Yes, Dave Hill, International Man of Mystery is a great example of the general uselessness of the TSA’s No-Fly List. Some journalists got a copy of it (authentic, as far as can be told), and investigated the 44,000 names that were there. The results are … just what you’d expect.
First off, the list is a potpourri of other lists, provided by various agencies, none of whom identify their criteria. Names are only added, not removed (even if removed from the source agency lists).
And what kind of names are on there?
The “data dump” of names from the files of several government agencies, including the CIA, fed into the computer compiling the list contained many unlikely terrorists. These include Saddam Hussein, who is under arrest, Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker, and Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. It also includes the names of 14 of the 19 dead 9/11 hijackers.
You’ll be glad to know that Osama Bin Laden is on there, too, in case he tries to catch a flight from JFK. And they have the “Usama” spelling, too. Whew!
Of course, just as important are the names that aren’t on there … some of them intentional.
The 11 British suspects recently charged with plotting to blow up airliners with liquid explosives were not on it, despite the fact they were under surveillance for more than a year.
The name of David Belfield who now goes by Dawud Sallahuddin, is not on the list, even though he assassinated someone in Washington, D.C., for former Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. This is because the accuracy of the list meant to uphold security takes a back seat to overarching security needs: it could get into the wrong hands. “The government doesn’t want that information outside the government,” says Cathy Berrick, Director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues for the General Accounting Office.
Because, of course, you wouldn’t want to tip off a terrorist that he’s a suspected terrorist. Of course, you wouldn’t want him flying on a plane, either, but … um …
Why do we have this list again?
And as for Dave Hill, International Man of Mystery …
Even if the list is made more accurate, it won’t help thousands of innocent travelers who share a common name on the list and who get detained, sometimes for hours, when they attempt to fly.
Gary Smith, John Williams and Robert Johnson are some of those names. Kroft talked to 12 people with the name Robert Johnson, all of whom are detained almost every time they fly. The detentions can include strip searches and long delays in their travels.
“Well, Robert Johnson will never get off the list,” says Donna Bucella, who oversaw the creation of the list and has headed up the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center since 2003. She regrets the trouble they experience, but chalks it up to the price of security in the post-9/11 world. “They’re going to be inconvenienced every time … because they do have the name of a person who’s a known or suspected terrorist,” says Bucella.
Or, at least, the name of someone on the list. Who may, or may not, be a terrorist.
Like me.
(More info.)
(via Les)
Can’t the harmless Robert Johnsons of the world be given some kind of bulletproof “He’s not that Robert Johnson” certification they could carry with them? It needs to be done for three reasons: first, because security personnel aren’t screening passengers while they’re strip-searching yet another Robert Johnson. Second, because a continual state of alert degrades alertness (see “Boy who cried wolf”). And third, because what is being done to the Robert Johnsons of the world undermines commerce and the general welfare.
Well, that’s part of that “Favored Traveller” program thing. Unfortunately, it’s not being framed as a “protect unjustly accused” sort of thing vs. “make it convenient for rich business travelling types” sort of thing.
While folks with names on the No-Fly List can say what they want about the joys of having to deal with security, there’s a way out: change your name.
For a small cost, Dave, you could change from Dave to Silent. Not only could you get your legal costs covered for the change, you could get additional money in the form of sponsorships from Sony Pictures and Konami.
You also get to live in the constant irony of not being at all silent, like your name would suggest.
And you’d get to fly without being strip searched.
😉
Well, so far I’ve avoided the strip searching — I’ve just at a lot of the “let us take your drivers license and call the TSA mother ship to confirm you’re not the Evil Terrorist Dave Hill” kind of thing.
And I’ll be darned if I change my name. So there. 🙂 Though Robert Johnson might think differently of it.