Sen. Lieberman praises DHS-EU agreement on sharing airline passenger info

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is praising an agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the European Union on sharing more information about airline passengers.

Lieberman, who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the agreement will increase the amount of time before a flight that information about airline passengers is shared from 72 to 96 hours.

Doing so will "make air travel between Europe and America safer," Lieberman said.

"The agreement ensures that airlines will provide DHS access to specific passenger information 96 hours in advance of their flights to the U.S. - instead of the current 72 hours - so it can be compared to our terrorist watchlists and criminal and immigration databases," he said in a statement released by his office Thursday. 

"This type of information, known as Passenger Name Record data, helped to identify and arrest Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber, as he was trying to flee the country, and David Headley, one of the planners of the Mumbai attack," Lieberman continued. "The new agreement protects individual privacy but will still prevent dangerous people from traveling here. I'm grateful DHS was able to persuade our European partners to do the right thing and strengthen aviation security.”

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