4-Year-Old Boy on Government 'No-Fly' List

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060105/ap_on_re_us/terror_list_preschooler

HOUSTON - Edward Allen's reaction to being on the government's "no-fly" list should have been the tip-off that he is no terrorist.

"I don't want to be on the list. I want to fly and see my grandma," the 4-year-old boy said, according to his mother.

Sijollie Allen and her son had trouble boarding planes last month because someone with the same name as Edward is on a government terrorist watch list.

"Is this a joke?" Allen recalled telling Continental Airlines agents Dec. 21 at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. "You can tell he's not a terrorist."

Peace.

"Hey Karl, come 'ere. I think these guys are talking in some sorta terror code."

I just remembered this Disney phone I had as a child, where you pressed a button and a character talked to you. I can just hear it now:

"Agent Smithers, go to NCIS and see if there's a match for any Islamic terrorists who go by the nickname of Goofy."

Who knows what might have come next? Kicking the back of the seat in front of him? Running up and down the aisles when the "Fasten Seat Belt" sign was on? Spilling his complimentary orange juice?!

I, for one, am proud as an American to know that the TSA is keeping the skies safe and secure for all of us (except for the evil toddler terrorists, that is)! :sarcasm:

You have to draw the line somewhere.

My god, what has this country come to?

Oh, Bush. That's right....

needed that.:rofl:

Every time we fly, they ask for ID which of course he doesn't have other than his library card.

The gate agent has to call to get permission to let him on.

Weird, ineffective, beaurocratic b.s.

Of course he is a danger. He spoke up against the lists that don't really exist.

Does being a democrat or supporting those who oppose the war make us automatic targets?

And now I'm on it for posting on DU.

Oh well. We might as well give a shout-out to the NSA guys on shift right now.

I've got to get one of these.

is enough to put you on a no-fly list. :crazy:

I was subjected to the extra pat down and wand in both airports. They pointed out the code on my boarding pass and said "Anytime you see this, you've been picked." I wasn't told I was on any list, it was supposedly random. No, I do not have a common name.

if not, you're prob. not on the list

this kid's name was edward allen, they gotta check out every edward allen, ed allen, ted allen that flies if that name is on the list

i don't think it's right, and i've been inconvenienced by having a traveling companion get pinged, but don't kid yourself, every democrat is not on the list, i have zillions of posts and i'm obviously not on the list knock on wood

except that Mr GoG forgot to take his belt off when he went through the detector; so he had to get frisked.

they have to take you into secondary and clear you by having you prove that you're not the person of the name they are seeking

we were not allowed to just make a phone call like "james moore" in the story, it might vary by airport, but my companion had to go to another location and i was allowed to accompany him which i did because we had plenty of time for our lay over anyway

however it was easy to prove that my companion was not the person they were seeking, i could see from the officer's response (she cracked up laughing after pulling up the "wanted" information on the screen) that my companion was probably not the same age or race or even remotely similar to the bad guy

i don't know why they couldn't have told this by scanning the passport, what actually happened is that when they scanned my companion's passport, it said to detain him, i suppose it's possible the bad guy had traveled on false documents and they were checking all passports carrying this name until they caught up to him


anyway all's well that ends well

"Arnold Ziffle" is also included on that list. :rofl:

one with names not on the terrorist watch list

Have you forgotten Dr. Evil's Mini Me? That apparent 4 year old could be a midget disguised as a child while all along he is really Osama's Mini Me. I say send the "kid" to Gitmo and water board him until he spills the beans on where Osama has his secret hideout.

Oh really, Ms. Allen? You can tell how? Just by looking at him, I suppose? Don't you know that's a power that only our Great and Wise President George W. Bush has?

Blasphemer!

but even more so, the behavior of the entire establishment like gestapo stormtroopers.

They won't use common sense and operate out of either fear or some god-given righteousness of "protecting the country"

Abuses like this actually have the opposite effect than what is intended, i.e. a false sense of security regarding the ones who are NOT on the no fly list. This will in fact make the terrorists feel secure that if they recruited someone named Zbigniew Zzastrowsky, his name will definitely not be on the list and will thus get a safer passage aboard a plane.

when we fly.

Osama bin Laden was once four years old. Patriots, after age three, turn to age five.
:+

Im thinking probably not.... Offer a solution instead pointing out shortcomings.

But, I'm wondering if maybe you don't care about that, especially since you believe saying having a pre-kindergarten kid on the No-Fly List is lunacy is whining.

Enjoy your stay.

and providing mechanisms for getting innocent people off. We can do it for credit card holders.

:headbang:
rocknation

It's for the same reason as Edward Allen's - first name and last name are both very commonly occurring ones, so I get super screening every time - finally found out one afternoon at LGA what was going on, that I was on one of the no-fly lists.

:argh:

you got a common name that a lot of people have, somebody is going to have that name and be on the list...or some bad actor will at least have used that name as an alias

i have no solution to the problem other than throwing out the list and giving everyone complete screening and most people would bitch about that, so you can't win

i was flying with someone who had the same exact problem at IAH, he shared a name w. a bad actor who was pinged for arrest, i must say that they were v. courteous about clearing up the matter at IAH tho, what else can they do? they are told to clear all such names, the person had one of the names on the list so they are not allowed to use common sense, they had to check it out

i think it happens every day at every airport, we only hear the stories that are "funny" like if it's a 4 yr old AND the mom knows someone well enough to get in the media

... for any other source mentioning the name in connection with terrorism, and it did... there's an Edward Allen who is Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI. :)

Wonder if he gets pulled aside for skin searches?

COME ON! What mess up this administration is! BRING HOME AND IMPEACH! NOW!

From the article:
Allen, a Jamaican immigrant, said workers at La Guardia Airport were even more hard-nosed before their Dec. 26 flight home. She said a ticket agent told her: "You're lucky that we're letting you through instead of putting you through the other process."

:wtf:

WHAT IS THIS "OTHER PROCESS"?????