Unlikely Terrorists On No Fly List

A CBS 60 Minutes report on the “No Fly” list used in an attempt to screen out terrorists from passengers on airlines. They received a copy of the list from March, 2006 and noted, amongst other things:

• It’s 540 pages long when printed out
• It only records name and birth date (although airport screeners aren’t shown birth date, they only see names).
• Contains many records of terrorists already dead
• Doesn’t contain the names of many very well known terrorists
• Doesn’t contain the names of really important, not publicly known terrorists, for fear of security leaks.
• Contains many names that fit lots and lots of innocent travelers (“Like Gary Smith, John Williams or Robert Johnson.”). Anyone with this name is stopped whenever they try to fly, period.

So we end up with a massive, inaccurate list that hurts vastly more innocent travelers than terrorists. None of the original British suspects who have been charged with trying to blow up commercial planes are on the list.

This is the level of security we’re paying for. It’s a poor idea, mismanaged to the point of uselessness and extravagant costs. This is how the Bush administration consistently runs its so called war on terrorism.