Big difference. I have been on the No Fly List since December 2001. I was flying 150,000 miles a year ALL DOMESTICALLY and it was insane for the first year as I was held up, repeatedly searched and bags emptied multiple times per flight. Eventually, I was assigned my own FBI agent I could call to speed me through, he never once answered his phone. The only time he spoke to me was when I called from another airport while being guarded by a cop and having a velvet rope square put around my person with the cop next to me being held for hours. I called the FAA who blamed the FBI for not purging the list. The agent said he would be assigned to me and that, though he wasn't supposed to tell me, a terrorist from South Yemen had used my name as an alias. He also blamed the FAA.
I called the FAA back and spoke to a young man who I could tell turned to his supervisor and said, "We have another "my name"! I could hear her laugh. She got on the phone and asked if I was in an airport. She said that when I was released to go to the newsstand and get that months issue of the New Yorker magazine and turn to page 76, they had done a story on it. Anyone with a spelling similar to mine was going through the same as me, including a 76 year old black grand mother flying to see her great grand kids.
Eventually things settled down as they added every common name to the no fly list so it was common to encounter people like me on the list. They still won't purge the list. I have a theory that they use it as probable cause to be able to spy on us. I don't think it's paranoia given what Snowden has released.
The last story I will impart was the first time it happened. At the time I had been flying back and forth between Dallas and Houston on Southwest Airlines. I did this 2-3 times a week for work. SW did not have assigned seats and you picked up your boarding pass after security in your terminal. Security hadn't undergone any changes yet. When the young lady looked up my name she got a funny look on her face and tugged on her nearby supervisors sleeve and loudly said, "That's funny, I have never seen it do this before!" (Later I learned this was their code as they always said it). The supervisor looked at the screen, looked at my face in alarm, then looked back at the screen. She told me they were having "computer problems" and would be right back. They went through a door and returned a couple of minutes later with my boarding pass. Before they came back I leaned over the counter to read the screen because of how strange they were behaving. It was flashing "ALERT SECURITY"! She instructed me twice on my gate (we were in a big round pod with multiple gates) and insisted I go sit by my gate. I walked away knowing I hadn't heard the last. All seats were taken so I walked accross to a window ledge and sat next to a couple of businessmen. Eventually, the filigree before mine at my gate boarded and seats opened up. As I was walking to my gate passing the "Stand By" counter the young lady who had checked me in was on the microphone calling me to report there. I tapped her on the shoulder while she finished the announcement and she turned to me and screamed, still holding the microphone. She looked to where I had been sitting and I saw 2 uniformed cops and four cops in suits harassing the two businessmen I had been sitting by. They ran at me with guns drawn while silence fell over this terminal of thousands who could all see what was happening. They took my ID and the chief walked off with it on the phone while I was guarded by the other cops. Another man with the same name as me walked up and they got him too. He asked what was going on and they would not speak. I told him that if we had even an outstanding parking ticket we would be going downtown for interrogation.
I agree with Eddie Munster (Paul Ryan) on only this issue.
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