Here we go again.

Is it just me — or is it clear the Federal government is simply hell-bent to set up a “terror-database” network whether Congress okays it, the public wants it, or it’s even legal?

I think we all know the answer to this question.

First it was the “centralized information database” concept that former Retired Admiral John Poindexter was in charge of. You all remember that effort. It was called “Total Information Awareness.”

I would call it “Big Brother on Steroids.”

When Congress put the stop to that little intrusive project, which sought to compile databases containing everything from airline ticket sales to credit card charges to law enforcement records to banking records, then Homeland Security took the same concept and began to apply some of the same database mining components as the centerpiece of its new CAPPS II program.

When that program was shot down by Congress, the GAO, and privacy groups for security concerns and a general fear that it’s reliance on third-party data providers was inherently problematic — not to mention potentially error-prone — Homeland Security simply renamed the program “Secure Flight,” made a few minor tweaks and went about its merry way.

I’ve always liked that “warm and fuzzy” moniker of “Secure Flight.” Don”t you?

Now, thanks to a filing in the Federal Register that popped up in November, we find out that while all this was going on, the federal government has been secretly collecting information on U.S. citizens who have traveled in and out of the country — for the last four years.

Virtually every person entering and leaving the United States by air, sea or land has been scored by the Homeland Security Department’s Automated Targeting System, or ATS.

The scores are based on ATS’ analysis of their travel records and other data, including items such as where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.

So how interesting is it that this has been going on the entire time the same department has been told repeatedly by Congress to clean up its act or forget it — in regard to privacy issues involved with the “Secure Flight” program?

It’s also pretty clear now that “Secure Flight” was always designed as just an add-on to this existing secret database system.

But then again, why should we be that surprised?

In an August 2004 issue of CIO magazine, Poindexter basically foretold what we now know to be the case.

“Retired Adm. John M. Poindexter still slips into the present tense when he talks about Total Information Awareness (TIA).

He does this despite the fact that he resigned from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) a year ago amid controversy, despite the fact that DARPA subsequently dissolved the Information Awareness Office (IAO) he had built, and despite the fact that DARPA ostensibly canceled TIA, the wide-ranging program to use technology for gathering intelligence to combat terrorism. Poindexter, however, still believes in TIA. In fact, he maintains that TIA hasn’t really gone away; it’s just gone undercover. ”

Great.

Oh, and yes, in case you missed it — the Department of Homeland Security says it plans to keep its ATS database of “risk assessments” on file for 40 years, sharing it with law enforcement officials, state, local, or state officials, courts, Congress, you name it.

But you? You and me? No, we are not allowed to see our terror profile.

Why?

Because, according to the Associated Press, in the Federal Register, the department exempted ATS from many provisions of the Privacy Act designed to protect people from secret, possibly inaccurate government dossiers. As a result, it said travelers cannot learn whether the system has assessed them. Nor can they see the records “for the purpose of contesting the content.”

This ATS system, which as I said, has been in existence for more than four years, is supposed to “officially” begin operations today.

Needless to say, we here at PlaneBusiness do not support our government using the travel industry as a prop to what seems to be one of the largest secret data-mining programs ever put into place by the U.S. government.