Feds' Watch List Eats Its Own

...Newly released government documents show that even having a high-level security clearance won't keep you off the Transportation Security Administration's Kafkaesque terrorist watch list, where you'll suffer missed flights and bureaucratic nightmares.

According to logs from the TSA's call center from late 2004 -- which black out the names of individuals to protect their privacy -- the watch list has snagged:

*A State Department diplomat who protested that "I fly 100,00 miles a year and am tired of getting hassled at Dulles airport -- and airports worldwide -- because my name apparently closely resembles that of a terrorist suspect."

*A person with an Energy Department security clearance.

*An 82-year-old veteran who says he's never even had a traffic ticket.

*A technical director at a science and technology company who has been working with the Pentagon on chemical and biological weapons defense.


Good article on a subject near to my heart.

More at link:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70783-1.html


EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY 4 OR 5
PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE
PER DU RULES.

when the list was first used. IIRC several dems had problems then.

It was some GOP asshole's idea of a joke. Not funny.

I'm on the HARASS AND BULLY list--I get fucked with every single time I fly, beyond the usual stuff--I'm talking the dreaded red SSSSS's on the ticket--without exception, and then am allowed to board. A high clearance and a long career in national service is no guarantee at all...

on the tube completely pissed. There were a couple others, but can't recall which ones. All dems.

It seems that having had a high clearance you should have an easier time boarding planes MADem. Of course that would make sense and the country has totally lost anything resembling sense.

They actually mark your ticket ahead? I'm glad I don't fly anymore. My 71 yo mom was searched over bobby pins in her wig last year. Sheesh. Let's harass old ladies and toddlers first. :crazy:

I cannot even get a ticket by mail. I have to show up early, with my government-issued ID, and go through HELL. Stand in line, get "the look" after which I tell them that I am not the asshole they think I am, that this happens to me all the time, and then they relax and sympathize with me.

I then go through TSA, and I usually give them a bit of light, snarky shit. I ask them if they treat all military retirees in this fashion, and how many conflicts does one have to participate in before one gets an iota of respect and trust from the government (all with a smile, mind)? At this point, I've usually managed to rile those around me--they ask me if this REALLY happens all the time, I tell them it does, in fact, EVERY SINGLE TIME, and they start getting pissed off. It's actually kind of good, for ordinary travellers to see vets and retirees getting shit on--it really pounds home the points for our team, without having to go at it head-on. I usually get several people coming up to me afterwards, thanking me for my service, apologizing for the TSA guys, and every so often, doing a Bush bitch.

I no longer travel with bags, because carry on is tossed all over like I am some kind of bum, and checked bags are opened and shit goes missing. I spend the extra money and FEDEX my stuff ahead.

It's incredibly annoying. And I have been outspoken amongst my colleagues in my former area of expertise, as well as others...so I DO wonder if some of the harassment is political. And I am a damned DEMOCRAT, so that's enough, I guess!

umpteen million John Smiths would be hassled. "Similar sounding name" is the biggest crock of shit.
God forbid someone named T Jefferson, B Franklin or T Paine tries to book a flight.

As in EDWARD MOORE KENNEDY....

Also, DAVID NELSON (brother of Ricky, and any one of thousands by that name) gets the business, too:
http://archives.californiaaviation.org/airport/msg26610.html

He is among a half-dozen David Nelsons in the Los Angeles area who, in
interviews during the past few days, say they experienced similar problems
over the past year.

In Oregon, an additional 18 David Nelsons spoke with Portland's The
Oregonian newspaper, and four David Nelsons in Alaska reported similar tales
to the Juneau Empire.

It's all made David M. Nelson, a former elementary-school teacher in Canoga
Park, skeptical of getting on an airplane at all. "I've heard horror
stories. If your name is David Nelson, prepare to be detained."

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez attributed
the problem to the name-matching technology most airlines use. He denied
that the name "David Nelson" appears on any list that flags passengers for
extra scrutiny, and said the problem is that the software randomly flags
"the presence of letters in a name."

RANDOM letters in your name, eh??? Is that supposed to inspire CONFIDENCE???

Alma Bonasendi, you can't fly!!! Your name is an ANAGRAM for Osama Bin Laden!!!!