22 July 2008

Even US congressmen hassled by TSA

For five years, US Representative John Lewis (D-GA) gets through the first airport security line after shedding his shoes and his belt and unpacking his laptop only to be stopped by a guard who says that a notation on his boarding pass requires him to go through a second screening.

Why is his name on a security list?

Lewis wrote a letter about it, saying if an 11-term congressman can constantly be hassled at airport security then ââ¬Åâœyou can only imagine what the average American suffers.

The error isnââ¬â¢t the Transportation Security Administrationââ¬â¢s (TSA) fault but blame the airlines, says Christopher White, TSA spokesman. Airlines have the responsibility of matching names from the terrorism watch list, compiled by the FBIââ¬â¢s Terrorist Screening Center.

But Mr Lewis even has a letter from Homeland Security explaining the mix-up where his name is mistaken for a terrorist called John R. Lewis.

Mr White believes that when TSA submits updated terrorism watch list reports to the airlines daily they confuse the three categories used to rank the threat a passenger poses.

The "no-fly" list is for those passengers denied boarding. The "selectee" list is for those passengers where suspicion is heightened and therefore they undergo further security screening before boarding. Finally there is the "cleared" list for those passengers who have experienced problems before but have been deemed safe to fly.

Rep. Lewis, according to the AP, is on this list.

"The airlines continue misidentifying passengers," Mr White said. "Some of them do a poor job of matching the [no-fly] lists to the manifests."

To fix the problem, he said, government plans to take over the job from the airlines

Report by David Wilkening

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• Who's who
  
  

  So anyone with the name John R.Lewis is to be treated as a terrorist suspect when going through a US airport. It would be interesting to know why the John R. Lewis on the "terrorist list" is signalled. How and why did he get on the list. I think the Congressman should look into this -- he may be in for a surprise as the 'cast of thousands' needs a thorough scrutiny. Now having said that, I probably face waterboarding the next time I go through Des Moines.

  By Mere Observer, Thursday, July 24, 2008
• Biting the Hand that Feeds Them
  
  

  Just goes to show just how dumb the TSA employees can get. Guess the TSA is so arrogant that it thinks it will get budgets through the House of Reps without a hassle. As for airlines, just NOP to hassle to paying public. What's with the belt? I wear a classy plastic buckle and have never had to take it off - anywhere.

  By Jon Hewson, Thursday, July 24, 2008