What's in A Name? Delays, on No-Fly List

Homeland Security Unit Studies Problem
Every time Kiernan O'Dwyer arrived at the airport after traveling overseas in recent years, he was flagged as a potential terrorist. But his uniform was a dead giveaway to his true identity: He is a veteran pilot for American Airlines.

U.S. customs agents have stopped him about 80 times since 2003, apparently because his name and birth date nearly match those of an Irish Republican Army leader, one of at least 300,000 names on the U.S. government's watch lists. O'Dwyer falls under an unenviable category of false positives, people who are wrongly detained because some of their personal information matches that of a terrorist or other suspect.

The number of misidentifications is unknown, according to government auditors, but it has caused headaches for a cross-section of travelers, including nuns, infants and members of Congress. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, under the jurisdiction of the Homeland Security Department, said it was trying to remedy the problem with a system to prevent unwarranted detentions on international flights.

An agency official said in an interview that the system, launched in February 2006, has eliminated about 17,500 detentions involving people entering the country at airports, seaports and at land borders. It is part of what the government says is an effort to prevent terrorism while not inconveniencing travelers or violating their privacy and civil liberties, though it is not yet applied to domestic flights.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901649.html

As they said on the show, we havesome brilliant tech minds in this Country, and I'm SURE they could fix the mess our Gov't has created with this no fly list!

They ought to at least be able to distinguish Cat Stevens, the Senator's wife, from the male folk singer formerly known as Cat Stevens. How can they go just by name only? It's completely asinine.

We have the ability to track carsand get to locations via GPS, we can sent pictures viaour cell phones, we can find almost anything on the internet that we might want, but we CAN'T tell the difference between two Ted Kennedy's. Alan's suggestion was to contact Bill Gates, or any of the geniuses who have created tech empires and ask for their help. It's insanity that the Feds say they don't have a way to get you OFF the no fly list!

They will not be identical (well more than likely not!). Different ages, different heights, genders, whatever. It makes no sense to me.

And anyway, does anyone believe terrorists wouldn't use a different name than the ones the FBI is watching?

and I thought they finally had one right.

only to be disappointed....... sigh.

:D