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Thousands of travelers opened their hotel room doors this morning to find a USA Today headline announcing that fliers who had failed to show identification at TSA checkpoints at US airports found themselves on a TSA “list” – “a database of people who violated security laws or were questioned for suspicious behavior.”

The TSA began storing the information in late June, tracking many people who said they had forgotten their driver’s license or passport at home. The database has 16,500 records of such people and is open to law enforcement agencies, according to the TSA.

Asked about the program, TSA chief Kip Hawley told USA TODAY in an interview Tuesday that the information helps track potential terrorists who may be “probing the system” by trying to get though checkpoints at various airports.

Subsequently, TSA Director Kip Hawley announced that any such tracking would cease. But the fact that this was even a possibility is cause for concern, and damages the TSA’s credibility even more.

But wait: The TSA’s own blog goes one further, denouncing the USA Today report and its conclusions:

An August 13 USA Today article overstated the Transportation Security Administration’s interest in passengers who come to airport checkpoints without identification but cooperate in establishing their identity. The story gives the public the impression they might be put on a “list” if they forget their ID. That is false.

Passengers whose identity is confirmed will not be added to any watch list or face additional scrutiny during future checkpoint visits.

Alrighty then. But how are identities “established” when you don’t have identification, either out of principle or because you lost your wallet? You used to be able to simply submit to supplemental screening and be done with it. In fact, that was confirmed in writing by the TSA in a 2007 letter to Senator John Warner. But that’s no longer the case. Wired’s Threat Level has the skinny:

Now, those who left their license at home or had it stolen have to answer a series of questions relayed to the screener by employees in TSA’s operations center in Virginia, where employees have access to databases of public records, including those compiled by data giant Lexis Nexis.

The idea is for screeners to know that the person holding a boarding pass in the name of Buster Brown, actually is that person. For travellers without ID, they better hope that the notoriously inaccurate private dossiers about them are correct.

The process of comparing answers to public records already caused a flare-up after one traveler was asked whether he was registered as a Democrat or a Republican, which TSA spokesman Christopher White called a “day one mistake,” where a TSA employee looked at the available public records and asked a question off of the information in the files compiled by Lexis Nexis and others.

Another traveler recently reported that officials looked at the tax returns she was carrying with her, that the screeners had the Ohio DMV pull up her photo and that she was asked questions about her family, according to a story from the Lawrence Journal World.

The DMV photo detail struck TSA’s White as odd, saying that he didn’t believe the TSA had access to that data and that there were “much less invasive ways to verify identification.”

Even if the DMV photo anecdotes were false — and we have no real reason to believe they aren’t true — the fact that you’re now required to answer 20 questions about your personal life is disturbing. What does this have to do with airplane safety, exactly?

The TSA has yet to provide an adequate explanation for how checking identification actually enhances security. Yes, there are some bad people who want to blow up planes. But if you actually search them before letting them onboard, then they should be able to walk into the airport carrying a Mickey Mouse Club membership card and a smile and that should be that. Cockpit doors are locked, pilots have guns, and passengers aren’t about to take crap in the sky. But you’ll never get a straight answer out of TSA for why ID checks are necessary for domestic travelers. Instead, this is what you’ll get:

When it comes to security, identity matters. Positively identifying passengers is a critical tool in TSA’s multi-layered approach to security and one that has been bolstered significantly during the past 18 months. On June 21 enhanced identification requirements went into effect and passengers now have to be positively identified before proceeding past the checkpoint. This makes sense because our law enforcement and intelligence partners go to great lengths to identify people planning attacks on aircraft. It is our obligation to stop them once they have been identified.

Bolstered significantly during the past 18 months, how? Calling something critical doesn’t make it so. Evidence does. What evidence do we have that keeping individuals — who would presumably have passed security screening — off planes has increased security?

Some have even argued that identifying potential baddies on the no-fly list is counterproductive — that doing so makes clear to the potential perpetrators that the feds are onto their scheme. Better to let them fly, by that logic, and keep up the surveillance.

Either way, the system is broken. TSA uses the fearmongering language of “security” to justify intrusions into our personal lives, and then cries foul when they get called on it. I hope and pray that Inauguration Day 2009 will lead to changes.

Related:
- Security update: Shorter no-fly lists; air cargo won’t be screened, “for your safety”
- Your laptop is a suitcase: How the U.S. government is searching computers, phones, and other electronics at the border
- A handy guide for luggage inspectors
- TSA wants to know who’s flying 72 hours beforehand
- Your shoes remain a threat to security
- Would you pay a fee to reserve a time to pass through airport security?
- Dangerous shirts see their day in court
- The TSA: New uniforms, new rules!

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