Makes no sense....Passenger's name matched a terrorist watch list?

[Postman]

"The British Airways incidents began Wednesday night, when Flight 223 was escorted by fighter jets to Dulles after authorities said the names of about a dozen passengers appeared to match those on a terrorist watch list."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/01/02/terror.threat/index.html


Question: If you were a "terrorist", would you use your real name in trying to board a plane to hijack it for fear that it would show up on a "terrorist watch list"?

[wyldwolf]

1. Apparently those terrorists did use their names, which make me glad...

...there was such a list.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. It had nothing to do with passenger names, according to the article

"The sources said the information had nothing to do with the passenger list, but instead focused on the flight number."

I guess you didn't read it before commenting.

"Lick Bush" Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[wyldwolf]

14. No, actually, I read the quote from the first post

"The British Airways incidents began Wednesday night, when Flight 223 was escorted by fighter jets to Dulles after authorities said the names of about a dozen passengers appeared to match those on a terrorist watch list."

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HereSince1628]

2. Well, we see the effect of cranking terralert to orange...

More'n the avrage mount of misdakes in the pahsuit of pertekton Murikan intersts. Budt, bedder to make misdakes an look bizzy than ta look like yer nod takin id zerius.

[madrchsod]

4. the names were -

phonetic spellings-not the real names but names that sounded like the name. a very young boy was in the names of "terrorists", another was a well respected intellectual. really good info-hey, it "sounds like" a terrorist.......

this was about the french planes, that`s why the french are not happy....

[DBoon]

5. These people need to change their names then

After all, it is your individual responsibility to stop being so suspicious.

[nostamj]

6. let * be re-elected and we won't need names

we'll have numbers. if not tattooed, then implanted in a microchip

we won't be allowed to be 'suspicious'

and we'll have a kiss a replica of *'s ass to buy bread

[Obamarama]

7. There are aparently very subtle nuances in Arabic....

I know nothing about the language, but apparently it's easy to confuse certain letters in Arabic with others if you are not 100% fluent. I had heard the names on the list that were flagged were becasue they were incorectly translated.

Just so you know, the military fired eight translators who were fluent in Arabic because they were gay...in case you forgot who the other enemy of Western civilization is...

[Yupster]

10. Chinese names

When I was growing up, the newspapers spelled Chinese names a certain way. Then about 25 years ago the spellings changed entirely.

I think when a different alphabet is involved it's just hard to get it just right. I'm assuming Arabic has a similar situation.

[karlschneider]

12. I believe there were way more than eight, but anyway, how many ways

has (Mommar?) Khaffadi, Quadafi, etc. been phonetically spelled in English? It's a horrible problem. I can get by in the Romantic languages and know enough Japanese (verbally, not scriptive) to muck about in Tokyo, but when the alphabets aren't even close, grasping the idiomatic subtleties is damn near impossible.

[ET Awful]

9. If they were on a watch list, why were they sold tickets to begin with?n/t

[Ksec]

11. The suspect was a child.

Well done . Hey, these guys are led by the guy who attacked the wrong country. Whaddya expect?

[Bozita]

13. Terror suspect turned out to be a Welsh insurance agent

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1115281,00.html

Terror suspect turned out to be a Welsh insurance agent

Paul Webster in Paris and Owen Bowcott
Saturday January 3, 2004

The Guardian

French irritation over US controls on transatlantic flights was reinforced yesterday when the interior ministry revealed that American intelligence based its suspicions on passengers' surnames only.

This led to a child with a name similar to a Tunisian terrorist, a Welsh insurance agent and an elderly Chinese woman restaurant owner being questioned by counter-terrorist police when several flights from Paris to the US were cancelled shortly before Christmas.

Three other "suspects" who were questioned were French citizens with Arab-sounding names.

All the suspects' names, supplied by the US, were found merely to be homonyms - similar in sound or spelling to those of wanted al-Qaida activists.

more...

[daleo]

15. What if your name sounds like McVeigh?

Or would that one be on a terrorist watch list?