Feds' Watch List Eats Its Own

[AnnieBW]

From Wired Magazine:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70783-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

What do you say about an airline screening system that tends to mistake government employees and U.S. servicemen for foreign terrorists?

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.


(Read more...) at link


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

[napi21]

1. Well, you remember Ted Kennedy was on that list too, don't you?

I don't recall if that was before 2004 or not, but I remember him pitching a FIT! It was the same flight out of National that he's taken for years when going back to Boston! I remember Teddy saying "I knew the right people to call and I got this thing straightened out, but what aobut the ordinary citizen? What the hell do they do?"

[BanzaiBonnie]

2. What was the name of the company?

That put together the felon list to scrub the voter rolls in Florida? Did the same outfit do this work?

[tech3149]

5. Choice Point n/t

[Jara sang]

3. That system will be fucked if "Bob Smith" ever decides to be a terrorist.

or some other exceptionally common name.

[MercutioATC]

4. You missed one...an air traffic controller I work with is on the list.

He's had a psychological evaluation. The FBI has granted him a Secret security clearance. He's rated to tell Air Force One where to fly...

...yet he's on the TSA's list.


How ridiculous is that?