Feds' Watch List Eats Its Own

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Thursday May 04, 2006 14:54 by pat c

Its not just Gerry Adams who gets inconvenienced by No Fly notices. As you can see below many Military officers and officials with top level clearance are also getting caught by the US No Fly list. Great to know that intelligence is an alien concept in Washington DC.

Full article at link.

pat

Feds' Watch List Eats Its Own

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.

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

A U.S. Navy officer who has been enlisted since 1984.

A high-ranking government employee with a better-than-top-secret clearance who is also a U.S. Army Reserve major.