No-fly list' lacks rules, procedures

Has anybody here been blocked from flying?

Earl

***



Review: 'No-fly list' lacks rules, procedures

Watch list meant to stop terrorists from flying is under scrutiny

Sunday, October 10, 2004 Posted: 10:45 PM EDT (0245 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The "no-fly" watch list -- billed as a post-9/11 weapon
in the United States' war on terror -- lacks guidance on adding and deleting
names and a method of consolidating more than a dozen lists maintained by
various government agencies, a review of government records revealed.

CNN reached those conclusions after receiving more than 300 pages of
Transportation Security Administration documents, including memos and
interagency e-mail.

TSA and the FBI released the documents Friday, and the American Civil
Liberties Union gave them to CNN.

Airlines and security agencies use the watch list to bar suspected
terrorists from flying on airliners. The ACLU says the list could wrongly
stop some people from flying.

One TSA memorandum shows that, as late as last year, the agency still was
trying to "finalize a watch list policy."

The documents show "a tremendous amount of confusion among federal officials
and government people who implement these watch lists," said Alan Schlosser,
legal director for the ACLU of Northern California. That organization filed
a Freedom of Information Act petition for the documents' release.

Dozens of memos within the documents buttress that claim. For example, an
interagency e-mail dated January 2003 inquires about the status of a man
frequently flagged at airports "because his name is identical to someone on
the no-fly list."

The e-mail later states, "we were working the issue in hopes the watch list
working group would come up with a silver bullet" to solve the problem.

According to a July 2002 e-mail about a similar situation, "this is repeated
across the country with the more common names, both in Arabic and in
English." The e-mail warns, however, "it is difficult to be too cautious."

A TSA document on use of the watch list states, "these principles [used to
place an individual on the no-fly list] are necessarily subjective,
providing no 'hard and fast' rules."

"Many people from Cat Stevens on back, some of those people are stopped and
on the list because their name is similar to other names on the list," said
Schlosser, referring to the name formerly used by Yusuf Islam, who was a pop
singer in the 1970s. "People are not able to get off the list, and their
name is their name."

The ACLU originally filed a lawsuit on behalf of two antiwar activists,
Rebecca Gordon and Jan Adams, whose names were on the watch list.

The FBI and TSA officials told CNN they could not comment because the papers
are part of pending litigation.

CNN was not able to reach the Justice Department for comment.

"The government still has not disclosed or given us a real sense of whether
First Amendment activities is a reason why someone might get on the watch
list," Schlosser said.

Last week, the Transportation Security Administration's inspector general's
report criticized the organization for not taking the lead in consolidating
more than 12 terrorist watch lists that exist within various federal
government agencies.

Earl Evleth wrote in
:
Has anybody here been blocked from flying?

Yes.

T. Kennedy

In article ,
(TheNewsGuy(Mike)) wrote:

ALSO...
Yusuf Islam publicly stated that Rushdie was guilty of blasphemy
against Islam, and deserved to be killed.

It was only after that comment hurt his record sales that he clarified
that he believes that "...a death sentence can only be carried out by
the authority of a court in an Islamic society..." ...
Whatever THAT means.

Let's see nowŠthis constituted a terrorist threat against the US? How?

--
Bill Pittman; change for e-mail as indicated