Saturday, October 07, 2006

TSA No-Fly List

Lindsey Beyerstein

The Transportation Security Administration's secret no-fly list includes some very unlikely terror suspects -- Bolivian president Evo Morales, 14 of the 19 dead 9/11 hijackers, and every single person named "Robert Johnson."

Journalists Susan and Joseph Tentro recently obtained a copy of the 44,000-name no-fly list and collaborated with CBS's 60 Minutes to investigate the names on it. They found thousands of inaccuracies and ambiguities on the list, not to mention some shocking omissions.

"The airlines get a list that's out of date," Joe Tentro said. "The list includes dead people and people in prison, but not dangerous terrorists whose names appear on other public lists of terror suspects."

The no-fly list is supposed to be a centralized roster of suspects compiled by various intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. Inter-agency rivalry and mutual suspicion often trump cooperation. Officers will withhold the names of their high-value targets because they don't want their counterparts in other agencies to have the information.

The original no-fly list was hastily compiled after 9/11. Now, five years later, the list is no closer to being functional. So far the government has spent $144 million to clean up the database, but little progress has been made.

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