The Transportation Security Administration’s Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-screening system, or CAPPS II, has been officially declared dead, but the government—never one to give up on a bad idea—says,

The name CAPPS II may be dead, but the process of creating an automated passenger pre-screening system to replace the current CAPPS will continue.

Privacy groups are more optimistic.

Privacy activist Bill Scannell, who has fought the CAPPS II proposal for a year and a half, thinks yesterday's obituary notice was just that, despite what DHS [Dept. of Homeland Security] said Thursday.

"This program is not going anywhere before the November elections," Scannell said. "We got rid of the program, and now we need to get rid of the administration that designed it."

Did he really say that?