter everywhere.

But TSA agents stationed in Amtrak stations? That's too much of a lift, even for stations that are just "flat spots along the road." Screening names and such? Possible, but it'll require a lot more analysis.

Screening names and requiring reservations for all trains is a real possibility. When TSA required pre-screening for air travel, the shuttles had to abandon instant ticketing and walkups. If someone is redflagged for the train, it's easy enough to have LEO's dispatched.

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Personally I've always liked the Amtrak Cop and the pup casually smelling you and your stuff as you go to board your train, a lot less intrusive than the TSA, but I am surprised Amtrak hasn't been screening names until now.

Red Wing wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 5:58 pm Personally I've always liked the Amtrak Cop and the pup casually smelling you and your stuff as you go to board your train, a lot less intrusive than the TSA, but I am surprised Amtrak hasn't been screening names until now.

True, it's a lot more random, while TSA requires you to be sniffed while in line in addition to random checks around the airport. I think I've only been sniffed once at Philadelphia VS at any airport. All it's doing for me at the airport is to give me joke material. I mean... who else loves being sniffed in the butt by a TSA K-9 unit?

I now wonder if TSA and FRA banned Taco Bell from all airports...

Edit: Not banned nor similar Mexican food joints banned -- BWI has Qdoba. I now wonder about in-airport arrests for disorderly conduct...

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 6:33 pm I now wonder if TSA and FRA banned Taco Bell from all airports...

White Castle too. These might be still served on the Chicago Midwest corridor.

And the watch list is not perfect. Some years ago folk singer Cat Stevens (now Yusef Islam) made it on the
FBI watch list and the plane he was on had to make an emergency landing. And also intelligence failures, as in the
case of the Boston bombers: the older brother was already flagged, but was not forwarded to local authorities, in
which police already had evidence linking both brothers to an unsolved triple homicide at Brandeis University.